While it may be something we all played in our childhood, kickball is more than that for Keith Johnson, CPA, owner of Keith E. Johnson CPA PA.

“I think the last time I played kickball before I started playing in this league Jimmy Carter was president,” jokes Johnson. “But I find it a great way to stay fit and the people are great. I may be the slowest person on the team, so it’s not a pretty sight when I am up at bat, but I have a great time playing.”

Johnson got involved with adult kickball about four years ago through a website called MeetUp.com, which is where people can “meet up” with other people with a common interest, such as wine tasting, flag football, happy hour groups, small business networking groups, book clubs, etc.

“I started back in 2007 with one group and through that I got an email about a kickball group. I emailed back for details and decided to go,” says Johnson.

Let’s kick it!

That meeting ended up segueing into the World Adult Kickball Association or WAKA (www.kickball.com). “Basically, it was a practice—but I had such a blast that when they asked if I wanted to join the league, I couldn’t say, “No!”

The leagues are made up of four to 16 teams of co-ed adults (ages 21 and over) of all skill levels and thegame is played just like the elementary school game—with the big red playground ball. Each team has somewhere around 20 people and the rules state that you have to have at least four guys and four girls to play and you can play up to 11 on a team.

“One other fun aspect are the team names,” says Johnson. “They are usually clever and a little risqué, but still off a kickball theme. My first team was called ‘New Kicks on the Block,’ while one of my more recent team names was ‘Pitches Be Crazy!’”

Time out

Johnson especially likes that kickball doesn’t really take a lot of his time. A WAKA kickball season generally consists of eight regular season games and a league championship tournament with qualifying teams from each league being eligible to compete in the annual Founders Cup World Kickball Championship held in Las Vegas.

“There are three leagues a year—summer, fall and spring—but I don’t/can’t do the spring season because of tax season,” says Johnson. “There is usually only one practice a week, but basically you show up on Thursday night ready to play.”

Johnson’s team meets at Carver Park, where the game is designed to be played for six innings or within one hour. “You remember playing it as a kid and it being competitive and good natured, and here you are playing it again with adults, a referee, scoreboards, schedules, league standings, and playoffs,” says Johnson. “But at the same time, we all know there is a lot more to life than kickball.”

Competitive edge

This past season, WAKA split the league into a competitive side (a little tougher and a sidearm ball pitch) and a fun side (slower ball pitch), of which Johnson chose the competitive side. “I want to be competitive; I don’t want to be a wimp. I’m out to win!” jokes Johnson. “The thing about the leagues is, yes, everyone wants to win and, yes, you want to be competitive, but it’s really about the social aspect that is more important.

“I started doing this in ’07 and I’ve noticed that it is tougher to play now than it was when I started,” says Johnson. “Physically I can tell I am older now than I was just a few years ago, but I intend to keep playing as long as my body holds out.”

Keith E. Johnson CPA, is owner of Keith E. Johnson CPA PA in Jacksonville, Fla., a full-service CPA firm providing accounting, auditing, consulting, and tax services to individuals, businesses, and non-profits. He can be contacted at 904-727-0077 or kejcpa@comcast.net.

Whether it is in front of a classroom or in front of a crowd at a festival, Joseph Catalano has a passion for involving, as well as entertaining, people on the subject of history. His passion runs so deep, in fact, that he has performed history for close to 15 years now.

History behind the history

Catalano, who is a regional sales manager for Compass Tech Systems by day, has always been around history. “I was born in Boston, so the history behind and the founding of the country was always rampant,” says Catalano. “I mean, you can’t even graduate high school without knowing it all!”

He says that knowledge comes in handy when he and his partner Michelle Murillo perform their “point-counterpoint” history performance, as she was born and raised here and he a “Yankee.”

Together, they formed Presenting the Past (www.presentingthepast.com) and have been putting on history lessons, performances, and attending festivals and re-enactments for more than a year under the formed partnership—actively performing two to three times a month, or between 25 and 35 times a year, depending on the time of year.

Putting on performances

“There are little groups all over country that bring history to life,” says Catalano. “But with Presenting the Past, we take it to a whole new level and want people to understand the history in a nutshell. The whole living history thing is more than just engaging someone and telling them history, it’s getting them involved and letting them see it, touch it, feel it, and understand it more than just listening to it.”

