Lauren Michaels and Literacy Services of Indian River County Executive Director Valerie Kines On March 13 , Literacy Services of Indian River County held their annual Love of Literacy luncheon with nearly 180 people in attendance. One in three Indian River County residents struggles with basic literacy, which Literacy Services has been working to solve since 1971, on private funding alone, out of a donated office in the county library. This year's numbers were reason to cele

Saint Edward's School is debuting Tide Together this spring, a brand-new four-week series that reflects the school's long-standing role as a private institution with a public-facing mission. For Indian River County families with toddlers, nothing quite like it exists locally. Certified swim instruction alone would be worth the trip. Here it's folded into a broader weekly experience that gives 2- and 3-year-olds a joyful, low-pressure introduction to school life while giving

Vero in Bloom & The Hats in the Garden Luncheon at McKee Botanical Garden is arguably one of the most beautiful daytime events to take place every season.

Almost, Maine — Riverside Theatre | March 24 – April 12 There is a town in northern Maine that doesn't quite exist. It never got around to being officially organized. Never made it onto any map. It sits so far north it's almost in Canada...almost, but not quite. Just Almost. That word "Almost," is doing a lot of work in this production. Because we all live there. Almost told someone we loved them. Almost stayed. Almost left. Almost picked up the phone. That one person you thi

Jeff Quattry, Baerbel O'Haire, Jane Smalley ELC board member and Windsor marketing director Jane Smalley invited us along to this year's annual gala, and I'm so glad she did. This year's theme: Mangroves, Moonlight & Milan. The rain forecast moved things indoors and away from the usual spot at the Thomas R. Schidel Pavilion , but the execution was so seamless you'd have assumed that was the plan all along. Guests arrived in linen suits as the sun set over the lagoon, lemon d

Silvia Curbelo, Michael Hettich and Sean Sexton today (top) and 15 years ago (bottom) The Laura (Riding) Jackson Foundation has been holding its annual Poetry and BBQ event every spring for fifteen years, and this Saturday, March 28 , they're returning to where it all began. "In a Southerly Light...Revisited" recreates the very first Poetry & Barbeque, right down to the poets themselves, bringing back Silvia Curbelo, Michael Hettich, and Sean Sexton , who started this whole

This Saturday afternoon on Jungle Trail, Indian River County cuts the ribbon on the Jones' Pier Conservation Area Interpretive Center , designed by R+C Architecture , a new facility that tells the story of one of the county's most intact Old Florida landscapes. The namesake of the pier, the Jones family , shaped this stretch of the Indian River Lagoon for generations. In 1889, Seaborn Jones and his family homesteaded 160 acres on Orchid Island, tendering crops of beans and t

Before written language, before maps or money, humans were already crushing a leaf between two fingers, holding it to the light, and deciding it meant something. Temple smoke rising to gods in Egypt and Mesopotamia. Sacred oils anointing the living and the dead. The word perfume  itself is born from the Latin " per fumum ," meaning "through smoke," because for most of human history, to release a scent was to send a message to something larger than yourself. This Thursday, Mar

N early 300 guests filled the Windsor Beach Club on March 4 for the Humane Society of Vero Beach and Indian River County's 42nd annual Cause for Paws Gala , walking out having made it the most successful in the event's history, raising more than $800,000 after costs. Not a bad evening for the animals. Adoptable dogs and cats mingled with the crowd, stealing hearts with ease. If you were there, you know the cocktail hour demanded a certain amount of willpower. The money matt

There has never been anyone in Indian River County quite like Freddie Woolfork . He was the Gifford kid who went out into the world, earned his degree from Florida A&M, saw his options and then chose, very much on purpose, to come home and widen the horizon for everyone coming after him. At the Gifford Youth Achievement Center , he helped turn a fragile idea into the “miracle on 43rd Avenue," founded in 1998 to boost the low 25% graduation rate for Black students in the area,

