Don
Random tidbits:
My goal as a parent was to do the exact opposite of what my parents did. My mother was an alcoholic and kind of a drug addict. My father was an alcoholic. He worked hard, he was a truck driver. He came home and just wanted to get the day over kind of thing. My goal was never to be anything like them and to try to be involved in my children's lives as much as possible.
Laurie
Random tidbits:
My husband and I started the Miami Runners Club, 40 years ago, in our living room. It evolved into our nonprofit organization called Team FootWorks. We’re able to donate about $160,000 a year to charity.
John
Random tidbits:
I enjoy the competitive nature of it. I enjoy supporting client relationships and fulfilling their needs. I work mainly with very high net worth individuals. So there's a lot of interesting things to see in the way in which people have created wealth or inherited wealth. We see works of art in people's homes, that you're never going to see elsewhere and all kinds of things that are so far outside my personal experience that it's very interesting. I've seen really good examples of the way wealth can both enhance people, as well as the opposite and become destructive and an issue for families.
Sharon and Jeff
Random tidbits:
We’re really into music. I had a dream when I was a little girl that I’d become an agent to find new and upcoming talent. Jeff plays guitar and I love to sing (not well – I just love it). I was raised on George Benson, Marley and Brubeck. We love going to concerts – we always have music in the house. When someone asks if I want to go to a concert – I always say, ‘I will go to any concert.’
Kēvens and Amber
Random tidbits:
So...our engagement ring was designed by Walt (Adena’s husband) - who we met at the Pinecrest Farmer's Market about 4 years ago. We were buying fruit from Adena at the LNB stand and started chatting (like we love to do with vendors at the market). I noticed her wedding band; she mentioned it was designed by her husband and called him over for introductions. He confirmed that he is indeed a jewelry designer and gave us a website to see his work. As we were walking away, I casually mentioned to my then boyfriend of only 1 year, "Hey, maybe we'll get him to design our wedding rings someday". Almost 4 years later, Kēvens proposed with the most stunning, unique, and magical ring...designed by Walt. How's that for a Farmer's Market testimonial?!
Wally
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There's this guy who fixes a guitars and amps over by the Falls. It's called Six String Theory and he's amazing. He just rebuilt my amp and the sound is night and day. He’s such a knowledgeable guy.
Jonah
Random tidbits:
It’s funny. I was a reader growing up but didn’t read as much as people would expect the son of Mitchell Kaplan to read. It’s tough growing up and being inundated with so many books – I always felt like I wanted to do something different. I played sports, watched lots of movies and put books on the back burner. Now, I have come to realize how life changing reading books can be.
Laura
Random tidbits:
What we find in early childhood is that kids need to have experiences. Some of it is resources you're given access to, like markers or crayons, and it is also how early you start the writing process. There's a connection between being able to write and being able to do well academically. There's a lot of research that shows college students who write their notes versus take a laptop to class have an advantage. When they type, it's so automatic that they're not thinking about it anymore. Being able to produce a letter with your hands is very different from pressing the letter a on a keyboard, right? If you press a letter B or C, it all feels the same, but if you're writing it, it's creating a memory in your brain.
Diane
Random tidbits:
My husband and I had a fight at a party because I was trying to boss him around a dance floor. We left the dance floor because we couldn't agree on what to do, because neither of us knew anything. So, I got him a gift of a single dance lesson with me. That was 15 years ago. And that led to lesson after lesson, after lesson. The thing I didn't understand at the time was that in ballroom dancing, the man is in charge. It's sort of the last bastion of gender inequality. I didn't know anything about this.
Jason And Melanie
Random tidbits:
Jason: I thought it was pretty interesting the day I looked over at your booth and you had Lenny Kravitz and Rita Marley three feet from each other. I know Rita visits you often and it was the first time I had seen Lenny there. If they had just turned around, I wonder if they know each other – a musical connection.