Terri Graham, Ginny Hunt and Jane McNulty Snead | Photo credit: Chris Cronin Media Austin and Ginny Hunt bet the house, literally, on a food pantry back in 2002 that would grow into United Against Poverty. Eleven years into Burgers & Brews, that bet has grown into the biggest stage the event has ever had. East Harbor Band kept the crowd moving between booths, and 11 local kitchens vied for the top prize. The verdict: Judge's Choice 1st Place: Touhy's Downtown 2nd Place: Green

Master's Academy has been leveling up its STEM game lately, and two recent experiences show just how much more hands-on, and less classroom-bound, that education has become. Ken Williams spent 52 years as an analytical chemist in the polymer, textile, and paper industries. Retirement, for him, apparently meant re-stocking a school science department. He donated close to $100,000 in professional-grade lab equipment, including several research-quality Olympus microscopes valued

Jill Nathanson paints without figures or scenery. There's no subject to speak of, just color, carrying the entire picture on its own. Starting this Saturday, July 25, 20 of her paintings fill VBMA's Schumann and Titelman galleries in a show entirely the museum's own, built in-house, every piece on loan from the artist and her gallery, Berry Campbell. Nathanson works in the Color Field tradition, a school of painting built on the idea that color alone, without shape or subject

Photo credit: John Biondo After being closed for six years, the old train station you've probably driven past and wondered about has officially reopened. The Indian River County Historical Society reopened these doors to the Vero Beach Railroad Station & Exhibit Center on July 9. Flagler's railroad blew right past this stretch of coast in 1893, stopping in Sebastian and Fort Pierce and skipping the groves in between. It took about a decade of citrus piling up before Flagler's

For more details on all upcoming events and to register for these, see "The Week Ahead" section here. July 14, 5 p.m. -- Let's Talk Vero Beach Airport at Riverside Theatre July 15, 5:30 p.m. -- Olaf's Summer Bash at Riverside Theatre July 18, 10 a.m. -- A Century of Wonder at McKee -- Community Days July 18, 1 p.m. -- 6th Annual Rock and Rose Beach Party at Kimpton Vero Beach Hotel & Spa July 19, 10 a.m. -- A Century of Wonder at McKee -- Community Days July 22, 5:30 p.m. --

L to R: Becky Straley (Veterans Council of Indian River County), Megan McFall (Indian River County Healthy Start), Anne Posey (Tykes and Teens), Elizabeth Thomason (Boys and Girls Clubs of Indian River), Shannon Bowman (Childcare Resources), Ellen Wayne (Catholic Charities), April Colvin (Veterans Council of Indian River), Rachel Moshman (Tykes and Teens) Some of the best news in Indian River County this year arrives in the form of a spreadsheet. United Way of Indian River Co

Ten years ago, this was a warehouse the city wanted to tear down. This Saturday, July 18, Walking Tree Brewery is throwing its biggest party yet. Mike and Brooke Malone took over 3209 Dodger Road in 2014, a 1945 Naval aviation supply warehouse wedged between Historic Dodgertown and the Piper plant, and spent two years gutting it themselves, volunteers and all, sparing it the fate of demolition. The first pint went out on June 23, 2016. The 10th Anniversary Block Party starts

Chris Clavelli calls himself a hired gun: 40 years bouncing between acting, directing and teaching, and only in the last decade, playwriting. Now, Riverside Theatre has handed him his biggest undertaking yet: a play built from the real stories of Indian River County's veterans and military families. Working title: "Voices of Service." His credentials: resident director at Florida Repertory Theatre with more than 40 productions, a Wall Street Journal "Best of 2017" nod from cr

Somewhere on our beach right now, a loggerhead nest is about to hatch. 72 hours later, Coastal Connections researchers will be on their knees in the sand, excavating it egg by egg, and you get to take part in this ritual. Turtle Digs have kicked off for the season. It's a morning scene unlike anything else in Vero: the team opens the nest by hand, pulls each egg, and sorts them one by one as hatched, unhatched, or damaged, calling out numbers while a team member logs the data

James Prosek was ten when he hit a wall that would go on to define his life. He wanted to paint every trout in North America, went to the library for a field guide, and found nothing. So he wrote letters to biologists. He got warm replies, but zero consensus, because new discoveries about trout change too quickly to fit rigid classifications. That's been the central theme of his entire career: the human urge to draw neat, straight lines on a messy natural world that refuses t