Part of the audience experience comes in the fact that during a history presentation, they are the character they are talking about. They come in costume, use accents if needed, and bring along things from the past that help people understand what it would be like to live back in that time period they are presenting.

“It’s not just that I am the Spanish guy trying to take over St. Augustine, it is more, ‘This is why we are here, this is what we do,  this what it was like in the day, this is how the battle was fought, this is what happened, this is why it happened the way it happened.’ It is so much more than you can read in a book,” says Catalano.

Beyond books

To help engage people, Presenting the Past uses a few approaches and chooses the most appropriate approach for each audience. When they do a classroom presentation, they discuss the coquina walls at the fort at St. Augustine and how those walls would absorb musket and cannon balls—even bringing a piece of fort wall with musket balls stuck in it for them to pass around and touch. Then they discuss how the Spanish would come over the wall at night, tie up the cannon balls, and shoot them back at the English. “The children just think it is the coolest thing!” says Catalano.

Another engaging approach is the point-counterpoint. This is where audiences get to hear two sides of the story from a Spanish Lady (Murillo) who tells tales of what the night felt like in St. Augustine and how a peaceful sleep turned into a waking nightmare and the victory cries of an Englishman (Catalano) who maps out Searle’s strategy in a play-by-play of the sacking of the city. The two then campaign the audience and begin a new battle over who should control the historic outpost.

Living history

“A lot of people are presented history though a book,” Catalano continues. “Then, when the books don’t really work anymore, they move on to slide presentations and movies—but imagine having somebody who can immerse you in that history.

“They are standing in front of you, telling you all about it in a way that is engaging, and you understand it—it’s amazing! We work very hard to try and get people engaged because if they aren’t engaged and bored then were not really doing our job.”

“I’m not a history major, but when you get immersed in it, you learn all about it,” says Catalano. “And the history down here is amazing—you can’t help but get immersed in it when you do what we do!

Boating is something Mark Taylor, CPA, owner of Mark Taylor & Associates, PA which specializes in individual and small-to-medium business tax and financial needs, has known for most of his life.

Having had a boat growing up, he has always loved being on the water. “I just love the hum of the motor, which is probably a guy thing,” admits Taylor. “But when you are at cruising speed and can hear the motor humming and you are outside and it’s nice and quiet in the sunshine (because it’s not hot on the water when you are moving)—it’s just wonderful.”

Joining in

One thing Taylor didn’t absolutely love about boating was personal ownership, which is why about a year ago he joined the Freedom Boat Club (www.freedomboatclub.com/locations/43-jacksonville-fl).

Mark & Jessica

“I’m generally a nervous person when it comes to new ventures, so when Lisa sold it to us, I wondered if we would really be able to get a boat, if it would be the boat we wanted, and is it as good as they say it is,” says Taylor. “Honestly, I’ve got to say it’s as good as they say it is—it’s been fantastic!”

“When you look at the price and look at what it offers, it’s a fantastic opportunity. You can’t even store a boat for the price you pay per month there. How can you beat it?” adds Taylor. “The boat that comes to you is clean, fully fueled, and ready to go—all you have to do is get in and go. When you’re done, you fuel it up, drop it off, and they take care of it. I call it Cadillac boating.”

Family fun time

Ashley & Troy

One way the boat club has been good for Taylor is being able to spend quality time with his family. “My wife Teresa and I have a 16-year-old son (Troy) and two 14-year-old daughters (Ashley and Jessica), and if you know anything about kids at that age, that’s when they start to not want to be around the parents,” jokes Taylor.

But boating is something they have all come to love together and Taylor sees it as an opportunity to be, and stay, involved in each other’s lives. “You get a lot of time to talk and have fun with the family playing and swimming in the water and joking around,” says Taylor. “I got to tube and even ski the other day with my kids because we finally bought another rope and got another set of skis—and now we are out there double skiing! Boating just gives us a lot more opportunity with our kids than we otherwise would have.”

Quality time

Taylor says boating has also been beneficial for quality time with his wife. During the summer, he will oftentimes take Fridays off and will treat his wife to a boat ride and lunch.

“When I take those days and the kids don’t want to go, her and I will just take the boat across and go to

Mark & Teresa

lunch at Whitey’s Fish Camp, or take it to the Landing or Outback Crab Shack,” says Taylor. “We’ve even taken advantage of the St. Augustine boat club location and tootled around, went downtown and ate at Cap’s, which is right on the river and absolutely gorgeous.”

