Local

February golf tournament to benefit Hope South Florida

The Good News
2 Feb 2011
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A very special golf tournament will be taking place this month right here in Fort Lauderdale and golfers of all skill levels are invited to attend. The Denis Watson 4th Annual Invitational Golf Tournament will be underway on February 21st at the Fort Lauderdale Country Club in Plantation and will be benefiting Hope South Florida. In 1976, Denis Watson, a resident of South Florida, became a professional golfer and went on to be the most winning player on the PGA tour back in 1984. When he turned 50, he competed in the Champions Tour and won the 2007 Senior PGA […]

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Serving Aces for the Christ

The Good News
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David Wheaton was one of the top professional tennis players in the world. During his 13 years on tour from 1988-2001, David reached the semifinals or better in singles or doubles of every Grand Slam tournament (including the semi-finals of singles at Wimbledon), attained a career-high singles world ranking of  #12, won the prestigious Grand Slam Cup, represented the United States in Davis Cup competition and scored victories over notable players such as Andre Agassi, Jimmy Connors, Stefan Edberg, Ivan Lendl, Jim Courier and Michael Chang. David is still involved in tennis; he plays professionally part-time (he won the Wimbledon […]

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Having a good laugh with Taylor Mason

Anitra Parmele
1 Feb 2011
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A man walks into a church holding a life size pig puppet. The pig says… Have you heard this one before? Then you might have seen comedian, musician and ventriloquist Taylor Mason on one of the Thou Shalt Laugh DVD’s, Gaither Homecoming Concert Tour DVD’s, or at one of his numerous concerts around the country. Taylor grew up the son of a radio farm broadcaster and a stay-at-home mom in suburban Chicago. After discovering that his ability to make people laugh wasn’t restrained to his college classmates, Taylor began working in the piano bars that dotted Chicago. The next several […]

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To Write Love on Her Arms

Anitra Parmele
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It all started with a simple act of love. The messy, inconvenient kind of love that doesn’t fit easily onto the stiff pink and red cardboard of a Valentine’s Day card, but rather  the risk-taking, obstacle clearing, no man left behind kind of love for which we all secretly hunger. We spend our lives desperately looking for someone to demonstrate that kind of all out, no holds barred intensity towards us while overlooking the validity of the adage, “To make a friend, you have to be a friend.” First Steps In 2006, Renee was living in Cocoa and caught in […]

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Lost but found – True stories of life in the foster care system

Marisa Zeppieri Caruana
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According to a Child Welfare Information Gateway Statistic Study done in 2008 (the most recent information available), there were almost 500,000 children in the foster care system throughout the United States. Although some of these children were placed in various settings, including nonrelative foster family homes, relative foster homes, institutions, group homes, preadoptive homes, etc, you may ask yourself what happened to the men and women who aged out of the system and never found a forever family? The cold truth of the matter is that many of these men and women are not properly prepared for the outside world […]

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That’s Not Fair!

The Good News
14 Jan 2011
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 “That’s not fair!” It is the most disconcerting phrase heard in our house throughout the year, the greatest source of contention and offense, and the greatest challenge of my parenting to date. With four children, I have been faced with the daily responsibility of acting as judge and jury, to hear cases, to settle disputes, and to determine fairness.  When my feeble attempts to establish justice fail, I throw my hands up in the air and cry out to God for help and sanity.  “Life’s not fair” has been my consistent reply, but never satisfies the endless pursuit for fairness […]

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In Profile: Jerry Fadgen Plantation City Counsel President

Scott Spages
13 Jan 2011
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Plantation City Council President: Jerry Fadgen Biographical information: Birth Place: Pittsburgh, PA Years in Florida: 31 years House of worship: St. Gregory Catholic Church Family: Married to Kathleen Ann since 1970, 40 years last May. Two grown sons, both Eagle Scouts, a C.P.A. and Software Engineer, respectively. Prior Occupation: Certified Public Accountant   Family/human interest:   Q: Where did you grow-up and what was it like? I was the 5th of 6 children; Dad died when I was  5 & my mother died when I was 8. I lived in 3 orphanages & 4 foster homes over the next 10 years, […]

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Your Goal for New Year Just Write

Anitra Parmele
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The power to inspire. The ability to encourage. The responsibility to inform. The written word has an abundance of functions. There’s a strange phenomenon among people who are gifted in the area of writing. As believers in Christ, the gravity of communicating truth about God, about the eternity and about ourselves seems to only accentuate the divide? From Concept to Contract Let’s start with some essential truths. You are a writer. You have something valuable to communicate to another. Regardless of the possibility  of what is hidden within you, you may be writing the next American novel, the lyrics to […]

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Haiti One Year Later

Bryon Mondok
12 Jan 2011
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By Bryon Mondok The Good News   Since the first days after the quake, Food For The Poor has worked to alleviate suffering and rebuild the lives of the Haitian people, said Angel Aloma, Executive Director of Food For The Poor in an interview with the Good News. “It’s a long-term solution. There are no short cuts to it.” Food For The Poor launched a campaign two days after the earthquake and have continued the work ever since. “It’s continuous. We’ve been there for 24 years. And we have accelerated our work tremendously. But it’s not a special campaign. It’s […]

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Feed the body, feed the soul

Anitra Parmele
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By Anitra Parmele The Good News The following is the second in a series spotlighting Hope South Florida, a unique collaboration of city officials, social agencies and the faith community with a single purpose – to end family homelessness in Broward County. For over twenty years, week in and week out, Christ Church United Methodist has been feeding the homeless. Through all the political maneuverings, changes in attitude and economic cycles, volunteers have reached out with hope and tangible assistance to those in their community without social, emotional, economic and financial stability. During that time, officials from Fort Lauderdale and […]

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