Community Presbyterian Church of Deerfield Beach invites the public to Holy Week

On Easter Sunday, services at Community Presbyterian Church of Deerfield Beach include brass instrumentalists, and the 10:30 a.m. service ends with an invitation to join the chorus in singing the Halleluja Chrus from G.F. Handel’s Messiah.
Free nursery and parking.
For information, visit www.communitych.org or call 954-427-0222.

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Four fixtures in city hall experienced a sea-change in status this week, the result of at least one disciplinary measure, and all of them replaced by people with less tenure on a lower end of the pay scale.

City Manager Mike Mahaney did not return repeated calls. But he announced in a one-sentence e-mails to department heads that:

Marva J. Gordon, Director of Human Resources, is on extended leave. In the interim, her post is being filled by Linda King;

Carl Peter, director of public works and environmental services, has switched places with the assistant director of the department, Charles DaBrusco, who recently joined the city from Coconut Creek and

The city’s assistant director of parks and recreation, Jack Disher, is on leave as the city reviews a chain of events that led to what could have been a violation of the Sunshine Law.

“That’s the reason I’m back,” said Vince Kendrick, the city’s director of parks & recreation. Kendrick is recovering from a kidney transplant and commuting each week from a hospital in Orlando. “I got 600 e-mails," Kendrick said. "We are going through a reorganization.”

Kendrick said he was contacted after Disher, without consulting acting department head George Edmunds, convened a departmental forum to talk about the pressing need for park space in the city. He invited two city commissioners – who immediately recognized their presence at was a violation of the Sunshine Law. that law requires the city to give public notice and invite the public any time two or more public officials meet.

“They got up and left…They didn’t break any laws—but we put them in position that they could have,” Kendrick said. “Commissioners went to city manager…and we are investigating some things.

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It shines like an emerald among sun-dried lawns, but that which is a thing of beauty to the homeowner who stapled it down is loathsome to a growing faction of neighbors.

On March 17, commissioners bowed to public pressure and took an official stand against artificial grass. They approved a law outlawing “the use of artificial turf for required landscape areas” -- effective immediately -- and that means those wedded to weed-free yards are prohibited from enhancing the turf in any way.

If their grass toupe doesn't decay on it's own, the law requires that it be hauled to the curb by March 17, 2011.

Demand for the law was fierce and unremitting.

Todd Drosky, vice president of Starlight Cove, said he represented 313 homes in Starlight Cove as well as 5,000 residents in the West Deerfield Community Alliance. He spoke for all of them when he called for the ordinance.

“The aesthetic grounds speak for itself,” he said. “Then there are the health and safety reasons.”

Those reasons, he pointed out, are well documented by Philip Busey, associate professor of environmental horticulture (turf) at the University of Florida, Fort Lauderdale Research and Education Center.

Among them:

While real grass filters water as it seeps into the aquifer, provides wildlife habitat, shade, sequestration of carbon dioxide and generation of oxygen, “green carpeting by whatever definition provides none of those attributes.”

Consider that artificial turf breeds infectious organisms, heats up to temperatures that are 87-degrees warmer than asphalt and 86 degrees warmer than natural turf -- and the argument for pulling up turf by its nails becomes compelling..

“Considering artificial turf as an alternative to a grassed landscape is similar to considering a green cardboard cutout of a tree as an alternative to a tree,” Busey pointed out.

It fell to Assistant City Attorney Charles Seaman to codify the opposition into law, and Seaman said he looked to artificial turf ordinances in other cities for inspiration.

“I mostly didn’t find them,” he said. “There really aren’t a lot of cities that restrict it…”

As a result, Seaman’s initial proposal to give residents five years to rid their yards of the rug and was modified to two years.

Can an ordinance regulating garden gnomes be far behind?

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Gisella Sherrill talks about the strip in front of her Port de Mer condominium like it was gold instead of crushed quartz and rock.