The ease of it all

Taylor knows for a fact he and his family use this boat more because it’s so easy. “I know it may not be as easy for others, but I can be at the marina within five minutes and on the water in 20 minutes. I don’t have to trailer anything or pay launch fees; I don’t have to do anything—nothing,” says Taylor. “And financially speaking, if you use it, it’s a fantastic deal; if you don’t use it, it’s a fantastic deal in comparison to buying your own boat.”

Ever heard the expression, “Hoity toity?” Well, that is how Taylor feels. “I feel hoity toity when I do this because it’s one of those things where you aren’t paying a lot of money, but you’re sure getting the service like you are.”

For Ed Exley, managing partner of Rick’s RVs (www.ricksrvs.com), his passion to travel,discover new things, and face new adventure has always been a driving force in his life.

After a move to Montana, he discovered the RV lifestyle. He used to have wicker furniture that he moved around, but as he got older and kept moving, he wanted a better way to move without being such a hassle. “When I saw an RV coming down the road, I knew I had to buy one,” says Exley. “It was in 1996 and I went to Dick Gores RV and bought a big, 40-foot RV, sold the house, and moved into it.”

On the move

Exley says that at this point, he and his wife of nearly 20 years have been pretty much everywhere in the country. At first she didn’t like it, but after a couple of years she loved it. “A while back, you could make $80,000 to $90,000 in three months and then just travel and live off of that because you really had no bills.”

He admits the RV lifestyle might be hard to get your mind around at first, but after a while that RV becomes your house and you have your personal touches and it feels just like your home does now. “People think you have to be on the road moving all the time and they will ask me, ‘What do you do when you want to get off the road?’” says Exley. “I just tell them you stop driving—you’ve got your house with you with all the amenities!”

There are a number of reasons why Exley loves the RV lifestyle, including no lawn maintenance and all the people you meet, but mainly it’s the total freedom to get up and go whenever you want. “I used to tell my wife that in 30 minutes time, no one will even know we were here,” says Exley with a laugh.

Changing paths

Having spent 14 years in the auto business for high-volume dealers, he knew auto sales. So when he was buying his RV and realized they have a similar structure as an auto dealer, he was elated. “The whole lifestyle is mobile and I thought, ‘Man, this is for me! So I switched from the auto business to the RV business,” says Exley.

“Moving used to be difficult when I was in the auto business because employers didn’t like you to quit after six months, but RV dealers didn’t care because sales are really seasonal. You travel to Arizona in the winter, sell some RVs, and then you migrate back up to Montana or Oregon and spend the summers there selling.” Exley also traveled with RV show teams as part of his job.

Putting down roots

After 10 years of traveling with his wife, they decided to start a family and moved back to Jacksonville, where she is from, and they are raising a son here and not on the road. “I wanted to home school him from the road, but my wife wouldn’t go for that,” he laughs.

Not that his work at Rick’s RVs is a temporary career, because he will always be in the RV business, but he sees himself traveling and doing show teams again. “We don’t travel that much now because I am here working,” says Exley. “It’s funny because I pitch about not working so hard and taking it easy and traveling, but right now I am working a lot of hours. I just have to see it as working toward my goal of returning to the RV lifestyle. I mean, really, my son is 10 years old and when he gets out of school then I’m going again—I figure I’ve got eight years and a wake up to go.”

About the business

Exley, along with his partners, Mike Conley, investment partner, and Leah McCrum, administrative partner, run, manage, and operate Rick’s RVs on Beach Blvd.—and according to Exley, the three of them are kindred spirits.

“We all knew each other before on a different level, but since we all have a similar mindset, we just clicked and decided to go into business and become partners. Where I am weak, they are strong, and where they are weak, I am strong, so we make a real good team,” boasts Exley.

Ed Exley can be reached at 904-400-RICK (7425), RicksRVs@yahoo.com, or through www.RicksRvs.com.

After owning and operating Maron’s Furniture for 23 years, Jeanne Maron decided to close its doors and go back to public relations. She was working for JEA when she and 400 other people were laid off in October 2008.

Since she and her husband had already planned a vacation, they decided to go and enjoy themselves. She expected to have a good time, but she didn’t expect to come home with a new business idea.

