Forty-plus years is a long tour of duty, and the Veterans Council of Indian River County just signed up for another one. The Council has joined forces with United Way of Indian River County and has a new name to go with it: Mission United. It took more than a year to put together, and the programs, staff and services are all coming along for this next chapter. If you've never seen the Veterans Council at work, picture an army of passionate volunteers who get up in the morning

This Thursday, Oct. 8 at 4PM, Meet Me on Main takes you inside the $14 million downtown campus Shannon McGuire Bowman spent years willing into existence, just about five weeks before the first child walks in. The mayor will be there. You should be too! Main Street Vero Beach's monthly social features Mayor John Cotugno, and the host is Childcare Resources, whose new home opens Nov. 12. Shannon McGuire Bowman Bowman took over Childcare Resources in 2012, when it reached about

Jack Donahue's ghost is tap-dancing across the Riverside Theatre stage starting next week and you have until Nov. 22 to catch him. The two-person musical draws on the true story of Jack's letters home as he climbed the brutal early 20th-century vaudeville circuit. You know vaudeville better than you think. It gave us terms like "big time" and "a tough act to follow," plus the mix of monologue, sketch and musical guests that late-night TV shows like Saturday Night Live still r

Forget the great snowbird migration. Downtown Vero's season really starts with the First Friday Gallery Stroll in October. This year that's October 2, when Gallery 14 opens its 19th season with a two-artist show you won't want to miss. John H.C. Davis is a Tulane-trained printmaker who carves Florida wildlife into linoleum, in reverse, one gouge at a time. He prints each piece by hand, paints it in acrylic, and then, if that wasn't labor-intensive enough, builds the wooden fr

Five tropical storms. Zero hurricanes. As of mid-September, the traditional peak of hurricane season, that's where the Atlantic stood this year, the slowest start since satellites began watching the tropics in 1966. The ocean hasn't cooled and the tropics haven't gone dormant. A strong El Niño has stacked up wind shear across the Atlantic, and that shear keeps tearing storms apart before they can organize. It's a pattern with precedent. El Niño years have produced some of the

Tickets for the Vero Beach Museum of Art's 45th International Lecture Series go on sale Thursday, and the lineup would make even a Manhattan cultural calendar jealous. The best-known name on the bill is Pico Iyer, the best-selling author and travel writer whose byline has run in The New York Times, Harper's and The New York Review of Books. He has spent decades explaining Japan to the rest of the world, and on February 1 he'll explain it to Vero. He's joined by two leading sc

Somebody left a baked potato at South Beach Park. Wrapped in foil, just sitting there, until the Dyer Subaru crew found it on September 19. It won them a trophy. It's no brick of drugs, which is what turned up last year, but we'll take a slower year on the contraband front. The potato was also the least worrying thing pulled off of our coastline that morning. Coastal Connections, Inc. just released the final numbers from this year's International Coastal Cleanup, and almost a

Backstage Access offers an exclusive, first-rate passport into the inner workings of Riverside Theatre. Designed for established and budding connoisseurs of the craft, these classes take you beyond the curtain of every mainstage production this season, with most courses including rare access to a tech rehearsal. Seating is limited, so only a small group gets into each class. Each production in the lineup has its own dedicated class, spanning two or three sessions, most on Thu

The artists arriving at McKee next month have been called the most prolific and successful creators of public art in New York's history by the Times. Marc and Gillie Schattner in front of The Last Three Gillie & Marc Schattner have installed bronze animals in over 250 cities, from Singapore to Shanghai to London. Best known for their recurring characters Rabbitwoman and Dogman, the British-Australian duo work as self-described eco-warriors, using sculpture as a platform for w

The Humane Society shelter on 77th is back at it for Empty the Shelters. Third round this year with the Bissell Pet Foundation, which either means the formula works or the shelter just doesn't stay empty for long. CEO Nichola Redmond's take, from the shelter's own press release: "Unfortunately, our shelter never is actually empty, as we receive animals almost daily." Pricing remains unchanged from July. Puppies 6 months to a year, $70. Dogs 1 to 8 years, $50. Kittens under 6