“It’s beau-ti-ful,” she said. “I walked out to make sure. It is fantastic.”

Sherrill is talking about sand, a daily concern for many in this town of 1,200 people. As nature has worked to relocate the sand that separates them from the ocean, residents have found themselves with their collective back against an eroding sea wall.

Beach re-renourishment programs have proven temporary and costly. Eighteen months ago, with sand sources depleted and prices prohibitive, the town turned to a revolutionary sand-replenishment system. Ten months later they had reason to hope it was working.

“It’s really good – it’s unbelievable,” said Port de Mer resident Tom Pilato. “Every day we get a little bit back.”

Michael Stephens, the president and chief executive officer of Naples-based Coastal Engineering Consultants announced hat he had found a turtle nest, on brand new sand hauled in front of Port de Mer. It was the first since waves turned Hillsboro’s beach into a rocky, uninviting wall.

March 17, Stephens seemed to be urging residents like Sherrill to view the shoreline with cautious enthusiasm – and to give credit to all factors.

The truck haul added 8,000 cubic yards of sand to Hillsboro’s shore.
Truck hauls in Deerfield Beach last January helped, too, as sand moves south along the shoreline.

An additional truck haul early this year in Deerfield Beach helped as well.

“And of course the PEMs are there, too,” he said. ‘It’s a combination of everything.”

Including an assist from Mother Nature. Even as waves are working against the project, winds from the southeast are pushing wayward shores back into place.

“I’ve been watching the direction of sediment transport by local winds,” he said. “When the wind comes from southeast, it carries sand from southern part of the town to the northern beaches.”

So are Hillsboro Beach’s beach problems behind it?

Hardly.

“You need a strategic management plan that includes the variety of things that the town has been talking about,” he said. “We know if we put sand on the beach by itself it washes away quickly so we need other structures, whether it is the PEM or other structures.”

Stephens said the town would reserve judgment until the appraisal of the PEM system is completed. “We are looking at a June time frame,” he said.

Just in time for hurricane season.

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Lawrence “Buddy” Castaldi is a guy with big ideas and a good shtick.
When he wanted to be a rock star, he cut five records that played on college stations alone.
While fighting thyroid cancer, he wrote an e-book as a legacy for his then-1-year-old daughter: www.thesingledadscookbook.com. Castaldi moved to Lighthouse Point 10 years ago.
But his biggest idea came when he was working for California Closets, more than two decades ago. He returned to a recent client to find her newly reconfigured closet overflowing with the stuff she just unloaded.
Buddy the Closet Maven was born, offering same-day service, unlimited shelving, psychological counseling to ease separation anxiety, and a vision for garages, closets and home offices — for $50 per linear foot. Castaldi’s truck advertises “The Closet Maven. The Perfect Solution to Closet Pollution” and it doesn’t leave the driveway until the job is done.
To hear Carissa Penn, Castaldi is a knight wielding a level instead of a lance.
The Lighthouse Point woman said the person she hired to clean cost $200 and failed to conquer the clutter. Teaching full-time at The Alexander D. Henderson University School in Boca Raton left her disinclined to do it herself. “I felt like it was bigger than me,” she said.
Not Castaldi. He emptied the closet and handed Penn four big garbage bags for stuff for the closet, stuff for other closets, anything she would wear herself, for a charity and, finally, trash.
In 20 minutes, Castaldi had a blueprint. In three hours, Penn had three T-shirts on one shelf, shoes on another, and a new life.
“I learned I could live with out all that stuff I’ve given up,” she said. “I haven’t missed a thing.”
As for the stuff? Castaldi used to urge clients to donate it to charity. When he returned to find it stuffed back into closets, he began delivering donations to the Salvation Army in Pompano Beach or to Deerfield Thrift on East Hillsboro Boulevard.
There, owner Lauren Strassburg converts it to cash, sending a quarterly sum to the six churches that make up the Deerfield Beach Ministerial Alliance. She offers needy students at Deerfield Beach High School, Deerfield Beach Elementary school and Park Ridge Elementary school in Pompano Beach $10 vouchers for clothing.
And Castaldi’s one-man show now plays more than 250 closets a year.
“I can be a catalyst for people to get rid of their old stuff and create more space and the products go to help people. It’s a pretty simple idea,” he said.
Call the Closet Maven at 954-478-8221.