1st: Leslie Greenwood, "Summer Breeze" 1st: Tim Hinkle Jr., "Old Garden Delight" 1st: Tim Hinkle Jr., "Swirl of Wonder" While we (and all of Vero) were caught up in Princess Pungent frenzy, McKee Botanical Garden announced the winners of its 21st Annual Waterlily Celebration photography contest. More than 40 entries came in this year, judged across Color, Black & White, and Manipulated categories, with a Youth division and a crowd-voted People's Choice thrown in for good meas

IRSC Vice President of Institutional Advancement Annabel Robertson, Kate Beckwith Woody and IRSC President Timothy E. Moore Annabel Robertson removes obstacles for a living. Ask anyone who has worked alongside her over the past three decades at some of the Treasure Coast's most important institutions, and they'll tell you the same thing: she identifies the barriers standing between people and opportunity, then works tirelessly to remove them. Today, as Vice President for Inst

The Humane Society shelter on 77th is nearly full. This is where the Bissell Pet Foundation's Empty the Shelters campaign comes in. Kittens under 6 months were originally $70, with a second kitten at $35. That second fee has since been waived, so, no, it's not clickbait, it is indeed buy one get one free on kittens. Little Bit Cream Puddles The rest of the pricing: puppies 6 months to a year, $70; dogs 1 to 8 years, $50; cats 7 months to 8 years, $35. Lana T Money Petey The p

Then and now | Photo credit: Chris Cronin (left) America turned 250, and Vero Beach marked the occasion the way it marks every Fourth: out in the water before the rest of the nation was even awake. Thousands waded off Sexton Plaza at sunrise in red, white and blue, a quarter mile out to the SS Breconshire, part of a tradition that started twenty years ago with a handful of Sunrunners and has since become the county's largest unofficial holiday. Read last year's story on the s

You wont want to miss this one. Next Wednesday, July 8 at 7:30 PM, Grammy-winning cellist Mike Block and a world-class faculty ensemble take the stage at First Presbyterian Church for the first of two mainstage concerts presented by the Vero Beach International Music Festival. Here's what makes Block unusual: he plays cello standing up. He invented a patented strap that lets him walk, move, and dance while performing, and was the first standing cellist ever to perform at Carn

The New York Times calls him "the Audubon of the fishing world." James Prosek published his first book at age 19, featuring 70 watercolor paintings of trout species in North America, produced while an English major at Yale. Three decades later, he's shown at the Smithsonian, the Royal Academy in London, and the Philadelphia Museum of Art. On July 11, Prosek will be at VBMA leading a community mural inspired by the flora and fauna of the Indian River Lagoon, a fitting debut fo

America turns 250 on Saturday, and Vero Beach is celebrating in style with three days of parades, patriotic tributes, ocean swims, fireworks over the lagoon, and plenty of live music. These are just a few of the great things happening, and there's so much more. July 2 & 3 – Stars & Service at Riverside Theatre This Thursday and Friday, Riverside Theatre turns its campus into a living thank‑you to those who’ve worn the uniform to make our freedom possible. Grab an All-American

McKee Botanical Garden's Titan Arum, which Vero christened Princess Pungent, never unfurled her spathe, and never released the legendary rotting-garbage reek that makes this plant one of nature's most theatrical performers. She produced pollen instead, marking the end of her lifecycle on her own terms. But in the weeks leading up to that anticlimax, Princess Pungent became arguably the most watched, most photographed, most rooted-for plant in McKee's recent memory. Thousands

A snowman who has spent a decade pining for summer is about to get his wish, in Florida. In June. At Riverside Theatre. What most people don't know about Olaf is how close he came to being something else entirely -- a penguin. Instead, he became a snowman who wants nothing more than to revel in the one season built to destroy him. He'll be holding court at The Loop Kitchen & Bar three Wednesdays this summer: June 24, July 15, and July 22 5:30 to 7:30. The event is completely

Noriko Murai Andreas Marks Pico Iyer Fresh off a landmark season headlined by American Made: Paintings and Sculpture from the DeMell Jacobsen Collection, one of the most celebrated exhibitions in recent VBMA memory, and the museum isn't wasting any time. The 45th International Lecture Series lineup has been announced, and member tickets are already on sale. This season travels east, in conjunction with Hokusai, Hiroshige, Hasui: Japanese Landscapes in Print. Here's the lineup