“We went on our vacation to Sedona, Arizona, and visited some wineries because that’s always been our hobby,” says Maron. “I went into a gift shop that looked kind of interesting, but found their displays were just lousy.” She began telling her husband how she thought they could do a better job with their displays by placing wine bottles in the wine holders and doing things a little differently.

“My husband was laughing at me and said, ‘Why don’t you open a wine shop?’”

Put into action

All throughout the vacation, she pondered the idea of a wine shop. By the time they returned, she decided that she did want to open a wine shop—and The Gifted Cork (www.TheGiftedCork.com) was “born.”

After talking to retailers in St. Augustine, she discovered that even though business was down people were still buying and she felt that would be a good place to open her store—if she could find a good location.

“I walked around St. Augustine with some friends and checked out all the locations I thought would be good, but I really didn’t find anything,” says Maron. “So I called Len Weeks and asked if they had anything coming available.

“It just so happened that the art gallery, which is right next door to their office, was about to come available in one week and they hadn’t even advertised it yet! The square footage and price was basically perfect so I said, ‘Don’t advertise it; I will be there tomorrow!’”

She visited the very next day and loved the space. She then brought her husband a day later and after telling him her vision for the store, they decided to go for it. “When things just fall into place, you go for it,” says Maron.

Bringing it to fruition

She began buying things for the store at the end of January with the plan of opening March 1, 2009, but after discovering that Bike Week started one week earlier, she had to work extra hard and stay until midnight almost every night getting things tagged and out so she could be open for it. But it has paid off.

“I just finished my second year and already made a profit. I am on my way to success, and my long-term goal is to eventually franchise the store,” says Maron. “I keep saying baby steps—that’s kind of my mantra. I do everything, and try to do it right, in baby steps until I can see it grow at a nice, comfortable pace and see that it’ll keep going. I think if you try to do a lot too soon that it can fall back and hit you in the face.”

Passion and love

“I’ve always had an appreciation for wine and visit wineries while on vacation, so it’s just been a passion and a love,” says Maron. “I finally get to do something that I really love. I like the furniture business, but I don’t miss it. Wine is just much more fun and it makes people happy.”

The Gifted Cork not only sells wine, it also sells gifts, wine baskets, and holds special events for people as well as for the store. The store hosts two evening events a month in addition to its daily wine tasting in the store.

Always learning

“I learn something every single day, and that is what is fun about this industry,” says Maron. “You can never really know it all and wines are always changing. Even if you’ve had that wine before, when you get a new vintage it’s going to taste different.”

She says one of the best things about her wine shop is how her customers can teach her and how she can teach them. “We all basically have a good time, and I have built many friendships out of my customers because of it,” says Maron. “Not too many people can really do what they love as a hobby for their job.”

Extended role

While Jeanne Maron may work seven days a week at the shop, she dedicates some of her off time to the Children’s Home Society of Florida (CHS). Maron, who was actually adopted through CHS, has been on the board for more than eight years and the chairman of the board for the past two years.

“I got started with CHS because I just thought it would be interesting and fun to be on the board and give money for where my passion lies,” says Maron.

About the agency

Chartered in Jacksonville in 1902, Children’s Home Society of Florida (CHS) is dedicated to embracing children and inspiring lives. Every day, CHS works to restore and strengthen families through its various programs and services such as adoption, foster care, and child abuse prevention programs.

CHS (Buckner Division) is based in Jacksonville and provides direct services and activities for 2,500 children and families every day to help them cope with the challenges related to the foster care system. It offers prevention services to help families avoid the system and intervention services such as counseling and therapy to stabilize lives so today’s children can be more successful in school and in life after foster care.

Jeanne Maron, owner of The Gifted Cork, can be reached at 904-810-1083, info@thegiftedcork.com, or through www.thegiftedcork.com.

“You know how it is for excitement,” says Bob Pittman, executive vice presidentofJacksonville-based R.E. Holland & Associates, professional land surveyors and mappers. “It’s whatever satisfies your need for that thrill, that heartbeat.”

And for Pittman, that thrill and heartbeat comes from racing his ZO6 Corvette and Sportside Silverado truck at nearby drag strips in Gainesville, Fla., and Adel, Ga.

While doing proposals and mapping in CAD on a computer during his working hours can present its own challenges, he finds racing cars a bit more exciting.