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If everything goes as planned, a Ross Dress for Less soon will be bidding for off-price shoppers one block from Marshalls and T.J. Maxx, both owned by TJX Corporation.

There have been no formal announcements and no well-publicized applications to the city for a major change. Earlier this month, however, an assortment of heavy equipment pulled quietly into the parking lot of the defunct Albertsons store on Hillsboro Boulevard.

Marcia Stevens, senior planner for Deerfield Beach, confirmed that the plaza is being revived and that a Ross and a Michaels Arts & Crafts store will soon be built.
“It’s a new facade. They just needed facade changes,” she said, explaining why the usual approval process didn’t apply. “They didn’t add anything to the building — no additional square footage. They are just renovating.”

As Sullivan Corporation of Indiana set about restructuring the building, an excavator pulled down the cement panels at the back. A dump truck collected the debris. Inside, the cavernous interior was stripped down to the cement-panel walls, which were being reconfigured.

It has been nine months since Lake Mary, Florida-based Albertsons LLC, announced it was shuttering 100 under-performing supermarkets nationwide. Eight Albertsons in Florida made the list, including the one in Deerfield Beach. Employees were redeployed. A 75-percent-off sale cleared the shelves. Albertsons disappeared.

The expectation was that the plaza was done until the economy revived. Now, Stevens said the idea is to introduce two stores in the space of the one, and loading docks for each at the back.

“The architect acted as agent, but whoever owns the building came before the community appearance board for some kind of expanded loading area to service one of the stores,” Stevens said. “Each wanted to have a separate loading dock.”

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Some 1,200 Quiet Waters Elementary School students found themselves staying after school through no fault of their own March 11, as Broward Sheriff’s Office deputies pursued two of three suspects wanted in connection with a home invasion robbery minutes earlier.

According to the police report, three men armed with knives and hammers forced their way into apartment 201 at 730 NW 44 Terrace March 11. They demanded money that one said the victim stole from him. When the victim could come up with no more than $40, they beat him with knives and hammers until he was able to break free and jump out of a second floor window and run for safety.

The victim noticed a deputy called to the scene to investigate an alleged fight. As the victim tried to explain what had happened, one suspect fled.

As a result, to safeguard students from the ensuing chase, the sheriff’s department called for Quiet Waters Elementary to keep the students inside classrooms after the release bell rang.
From 1:47 p.m. to 2:30, the kids ate what was left of their lunches, read, and tried to figure out what was going on, based on what they could glimpse through the windows.

At 2:30, they were allowed to go home.

Keyla Concepcion, a Broward Sheriff’s Office spokeswoman, said such precautions are routine.

“Whenever there is a situation, the area we want to make sure the schools are secure,” Concepcion said. “So we would put a school on lock down to make sure no one will be exiting or entering the school without our supervision.”

When the students were released, Concepcion said, it was because the sheriff’s department already had two of three people in custody.
“There was a third, but they knew who third person was, and where we could find that person – and that’s what we did later on in the afternoon.”

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It’s been four years since Deerfield Beach’s $20 million state-of-the-art water plant began pumping ground water and filtering it through a network of membrane-fitted ceramic pipes.

March 3, almost four years to the day later, Deerfield Beach officials moved to further expand the city’s water processing capacity – already facing critical shortages.
Commissioners awarded Downrite Engineering Corp. a $5.557 million contract to expand the West Well Field water supply.