If the Lagoon Greenway has been on your radar for years, it's time to give it another look. Just last year, IRLT added a 1.5-mile loop to the north, stretching the whole trail system past four miles. Tucked on the northeast corner of 8th Street and Indian River Boulevard, Lagoon Greenway has long been one of the Indian River Land Trust's flagship trail systems, a joint effort between IRLT, Indian River County, the Mosquito Control District, and the Florida Inland Navigation D

Riverside Theatre's Loop Kitchen and Bar has been experimenting with its menu. I had their wings last week, crispy, well-sauced, solid. You can get them naked too. Either way, they're perfection. This weekend, add a Budweiser for just a dollar, while supplies last. Live music on the outdoor stage all this weekend: Dave & the Wave Thursday, Vince Love and Soul Cats Friday, Dottie Kelly & Rock The House Band Saturday with soul, blues, Motown and R&B. 5:30 to 8:30 p.m. More info

You know that tiny coffin with the glass window that looks straight out of 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea, sitting a few feet from the entrance at Waldo's? Only five of these exist in the world. Four are in Smithsonian storage. The fifth is here, at Waldo's. The coffin is just one part of a much larger story: Sexton's menagerie of monstrosities, built into the Driftwood Resort itself out of ship's wheels, cannons, cathedral bells, salvaged Palm Beach mansion doors, and roughly

If planting a tiny forest has never made it onto your weekend plans, it should. I recently sat down with Missy Weiss, the new executive director of Pelican Island Audubon Society, and was fascinated to learn they give away native trees three times a week at its location on Oslo Road...for free! Here are just a couple reasons these native trees are so important, aside from providing habitat for our many native bird, butterfly and insect species: a shade tree can cut your cooli

Everyone assumes the Youth Sailing Foundation is just for kids. It isn't, and the new building going up on the lagoon is about to make that very clear. Yes, junior sailing is still the heart of it. Put a kid out there and the phone stays on shore. There's no scrolling your way out of a capsize. Stu Keiller But the latest is the grown-ups who've gotten involved. YSF has spent the last five years building an adult sailing program, complete with a fleet of 19-foot Flying Scots y

John and Heather Chianis It was movie night at Hogan Yards, complete with camp chairs sprawled across the turf lawn as eager spectators counted down to the eight o'clock screening of Twilight, when I sat down with John and Heather Chianis to get the origin story behind the hottest new establishment in town. They are couple behind Pepper & Salt BBQ. In addition to being the resident pitmasters, they're overseeing events and programming for all of Hogan Yards. So, first off, wh

Meredith Egan of United Way and Jeff Pickering of Indian River Community Foundation Ask most people in Indian River County what actually drives the local economy, and you'll get the same three guesses nearly every time: tourism, real estate (and, once upon a time, Citrus). Maybe the hospital, if they're being thorough. Almost nobody says "nonprofits," which is a little surprising, because nonprofits are one of the biggest employers in the county, and now there's a report with

Three years ago on 13th Avenue, Marine veteran Jeff Palleschi opened 21st Amendment Distillery. Today, it's the ultimate neighborhood sanctuary, a joint with good bourbon, serious soul, and an unwritten rule that local veterans never walk alone. And if Bourbon isn't your thing, they now serve beer and wine. The Wall of Honor, the cigars shipped to Marines overseas, the "21 Salute" bourbon bankrolling the WWII Tribute on Veterans Memorial Island, Jeff hands over the keys to wh

Mark your calendar: Friday, Sept. 11, 8:30 a.m. at the Indian River County Fairgrounds & Expo Center. This is the Sheriff's Office's 25th year holding this ceremony, a span long enough that a child born the week of the 9/11 attacks turns 25 this year, old enough now to bring children of their own. The program hasn't changed: a multi-agency honor guard, a tribute from local fire rescue, the mournful call of the Vero Beach Pipes and Drums. Get there early, the fairgrounds fill

Somewhere between the last Bloody Mary brunch and the next barre class, Costa d'Este has found the missing link: yoga, mimosas, and kittens, in that order of increasing importance. On Saturday, September 12th at 10 a.m., the resort's Crystal Ballroom makes way for Paws & Pose, a rescue-yoga hybrid dreamed up by H.A.L.O. No-Kill Rescue. Thirty minutes of yoga, followed by 30 minutes of bottomless mimosas, then an hour of kitten cuddling. H.A.L.O. brings the kittens. You just b