Starts and finishes

Pittman got into racing as “just one of those things” from when he was a teenager, starting with fast motorcycles and then progressing into cars. “They say it’s in your blood; you ether like that stuff or you don’t,” says Pittman, who loves it—but took a break from racing when his son was born.

“I kind of quit doing it to spend time raising him and being there for football, surfing, etc.,” says Pittman. “But when he hit 16 years old, you know, ‘car age,’ he got me back into it again and I’ve been doing it again the past seven years.”

Pittman is what they call an ET chaser, where he tries to beat his own time and the times of his friends that all run the same kind of cars.

The gear

Pittman’s 2003 ZO6 Corvette and 2000 Sportside Silverado truck are not your average vehicles—anymore. While they can be driven on a “normal” road, they both have newer LS2 stroker motors, transmissions, and rear ends. In fact, the Silverado truck was Pittman’s daily driver last year.

“It’s super fast on the street, but you can’t give it any gas because it will spin the wheels. You have to gingerly hit the accelerator,” laughs Pittman. He says he is almost to the point where the vehicles are where they are, but he is considering nitrous once he beats his two outstanding times.

“I’ve been sitting here for two years waiting for the perfect air to beat my two times and haven’t gotten lucky yet. So here I am, waiting on fall again,” says Pittman. “With racing, there needs to be perfect air. Cold, dry air is denser and you get more air pack in the cylinders, which create more horsepower. Some days we’d get the perfect air, but the track wouldn’t be open that day or night. So I wait.”

Feel the power

Pittman usually races in the quarter mile, which is where you race in a straight line for time and mile per hour, but not for money. He races in what is called the test and tune. He competes against others, but it is where anybody can run so whoever you line up against is who you race.

“Sometimes you get lucky and it will be a car almost like yours. I’ve actually run a race, gone to find the guy if I didn’t know him, and asked if he wanted to run again,” says Pittman. “That’s part of the fun.”

However, Pittman finds that the most fun is the feeling of racing. “It really is exciting because you are going from zero to 135 mph in 10 seconds in the Corvette and from zero to about 125 mph in 11 seconds in the truck. That is pretty thrilling,” says Pittman.

“And when you are nailing the gas in the Corvette (it’s a clutch), I actually have to give it gas and let the clutch out quickly—it just throws you against the seat real hard and the front end almost comes off the ground and that’s the really thrilling part. It’s like bam!

“But you know what? It’s never fast enough for you. At about half way down, you’re like, ‘Come on, come on,’” laughs Pittman.

First run nerves

One race he enjoys attending is the Gator Nationals, but he says watching it on TV does it no justice. “You have to be there to realize how fast they are going down that track. They are actually going 320 mph in four seconds,” says Pittman. “If you’ve never been to one, you are missing out. It shakes your insides as they go by and you are scared watching them—not for yourself, but that something is going to happen to them.”

Pittman says he was never scared about racing, but admits to getting first run jitters. “I always do get nervous on the first run and I don’t know why. My hands get a little shaky, but by the time I go on the second run I am as cool as if I was sitting around drinking beer or something. I just don’t know what it is about that first run.”

Bob L. Pittman, PSM, is executive vice president of R.E. Holland & Associates, professional land surveyors and mappers. He can be contacted at 904-260-6300 or through www.reholland.net.

“I’ve always been brought up with a sense of social justice to helping those who need help,” says Howard Caplan, of the Caplan Law Firm, P.A. (www.caplawfirm.com), “And I do receive a sense of satisfaction to be able to do my part to hopefully make someone’s life better.”

Caplan, a solo law practitioner whose practice is concentrated in the areas of business law, corporate law, franchise law, trademark and copyright law, and technology law, not only helps makes others’ lives better through his law practice, he also does it through his involvement with the Jewish Family & Community Services (JFCS) (www.jfcsjax.org).

Getting involved

Caplan learned about JFCS’ Feed A Needy Neighbor (FANN) program, which is the Winn-Dixie emergency food pantry, from being a member of the Temple. “During Rosh Hashanah, which is the Jewish New Year and is generally in September, many synagogues pass out bags to collect food for the needy, and then during Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement, which is 10 days later, people bring the bags back full of food,” says Caplan.

