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Family businesses are the oldest form of business organization; they’re also the backbone of the communities they serve. According to the Small Business Administration, approximately 90 percent of American businesses are family-owned but only 30 percent succeed in the second generation and only 15 make it to the third due to lack of careful planning and implementation.

Read the entire article in the April 2012 issue    

Four Vero Beach upscale-dining restaurants are housed within popular barrier island hotels. While these upscale dining establishments cater to their guests – and add to the splendor of their stay – they also welcome and promote their menus, service and ambience to the wider Vero Beach community.

A store opening is quite an event these days at local malls which, like malls across the country, have suffered a number of closures due to the uncertain economy. So a special welcome is due to the Victory Center Military Store, an unusual facility near Macy’s in the Indian River Mall that’s designed to serve the area’s vets.

One would be hard put to find a house on the barrier island that remotely resembles the aqua-colored one in Old Riomar. This rambling, multi-era “beach cottage” is perhaps best defined for what it has not: concrete block, drywall, irrigation and air conditioning. But most of what it does have is also distinctive, most notably the sash-weight windows and good heating.

The invitation was too intriguing to pass up. Mailed 32 years ago to all women living in John’s Island, it was to introduce the newly formed John’s Island Community Service League and encourage everyone to join. Recipients were asked to R.S.V.P. to Johnny Van Name who had a heart for reaching out to help those in need.

“It’s a nightmare!” exclaims Alise Hayes, jade green eyes wide and fair hair askew. We have met outside her condominium building on the Indian River where she is tightly gripping a frayed leash as Bear, a fuzzy-faced Wheaten terrier, barks maniacally at a passing poodle.

When Master Commandant Lewis Warrington awoke on the morning of April 29, 1814, the first thing he would have noted was that his ship, the U.S.S. Peacock, was riding a few miles off the shore of the Spanish colony of East Florida. No doubt he observed the low-lying land mass through his telescope and made some remark about it. “A land full of mosquitoes and Indians,” he might have said to his second-in-command, First Lieutenant John Nicolson, echoing America’s current attitude towards Florida. “The Spanish are welcome to it.”

Tom Lowe, president of the Indian River Literary Society, often rates the fiction he reads by the author’s ability to transport him to a different time and place. “It’s a little like coming out of a movie theatre and it’s still daylight. When I have to make that same kind of adjustment after putting down a novel – because I feel as if I have been someplace else and just returned – then to me, that’s a good book.”|

The protection and restoration of the northern Everglades received a big boost earlier this year as The Nature Conservancy facilitated the legal establishment of the new Everglades Headwaters National Wildlife Refuge & Conservation Area.

At growing numbers of mostly beachside eateries, produce on the plate on any given afternoon was clinging to the earth that very same morning – or at least as much of it harvested from nearby fields. The buy-local phenomenon noticeably improves the taste of many a dish while reducing our collective carbon footprint.

Nice, the lovely port city on the French Riviera, has strong cultural roots in both France and Italy. The city was actually a dominion of Italy until the mid-19th century, when it officially became part of France. Strong influences of the authentic cuisines of both countries, with an emphasis on seafood, provide the perfect blend for the local cuisine.

Legend has it that one spring day in 2737 BC, Chinese Emperor Chen Nung (or Shennong) was out for a walk and, feeling tired, paused for a rest. As was his custom, he boiled his water before drinking it, but on this particular day a breeze caused some leaves from a nearby plant to waft into his pot of water.

Visitors to McKee Botanical Garden lately might be startled to see a shark’s fin emerging from the water lilies of the main pond. There have been alligators there for sure, but a shark? Not to worry. This is just a sculpture called “Fear Itself” from the garden’s new show “Sculpting Nature,” a display of 30 large pieces depicting the relationship between art and nature.

It took a strong team to pull off the complete renovation of the John’s Island West Clubhouse over last summer, and such a team did just that to the universal approval of the people who count – the members of the John’s Island Club.

In the last few years of her life, broke and ailing African-American folklorist, anthropologist and novelist Zora Neale Hurston, once one of America’s most celebrated literary figures, went almost unnoticed. Fired as a librarian at Patrick Air Force Base, she left Eau Gallie, a $5-a-week rental cottage, a bird bath and a dog named Spot and arrived in Fort Pierce in 1957 in a beat-up Willys station wagon, with a typewriter that she would later pawn for groceries.

Marie Stiefel says “I am old enough to have lived through the energy crisis of the ’70s, which taught me a few things.” Waiting in line for hours for gas started her thinking about energy and began what has become a passion for her: learning about alternative energy. Today she and her daughter, Lili, fund bright energy ideas with their family foundation.

In the Florida Keys where I spent my youth, exotic plants and animals were commonplace. There were deer the size of poodles and land crabs as big as dinner plates. There were great white herons, short-tailed hawks and short-eared owls. There were sunburned trees with wood as hard as nails, and about as buoyant. The rich tapestry of oddball organisms would have given Darwin pause.

Some have the bearing of royalty – heads held high, posture erect. Others have a quiet dignity that does not command attention, but receive it gracefully, as due to them. One can experience canine seniors through a beloved pet resolutely moving through a condensed life span under our noses. To make the acquaintance of an older dog, and view the full force of his most vital years written fully on his face, is a special interaction that leaves an emotional imprint.