Plans call for that water to feed into the West Water Processing Plant at 290 Goolsby Boulevard where a reverse osmosis plant now under construction adjacent to an existing state-of-the-art membrane filtration plant.

The new technology will clarify less potable mixes of ground water, supplementing the 5.3 million gallons of water processed on an average day by the existing membrane filtration plant.
The city organized three public hearings on plans to locate the well field near Waterford Homes.

Chief Operator Wayne Miller said last March that existing wells are so old and so depleted that they are allowing salt water to seep from the ocean into the underground fresh water supply.

The optimal location for the new wells, he said, was at Southwest 10th Street, just west of Military Trail right out the back doors of residents of Waterford Homes.

In exchange for welcoming the well site, city officials pledged that Waterford residents would be separated from the water well by hedges and a buffering berm; that land near the well would be turned into a park named Southwest Tenth Street Crystal Heights Park and that the new park would serve Waterford Homes and improving the value of their properties.

But first there is the matter of the well field construction. Design is by Camp Dresser & McKee, the same Fort Lauderdale firm that designed the membrane plant on Goolsby Boulevard and when that debuted in 2004 was the first completely new plan of its type in the world.

The same firm produced the design for the West Well Field Water Supply Expansion Project and commissioners awarded the construction contract to the lowest bidder, Downrite Engineering Corp.

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Just six months after she was diagnosed with breast cancer, Kathy Gajda died, leaving two young children. When her husband died of a heart attack three years ago, her cousin, Patty Miranda, adopted the children – and became a tireless fundraiser for cancer research.

Two years ago, Miranda established the Lighthouse Point Lifesavers, a 20-member walking team that has mustered $11,000 for Making Strides Against Breast Cancer since it was formed.

Feb. 19, with that annual fundraiser still seven months away, Miranda returned to her restaurant, Olympia Flame Diner, from an organizational meeting and sat down with Sue Hoffman, a member of the Lighthouse Point Lifesavers.
“I just asked her, ‘How can we raise some extra funds’?“

Hoffman, an Olympia Flame waitress of 20 years, looked at the regular and occasional customers streaming into the restaurant and had an epiphany.

“Her son gathered cell phones a few years ago to raise funds to get to a Junior Lifeguard Association competition,” Miranda recalls. “She said, ‘Why can’t we do this for the American Cancer Society’?“

Miranda hit her search engine. She learned that the average life of a cell phone is between 18 and 24 months. Moreover, dead cell phones contain poisonous metals which can contaminate the environment if they are cast into landfills.

She found a federally authorized online company, GRC Corp., that would buy the phones for between $1 and $30. Miranda could donate the funds to the American Cancer Society. GRC would either refurbish them or dispose of them in such a way that they wouldn’t harm the environment — promotional materials were a natural follow up.
Cell phones soon were trickling in.

“People don’t know how to dispose of them properly,” she said, “Our restaurant is a great drop-off location.”

But why just one drop-off location? Patty’s husband, Jeff Miranda, agreed to put a box at his business, O.K. Tires in Pompano Beach. Since the boxes were established, customers have dropped off more than 140 cell phones.

Miranda said she sees no reason why the effort won’t grow, especially when people consider her campaigns tag line.

“Don’t dump it. Donate it. Save the environment and help the American Cancer Society,” she said.

To donate, call Patty Miranda at 954-294-3414 or O.K. Tires at 954-781-8220.

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Just four years after it was rolled out in Broward County, Bicycle Week has proven so popular that last year it expanded to an entire month. That extended schedule proved very popular, this year, again, and activities stretch from March 1 through 31.

“The problem with having it just one week is that it covered two weekends, nine days, but most of the stuff is on weekends and people wanted to be able to go to more events,” said Sarah Perkins, southeast district superintendent for Broward County Parks and Recreation Division.

The only event in Deerfield Beach, a Night Mountain Bike Trail Ride at Quiet Waters Park on March 11, was reserved for the volunteers who labored tirelessly to restore hurricane ravaged bike trails at Quiet Waters and Markham Parks.