He decided to help out FANN even more by requesting that people who attend his biannual New Year’s Day party also bring food for FANN. “I figured as long as you are having a good time, bring something for someone else to have a good time,” says Caplan.

After his party, when he called up the food pantry to arrange the drop off of his party donation, he was asked to consider joining JCFS’ board. “The more I learned about the agency, the more I believed in its mission, and I joined,” says Caplan.

Being on the board

Caplan has now been involved with JFCS for the past five years, serving first as secretary, then for two years he served as first vice president, which is essentially the president-elect, and “when they asked me to serve as president, I accepted it as definitely an honor,” says Caplan. He has been president since June 2010.

In his presidential role, he has spent 180 hours in the last year helping plan events and participating on all of the committees. “I am an ex-officio member of all standing committees and make it a point to try and participate in all committee meetings,” says Caplan. “As president, I also meet with the executive director each week, attend eight regular board meetings a year, and then there are two or three committee meetings a month that I participate in.”

Giving back

Caplan says he does it all because he enjoys it and the “good feeling” that comes from helping others and knowing you are doing something good for someone else that may be less fortunate.

“I feel this responsibility to the community at-large to give back,” says Caplan. “It’s almost a sense of noblesse oblige in that there is far too little noble today and way too much me, me, me, and I, I, I. I feel this helps balance that out.

“I’ve always been socially conscious and believe that a measure of a society is how it takes care of its less well-off people.”

About the agency

Jewish Family & Community Services (JFCS) takes great pride in providing services to everyone throughout the North Florida community, Jewish and non-Jewish alike. Through nearly 100 years, Jewish Family & Community Services has remained true to the mission of helping people help themselves. JFCS offers emergency financial assistance; the Winn-Dixie emergency food pantry; adoption services—First Coast Adoption Professionals; adoption services—child safety adoption; child safety, foster care, and prevention; and counseling and workshops.

Howard Caplan is a solo law practitioner of the Caplan Law Firm, P.A. He can be reached at 904-256-3333, info@caplawfirm.com, or through www.caplawfirm.com.

For Jack Francis, a financial advisor with Waddell & Reed (www.jackfrancis.wrfa.com), lacrosse has been in his life since he was in the seventh grade. He went on to be an All-American at the University of Maryland and captain of the team until his 1984 graduation.

Jack Francis, his wife Julie, and one of his players from Nease's lacrosse program that went on to play at John’s Hopkins University.

“It’s a passion of mine, and, in fact, lacrosse changed my path in life,” says Francis, referring to his career on Wall Street. “A lot of guys from Long Island on our team went to work on Wall Street, and I didn’t even know what Wall Street was!”

From not knowing what Wall Street was turned into a 23-year career for Francis. He was in the institutional equity trading business and his last job on Wall Street was co-head of equity trading for UBS.

“In 2003, I decided to exit the business. People thought I was crazy because I had such a good job and a big job, but it dawned on me after 9/11 and a few other situations in life that  it wasn’t about going to work and making as much money as you can,” says Francis.

So he and his wife sold their home and moved their three children to the Jacksonville area with the thought that he would help his wife raise their children and he would do some coaching for various teams in the area—but what he found was a lack of lacrosse.

Making a difference

“The interest level was here, but on a smaller scale and I knew if we introduced them to what lacrosse really was that it would take off,” says Francis. The introduction came when he and his assistant coach at the time, Adam Silva, were able to have the first NCAA Division 1 regular season lacrosse game to ever be played in north Florida at Fletcher High School in 2008.

“It was to benefit the Wounded Warrior Project, and we had 7,500 in attendance, a Navy flyover, and wounded warriors as honorary captains of each team—it really helped the sport take off,” says Francis.

Francis

Francis also had the time and the passion to help an already existing group grow lacrosse to where it would be a viable recruiting ground for college coaches—and he did that by being part of the group that helped lacrosse become a Florida High School Activities Association (FHSAA) sanctioned sport.

“My ambition was to turn it into a sport that was accepted as a mainstream sport like it is up north,” says Francis, who became the head coach of lacrosse at Nease High School in 2003 and coached until 2009. “In that time frame, lacrosse [in Jacksonville] went from just a club sport to where many players were going off to play college lacrosse and at some schools like Johns Hopkins University, Notre Dame, UPenn, the United States Naval Academy, the University of Maryland, and many more,” says Francis.