Step into DuBose & Sons on Old Dixie and it’s immediately clear. With maps, photographs and posters on the walls, and a family who can walk you through Vero’s past intersection by intersection, the shop feels like a compact, working museum of Vero Beach history. The line runs back to 1912, when J.C. DuBose opened his first jewelry store and later moved to a remote little place called Vero, long before “Beach” appeared on the sign. Over the decades, the family expanded to se

On Saturday, March 7 , Mayor John Cotugno took the stage at the Vero Beach High School Performing Arts Center with the easy authority of a man speaking for the whole City. In front of him sat the 2025 Fighting Indians football team, fresh off the greatest season in program history, as he presented them with the key to the city. The crowd of players, families, coaches, and a community that lives for Friday night lights, had just watched the season highlight reel: a 14–1 team

Tony Award‑winner Stephanie J. Block and Broadway leading man Sebastian Arcelus brought their celebrity shine to the Stark Stage last Monday, headlining Broadway Night at Riverside in an evening of songs and stories presented by the Friends Committee. Executive Friends  Cindy Rounsavall and Wheatie Gibb , with event co‑chairs Marcy DeWolfe and Paula Shorts, have given the Friends real strategic heft: their work underwrites not only evenings like Broadway Night, but a full

There are few better ways to spend a Valentine's Day in Indian River County than at Windsor , and this year's Charity Polo Cup made the case convincingly. Some 650 guests turned out for an afternoon of high-level polo, an elegant field side luncheon, a Porsche concours featuring more than 40 vehicles, and a tailgate competition that rewarded a spectacular display called "That's Amore" with top honors. When it was all over, the Windsor Charitable Foundation had raised $417,000

Vero local Barry Nordstrand didn't set out to make a movie, but to do something interesting with the historic ski lodge he owns.

Vintage postcard with text reading "Florida Orange Grove as seen from the Air, Near Vero Beach, Florida" This is the one night you don’t want to miss if you care about Vero’s history, what came before us, what survives, and what we’re passing on. On Saturday, April 11, from 6–9 p.m ., come to the Vero Heritage Center for Deeply Rooted , an evening honoring all of Vero's history—citrus, river, ranch, neighborhoods, downtown, the families and people who shaped it and the desce

Jason Beal’s story starts on Jungle Trail. Jason Beal His great‑great‑great‑grandmother and widow of Moses Beal , Adeline Beal , moved from the Ocala area to the Orchid Island side of the Indian River in the 1890s, working that sandy ground first with vegetables, then with citrus as groves spread along what became Jungle Trail. By the 1920s, that rough track was the growers’ road—about eight miles of hard‑packed sand that citrus families across Orchid Island used to haul fru

Duo Beaux Arts This Sunday, March 15 at the Vero Beach Museum of Art , two pianists sit down at a single Steinway and take you from Schubert's aching introspection to the full-tilt exuberance of Chabrier's España , finishing with a graceful transcription of Johann Strauss Jr.’s   Blue Danube Waltz . That's a lot of ground to cover in one sitting, and Duo Beaux Arts covers it beautifully. The concert, titled Kaleidoscope of Expressions ,  is part of VBMA's Chamber Music

Birdwatching, as we know it, is surprisingly modern: in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, bird lovers in Britain and North America began trading specimen cases for binoculars and field notebooks, turning from collecting birds to watching them alive outdoors. As optics improved and conservation groups like the Audubon Society took shape, “birdwatching” evolved into birding — part sport, part science, part treasure hunt — built on the skill of finding and identifying wild

If you've never heard a fairy tale told through strings, next Saturday morning at the Vero Beach Museum of Art is a good place to start. The Space Coast Symphony Orchestra returns to VBMA on March 14 with The Princess and the Pea , Hans Christian Andersen's classic, reimagined through violin, viola, and cello, and admission is free! Conductor and Artistic Director Aaron T. Collins narrates the 45-minute performance, part of the Symphony's Once Upon an Orchestra  series.