Bagels of every variety filled baskets set out on a table, waiting to be chosen. There were beautifully decorated platters with toppings for the bagels, including Brenda’s delicious, home-made, cured salmon. Brenda shared her recipe for curing salmon with unique spices and a multi-day process that required special ingredients—patience and loving care. The result was an outstanding delicacy and the star of the buffet. Traditional cream cheese, salads, herring, pastry, fresh fruit, cheese and coffee completed the sumptuous spread.

Guests filled their plates and gathered around small tables to enjoy the offerings, the camaraderie, and the ambiance in Brenda’s welcoming home.

This event also launched the branch’s yearly fundraising program for achievement awards that will go to young women pursuing careers in the arts. Generous contributions from guests at the brunch will help fund the Boca Raton 2026 achievement awards for deserving high school graduates.

Photographs by Carol White.

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The program attracted an enthusiastic local audience eager to meet the Pen women artists whose work was on exhibit in the library gallery. Visitors mingled with Pen women artists who discussed the inspiration for their art.

A reception with refreshments followed the gallery exhibit. Art Chair Roslyn Ross-Hoffman introduced the Pen women artists, who answered questions from the audience and explained their painting and drawing techniques.

A presentation by Pen women authors followed. Vera Ripp-Hirschhorn and Marlene Klotz introduced authors who read original poetry, flash fiction, essays and novel excerpts that captured a unique moment in time. A lively question and answer session followed.

The program ended on a high note, with requests for future programs by Pen women.

Photgraphs by Carol White.

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The ambiance in Phyllis’ home captured the high tea mood. Guests gathered at small tables set with a collection of bone china tea cups and decorative serving pieces. Treasured tea pots were on display. Pen women wore hats and fascinators, recalling high teas of bygone days.

The lively event featured traditional high tea fare with multiple courses – tea sandwiches, meats, breads, scones with clotted cream and preserves, and a lavish selection of pastries. A variety of tasty teas, served from decorative ceramic tea pots, accompanied each course.

Guests brought family mementoes and shared the stories behind them. Marlene Klotz donated books authored by Diane Brenda Bryan, a past president of the branch, who willed her books to Marlene.

Thanks to Phyllis’ generosity, the Boca Raton branch successfully launched its fundraising efforts for the new season. In April 2025, the branch will grant awards to several local young women pursuing careers in the arts.

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Our opening luncheon on October 12, 2022 featured film producer and author Angela Page, who showed a video from her award-winning film, Sylvia, based on her novel, Suddenly Single Sylvia.

Dr. Catherine Hughes, Palm Beach Opera Director of Education, presented a fascinating audio-visual program on beloved operas and the rumours and stories that haunted them through decades.

Palm Beach Post journalist, author and  historian Eliot Kleinberg discussed his book, Weird Florida, in January 2023,  and surprised us with pictures and facts and about the weirdest things that happened in the sunshine state.

Art historian Helen Yentis narrated a slide show in February that presented fascinating new forms of art.

In March 2023, Dr. Gloria Waldman, a Spanish language scholar, professor and writer, motivated us to leave procrastination behind and renew our creative spirits.

The final luncheon of the season, on April 12, 2023, showcased an original comedic play written and directed by award-winning Pen author Marlene Klotz. Three talented actors performed Marlene’s play, It’s All About Friendship.

A raffle table at every luncheon displayed one-of-a-kind donated items, including jewelry and gift cards. Members and guests purchased raffle tickets and bid on the items. The popular monthly raffles raised funds for the Boca Raton Branch’s student awards program. Monetary awards support art, music and writing programs in local high schools.

The free workshops were open to the local community and were well attended. And a Valentine’s Day poetry workshop, hosted by author Marlene Klotz, produced original poems that were printed and circulated at a luncheon.

This past season was a productive and creative one for the Boca Raton Pen Women. Members look forward to a new season filled with opportunities for expression in art, music and letters.

Blog photographs by Carol White.

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Memoir author Romola Hodos, the featured speaker, presented a fascinating talk about how she grew up as the daughter of the notorious porn king of Times Square. Romola related shocking details about her childhood journey through abuse and trauma. Her published book, The Princess of 42nd Street: Surviving My Childhood as the Daughter of Times Square’s King of Porn, is an inspirational story of how she overcame incredible odds and became a successful businesswoman.

Romola appears in a new Netflix documentary series, The Times Square Killer, in which she tells part of her personal story. The series dramatizes the seedy crime-ridden scene in and around Times Square in the 1970s. It will air on December 29, 2021.

A raffle to support our student achievement program followed the program. Members and guests bid on one-of-a-kind donated items, including jewelry and a gift card donated by Publix Super Markets. Raffle proceeds will fund awards for talented students who need financial assistance to pursue careers in the arts.

An annual community outreach event for teens at the Milagro Center in Delray Beach is also supported through our fundraising raffles. Boca Pen Women were pleased to offer a contribution to the Milagro Teen Center this season.
The success of the raffle at this program was made possible through generous gifts from many individual contributors who donated items and from Publix Super Markets, Inc.

Pen Women and Guests

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On October 22, 2020, Boca Raton Pen Woman composer Sheila Firestone presented an interactive music workshop in Zoom, co-sponsored by the Delray Beach Public Library.