That doesn’t mean recreational cyclists are left spinning their wheels, however. They just need to look slightly west, to Tradewinds Park, for example and some of the 26 events remaining before the month’s conclusion.

“What we’ve done is challenge cities in Broward County to get involved,” Perkins said.
On March 21, for example, Tradewinds is the site of a third annual Reverse Triathlon for fitness fanatics as well as a Tandem Cycling Open House for cyclists with visual impairments.

The former event is $60 and will sell out early. Registration ends Thursday and there will be no race day registration. The triathlon features a two-mile run, 10-mile bike ride, and 300-yard guarded lake swim.

The Tandem Cycling Open House invites people with visual impairments to three-and-a-half hours of tandem riding demonstrations, discussions, social interaction, refreshments complete with tandem bikes and helmets. The event is open to individuals with visual impairments, 16 years and older, as well as people who want to be tandem cycle volunteers. Registration is encouraged by Monday at 954-357-8160 or 954-357-8170.

For information about other Bicycle Month events, visit www.broward.org/parks and click on the Florida Bicycle Month logo.

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If the drought has you thinking xeriscaping instead of sod, drop by The Deerfield Beach Arboretum April 18.
There, from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m., The Tree Zoo at 2841 Hillsboro Boulevard will sprout vendors of native flowering trees and plants – and exotic plants and flowers, as well for those wedded to watering.

Master gardeners will be on hand to answer questions about selection, planting and location, and inspiration is as close as the Arboretum. There, a short walk takes visitors through hundreds of trees and plants from around the world as well as an authentic Japanese Team House, a palm tree and bamboo nursery as well as wetlands habitat and dry garden exhibit.

Parking and entry are free, as are guided tours on Friday mornings and the first Saturday of each month at 10 a.m.

Call 954-480-4494 or 954-428-0634.

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It's getting too hot to be outside, and Quiet Waters Park, 401 S. Powerline Road is marking the end of the outdoor season with two events: a final Family Hayride and Campfire and a final Family Bed and Breakfast.

The former runs from 6:30 to 8:30 p.m. March 21. For $3 (plus the $1.50 park admission for anyone older than 5), attendees get two hours of fun that includes a hayride, followed by campfire and one bag of fixings to make s’mores.

Hot dogs, chips, hot chocolate and more sm’mores fixings are available for a fee, and reservations are required for groups of 15 or more. .

The park's final Family Bed and Breakfast will begin with check in from 3 to 6 p.m. March 21 and end with checkout at 1 p.m. on Sunday.

Activities include family free time, a campfire with s’mores, hayride, breakfast served by park staff and family fishing and boating. Families provide their own dinners on Saturday evening and each campsite features a platform tent, fire ring, barbecue grill, picnic table water, electricity and access to showers and restrooms.

Registration is recommended, at $70 per campfire for up to four campers. Two additional campers may be added for $2 each and one adult camper must be at each campsite. A refundable deposit of $25 is due at the time of check in.

Call 954-360-1315.

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Hillsboro Beach is a town that by any measure is near build out. Yet development continues. There are teardowns. Units are remodeled. Houses are expanded toward lot lines and reconfigured.

Town officials moved to snare a share of development-related revenues March 3, by approving across-the-board increases in fees associated with development.

As a result, the cost of a site plan review has gone from $200 to $1,500. Final plat approval went up 650 percent as well, from $100 to $1,500.

But that’s penny ante compared to what a conditional use permit will cost. The price of that permit went from free to $2,000, and even a toddler can figure out that is a 2,000 percent increase.

As Town Clerk Dana Williams observed in her memo, “The town is essentially fronting both costs and services to the applicant and then attempting to collect those fees after the fact.”

As a result, town staff met with a county building official to look at how town fees dovetail with those of surveyed surrounding communities. Included in costs were the legal advertising, copying costs, the cost of notifying affected property owners, the cost of copying, stationery and postage.