He says the toughest part of it all was finding coaches. “Up north, there are generations of lacrosse players, so there’s a million guys who can coach because they know it. But down here, you have to hope someone played in college and moved here and want to coach.”

Francis says that is starting to change as second generation players that have gone off to college and are home for the summer or graduated want to coach. He says it also helps that Matt Kerwick, head coach for Jacksonville University’s men’s lacrosse team, and his team go to all of the schools and programs and teach people how to coach lacrosse.

Current coaching

“While I am taking my 23-year Wall Street career and meshing it with my 8-year coaching career as a financial coach/financial advisor with Waddell & Reed, my after hours are devoted to coaching still,” says Francis. “But it’s really pre-hours because I am an assistant coach at Ponte Veda High School now and to accommodate the coaches and their careers, the players have agreed to wake up at 6:00 a.m. and be at practice at 6:30 a.m. before school starts. We really have to take off our hats to them.”

In his 35 years of being involved with lacrosse, he stills has a deep interest and a love for it, and he jokingly adds, “If I didn’t smell hamstring meat burning when I was getting on the field, I would probably get out and play—but I don’t want to hurt myself.”

For Lisa Waas, the property manager for Airport Industrial Park (www.aip-jax.com), cooking and food has always been part of her life. “My Mom and Dad are great cooks, so I’ve been exposed to different foods and

cooking for years,” saysWaas, who attributes that to her being less shy about exploring new foods in the kitchen.

Waas, her husband, and two children have been cooking for quite a few years recreationally together, but their small kitchen in their Fernandina home would get in the way. “It used to drive us crazy when we would cook together because there would be at least one moment when you wanted to tell someone to move because they were in your way,” says Waas.

Old kitchen

New kitchen

That craziness lead to the remodeling of their kitchen. Two and a half years ago, they put in some sweat equity and did the renovations themselves, but it was worth it to more than double the size of the kitchen and put in a six-burner gas stove. “It was about six months after finishing it that I looked at my husband and said, ‘We’ve basically been cooking the same food we used to cook in this big beautiful kitchen and, even though it’s easier, I think it’s kind of silly,’” says Waas.

Waas’ habit of cutting recipes and ideas from magazines prompted them to do something different. Since most of the recipes are typically from the higher-end cooking magazines and are quite an effort to do, she set out to see how many new recipes they could cook in 2010.

The challenge

In November 2009, they began to tackle the challenge. “We would sit down and write out two weeks’ worth of recipes. We would go through the columns and articles and put together menus—writing down each recipe we did in a journal calendar. We kind of put ourselves into the position that we had to start cooking differently,” says Waas.

She says the more they got into it, they decided to put together a wish list of things they were going to learn to cook, such as homemade pasta, butter, ketchup, Asian dumplings, and short ribs.

“We never cooked with short ribs before and now we have three different types we can make. When we realized we weren’t cooking enough fish, we pulled fish recipes and put them on the menu, and by the end of the year we had logged 102 new recipes,” says Waas.

“Where 102 recipes over 365 days may not seem like a lot—with 200-plus days there that we didn’t make anything new—but it is a lot when you think they are brand-new, never-made-before recipes and we all have busy schedules.”

The column

One afternoon at a swim meet, Waas was complimenting her friend on her articles in the Nassau Sun newspaper, told her how much she liked them, and asked her how she started writing.

“While we were talking, I told her that I think I want to share what we were doing with somebody because we were learning so much and there were so many interesting recipes we were trying,” says Waas. “I know there are a lot of people out there that look at recipes and go, ‘Wow, that’s too hard,’ but if I can cook it, maybe somebody would be inspired to cook it as well.”

Waas’ friend introduced her to the editor of the Nassau Sun and he asked for a sample column. Waas explained how she would talk about what kinds of things they did wrong, what they learned, and how it brings her family together—and he loved it. Next thing she knew, she was in the next month’s newspaper and now has a column called The Inquisitive Cook that comes out the first week of every month.

“It’s a different creative energy that I don’t get at work or at home,” says Waas. “And having to sit down and process something that I think someone else would enjoy reading is exciting.” She also likes to add a little of that “uh-oh” factor, such as starting a recipe without reading it through completely and then realizing you don’t have all the ingredients.