Hillsboro Beach’s fees were the cheapest. By far. So far, that even after the fee adjustments, Hillsboro Beach’s fees are well below those of most cities.

So, how much revenue will changes produce? Consider the items on the same agenda as the newly developed fees:

-One request for a variance, allowing stairs down to the receding beach.
-One site plan for a beach access walk and stairs at the same building.
-One request for a variance allowing a 10-foot high privacy wall.
-One site plan approval for that same wall.
-A preliminary site plan for a new single family house on Hillsboro Mile an instant injection of $6,700 to town coffers vs. $1,200.

Town residents still are sitting pretty compared to residents in other cities.
Take that $2,000 conditional use permit, for example.

According to town documents, residents of Cooper City pay $78 more while Parkland residents who want an exception to the code and have significant reason to get that exception, will have to pay $2,500 just for the permit before ever heading to Home Depot.

The approved fee schedule is expected to be codified at the next town meeting, at 9 a.m. April 7, at Town Hall, 1219 Hillsboro Mile.

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It’s been a long time coming, but 36-year-old Deerfield Beach High School finally is getting a new stadium and athletic facility.

Teachers and staff, students and student athletes turned out in force recently for a groundbreaking that was more celebration than ceremony.

Mayor Sylvia Poitier spoke about the partnership between school and city that won funding for the $4.2 million stadium.

With the city of Deerfield Beach now serving as the contract manager, overseeing new construction and renovations, the six-week demolition of the current stadium already is under way.

The new stadium and regional athletic facility will feature new bleachers, a new drainage system to prevent the fields from flooding, expanded polyurethane track of eight lanes for field events, and is expected to make the school be a mecca for other schools athletic events.

But it is the renovations that have staff and students celebrating as well. In addition to updating the aging press box, plans call for a brand new concession stand on the southeast corner and of the bathrooms that haven’t worked in more than year.
The latter has really a crimp in the schools sports program.

“All the games were scheduled away from the school this year,” said Michelle Scott, a dean at the high school. “Deerfield Beach had no home games this year.”

Principal John Marlow said he expects the project to wrap up by September. But that’s if all the permits are wrapped up in a timely fashion and if it doesn’t rain. “We’re going to have a ribbon cutting,” he said, — and an active athletic season as well.

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By the slimmest majority, Deerfield Beach commissioners have approved a sweeping code of ethics — 35 pages of prohibitions restoring some semblance of legitimacy to city hall.

The ordinance spells out ethical standards. It defines circumstances under which disclosure is required of safeguarding the integrity of, not only the mayor, vice mayor and district commissioners, but of candidates for those positions and the city manager.
It codifies when voting is prohibited and what constitutes a gift or a conflict. It applies to applicants for city contracts, as well as to entities doing business with the city.
In its own words, it ensures that those in government will be “free from fraud, self-enrichment and self-dealing and without conflicts or improper benefits as stated in this Ethics Code.”

It goes on to say that “No member of the city commission or city manager [...] shall use their official position or office, by either taking any action or failing to take any action in a manner calculated to obtain a personal financial benefit not shared by a substantial portion of the public or an effected class or special private gain for himself/herself, or a principal, by whom he/she has been retained.”

Opposing the measure after both the first reading and public hearing were Commissioner Gloria Battle and Mayor Sylvia Poitier.

Battle said her vote was grounded in what she described as general concern about the financial implications as well as everything from civil rights implications to grammatical errors.

Poitier had her own litany of objections. For starters, she said in the first hearing, it is unfair to what could be new commissioners taking the dais after March 17.
She objected to the intent of ? the ordinance. “I can take this ordinance and violate it every day and you will never know it,” she said.

And her concerns weren’t allayed after the March 3 public hearing.

“There are things in this ordinance that no one in their right minds would subject their families to,” she said.

The ordinance passed by a vote of 3-2, with Battle and Poitier opposed. It becomes effective Tuesday – seven days after the election. For more information on the code of ethics call 954-480-4200.

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Our Lady of Fatima paused on a diocesan tour that took her to a different church every six hours. Her brief stay drew more than 800 worshipers to Our Lady of Mercy Catholic Church.

“She came from Portugal to Indiana to 23 churches in Broward County to California,” said Paullina Allen, Eucharistic minister and founder of Legion of Mary presidium at Our Lady of Mercy.

“She is here to remind us, especially during the Lenten season, to make reparations; to pray the rosary and to consecrate ourselves and the world,” Allen said.

According to the literature that travels with the statue, the first statue of Our Lady of Fatima is in Portugal, where the saint appeared to three children in 1917. That was the original statute.

The one that stopped in Deerfield Beach is a third-generation replica, but it has all the drawing power of the original.

Reinforcing the statue’s message of peace was Archbishop John Favalora. The 73-year-old archbishop, the third installed in Miami, celebrated Mass and reminded worshipers of their Lenten commitments. Hours later, worshipers remained in prayer in front of the statue, touching the satin ribbons, offering their supplications.

Among them was Sarita Zechman. The Fort Lauderdale resident had heard of the Our Lady of Fatima tour on television. She was on her way to work late Monday morning and paused on her way before she — and the statue — moved on.

For a complete visiting schedule, visit www.PilgrimVirginStatue.com.

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They came by car and by bus, and in suits as fresh as if from church. They drove past the vacant parking lots of businesses shuttered to legal parking to the north. As they walked back to what euphemistically is called Broward Transitional Center carrying protest signs and flags, their pilgrimage gathered strength.

Hundreds of people from as far as West Palm Beach and Miami gathered at what is home to 600 undocumented detainees. Their mission: getting Barack Obama to renew Temporary Protective Status for an estimated 30,000 Haitians living in the United States.

Approved by Congress in 1990, TPS opens United States borders to residents of a designated nation fleeing civil war or natural disaster. Under it, Haitian citizens have lived and worked here legally. That is they did — until George W. Bush allowed it to expire. Obama so far has failed to renew it, despite back-to-back hurricanes that leveled Haiti’s infrastructure. If he doesn’t, some 30,000 people face deportation.
This protest is the third in what organizers pledge will be monthly protests at federal centers in West Palm Beach, Deerfield Beach and Miami.

“What we are asking is that 30,000 people get a just deal,” said keynote speaker Wyclef Jean, the Haitian-born musician who has sold more than 31 million albums. “This is very important to me because when my father came to the United States, he did not have any papers. If my father were deported back to Haiti, I would not be able to bring this beautiful gift to America.”

Five-year-old Eddy Woodlinski, born in Florida, was unsure of why he was devoting a Saturday to waving a flag, but he sensed that it was important. So did 6-year-old Emmanuel Joseph of Lauderhill.

“I want my people to be .?.?.” Emmanuel paused, at a loss for words.

Jean chimed in as if to answer the children’s questions: “It’s very important that Washington not ignore this,” he said. “If they deport 30,000 Haitians living in America back to Haiti, they will have another 60,000 coming next week.”

Jean shifted to Creole for the remainder of his speech, leaving at least part of his audience in the dark.

“We’re here to support it,” said Seth Robert, who lives in Pittsburgh when he’s not studying anthropology at Florida International University. Robert drove up with three people. “We’re here to support it because they are people,” he said.

Nixon Jacquet, of Delray Beach, attended both rallies at the Federal Building in West Palm Beach with friend Theo Zil, of Boynton Beach. They arrived in Deerfield Beach 90 minutes into the event. They will drive to Miami next month. And they plan to go wherever the April rally is as well.

“We’ll keep doing it until we get what we are asking for,” Zil said. “Temporary immigration status restored.”

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