“I mean, how many times have I done that? If someone sees that and says, ‘If she does that and gets through it and moves to another recipe, there’s no reason I can’t cook too.’ I really feel it’s important to push out of comfort zone in a lot of different things, and the kitchen for us is the place we do it,” says Waas.

She feels that writing about her foibles makes it more approachable to someone who might be a reluctant cook. “My desire is that people reading my article and the recipes I post will possibly try something new and maybe get other people in their lives, such as a spouse, children, friends, and family, involved in the cooking process.”

Lisa Waas is a resident of Fernandina Beach and has been a foodie and home cook for 34 years. She can be reached at lisaphr@bellsouth.net.

To read her latest column, visit http://jacksonville.com/community/nassau/2011-01-01/story/inquisitive-cook-knowing-your-knives-makes-dicing-much-easier

Lauren Little, owner of two Edible Arrangement franchises in Jacksonville, creates fresh fruit bouquets as part of her business. But what she likes to create most are healthy feelings in the homeless at the Clara White Mission (www.ClaraWhiteMission.org).

“Having worked with the homeless before and having that prior experience of seeing that people are hungry and children are hungry, I knew that once I opened my business, and we have what I like to refer to as excess fruit versus waste, that it needed to be donated  to someone,” says Little.

 “It is still good quality fruit. Just because it may not be large enough for us to put on our bouquets or a pineapple was miscut doesn’t mean it should be thrown away. Someone can still eat it.”

Making the donation

Pineapples, strawberries, honey dew, and cantaloupe are among the 25 pounds to 30 pounds of fruit that gets donated and delivered to the Mission every day by Little or someone on her staff.

Little says she doesn’t mind paying her staff the extra 30 minutes to 40 minutes to go down there and make that delivery because, to her, it’s important someone gets to eat.

“It makes me smile when people run to the truck when we drop off the fruit,” says Little. “They unload it, dump my fruit in their bins, and then wash out and put my bins back—all while being very appreciative.”

Once the delivery is made, the Mission takes over from there and cuts it down and uses it whichever way they see fit—whether it’s to serve the hungry or be used in its culinary program.

Filling a need

Little says the Mission pretty much has everything they need for a meal—the meat, potatoes, vegetables, and drinks—but while serving at the Mission the first year before she bought her  business, Little found it interesting that they didn’t have any fruit.

Now she finds it very moving when she walks around somewhere downtown and has her Edible Arrangement hat and shirt on and someone says, “I’ve eaten your fruit. You donate to the Clara White Mission.”

 “Because they don’t get to have fruit, it’s their treat,” says Little. “Whereas for me, it’s just my business—but I have no business throwing it away when I know it’s going to be something nutritional for someone else, and they really appreciate it.”

The choice was clear

Little chose the Clara White Mission for a couple of reasons. One reason is it is convenient to her two locations (The Shoppes of Avondale and The Shoppes at Bartram Park) with its downtown location. The other, more important reason is it has a culinary program with a kitchen.

 “A lot of food banks don’t have a kitchen,” says Little. “And so with freshly cut fruit, there is no means to care for it. I felt that this was something the Clara White Mission could use and have been told our fruits are in the pies and the things they bake.”

The recession has seen a lot of people trying to make ends meet and the Mission’s food lines have gotten a lot longer as a result, so it uses the fruit for those recipients as well.

Going forward

While most people think about the needy most around Thanksgiving and Christmas time, Little would love to get people to do more when the donations and efforts are fewer.

“I think it’s important for anybody in business to figure out how they can help someone, whether it’s mentoring someone young or another business owner,” says Little.

She realized it’s tough for a lot people on their P&L, but for her, the reward is knowing that at the end of the day somebody’s going to go to bed with some fruit in their belly—even if that’s the only thing they’ve eaten all day. “It’s something small for me to do, but for the recipient it’s something big for them.”

“You never know if you are ever going to be in that line someday,” says Little. “I would hope that if I ever have to be on the receiving end that somebody has decided that it was worth paying an employee an extra 30 minutes so I could have something to eat today.”

What is the Clara White Mission?

For over 100 years, the Clara White Mission has helped Jacksonville’s at-risk individuals gain new perspectives on life. The Mission has been the one-stop community center stimulating economic development through job training in educational programs, daily feedings, advancement, and more.

It offers a 20-week culinary curriculum designed to offer students an opportunity to practice their skills in an environment that will prepare them for a career in the industry.