The program featured Sheila’s award-winning composition for string quintet with piano, titled The Forest Primeval. An original video accompanied the music, and participants were invited to react to the music and video by writing poetry/prose, sketching pictures, or using body movements.

Sheila explained that her motivation for composing The Forest Primeval was Henry Wadsworth Longfellow’s epic poem, Evangeline, and the tragic history that inspired the poet.

The Forest Primeval was awarded first place in the National League of American Pen Women Biennial Music Competition 2020-2021.

Sheila Firestone is an award-winning composer of the opera, Miriam and the Women of the Desert and other musical works. She currently serves as an officer and music chair in the Boca Raton Branch of the National League of American Pen Women.

The Forest Primeval musical program and video can be viewed on Youtube. Conversations with Sheila Firestone and the workshop participants are included.  https://youtu.be/gTDUUQrzJqU

To learn more about Sheila Firestone  and her musical composition work, visit her website at www.sheilafirestone.com.

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The Boca Raton Pen Women remember Dr. Myra Levick as a Pen woman friend, a writer, an artist and a respected professional in the field of psychology. Myra served as president of the Boca Raton Branch of Pen Women from 2008 – 2010. In 2016, the Branch honored Myra and six other Pen women sages for their lifetime creative achievements in a special event – Portraits of Our Sages.

An obituary published in The Philadelphia Inquirer on Sept, 21, 2020 is reprinted here:

Myra F. Levick, 96, a clinical psychologist who helped found the field of art therapy, died Wednesday, Sept. 16, of complications from a seizure at the Abramson Center for Jewish Life in North Wales.

Like many women of her generation, Dr. Levick was first a wife and mother. The Philadelphia native married Leonard Levick, her high school sweetheart, at age 19, and supported him through medical school and the start of his medical career while raising three daughters. During the 1940s, when women rarely worked outside the home, she wanted a career. “I would work while he was in medical school on condition that he would send me to art school, so 17 years later I went to Moore College of Art and Design,” she told abc news in a March 2019 interview. “And he honored the deal; he supported her every step of the way,” said daughter Marsha.

Dr. Levick earned a bachelor of fine arts degree in painting from Moore, a master’s degree in education from Temple University, and a Ph.D. in psychology from Bryn Mawr College. In the 1960s, art therapy, the practice of using creative methods of expression to foster psychological healing, was in its infancy. “The art therapist does not interpret,” she said during the television interview. “The important thing is for someone to appreciate their own artwork and understand it.”

She helped create a graduate-level art therapy program at Hahnemann Medical College and Hospital. The medical school became Hahnemann University in 1981 and part of Drexel University in 2002. The art therapy program is now at Drexel. Debuting with six students, Hahnemann’s program was considered radical because it was housed in a medical setting, where art therapy students could work alongside psychiatrists and nurses, according to a history of the profession posted on Drexel NOW, an online newsletter.

Just after the program began, cofounder Morris J. Goldman, a psychoanalyst and the director of psychiatry at Hahnemann, died at age 39. “The whole thing was just strange,” Dr. Levick said about her start in the profession. Goldman had recruited Dr. Levick to work with his patients, first at Albert Einstein Medical Center North in 1963, and then at Hahnemann. “I was only an adjunct professor. They didn’t have women professors in those days,” Dr. Levick told Drexel NOW. “We spent several weeks mourning this very brilliant young man, and then people from the graduate school invited me to a meeting and said they wanted the program to remain. They would have to name me an assistant professor to become director of the program.”

In addition to developing the art therapy program, Dr. Levick was also named activities director of Hahnemann’s mental health center. She became a tenured professor in Hahnemann’s department of psychiatry in 1976. She continued the work at Hahnemann for 20 years, while mentoring students and publishing books and journal articles.

In 1969, Dr. Levick created the American Art Therapy Association and became its president. The society grew out of a 1968 meeting convened at Hahnemann. Begun with just 20 members, the organization now numbers 4,000, according to Drexel NOW.

At age 62, Dr. Levick retired from Hahnemann and moved to Florida, where she practiced art therapy. She returned to the Philadelphia area in 2018, when her health began to decline, her daughter said. Dr. Levick stayed active, teaching classes in “art and aging” to fellow retirees at Blue Bell Place, her assisted living facility in Montgomery County. She also painted in oils, acrylics, and watercolor until two months ago.

“Her professional and personal journeys were atypical for her time,” her family said in a tribute. “As The Feminine Mystique was being written, she was a living example of the power and brilliance of women.” She didn’t always make it to the school play, but “we understood the courage of her choices, the brilliance of her mind, and the priceless gift of leadership, power, and equality that she bestowed on us,” her daughters said in a statement. Her husband died in 2011. Besides her daughter, she is survived by daughters Bonnie Cossrow and Karen Gomer; five grandchildren; and five great-grandchildren.

(Reprinted with permission from editor Bonnie L. Cook, The Philadelphia Inquirer.)

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Many of our Pen members attended the event to lend a hand. They met the youngsters, shared insights into their own creative work, and discussed careers in the arts.

The teens surprised us with demonstrations of their many talents that were nurtured by the skilled Milagro staff members. Boca Raton Pen women have watched these teens grow over the past five years from shy youngsters into confident and poised young people, eager to hone their skills and talents. They read original monologues, sang songs they had practiced and played musical instruments.

There were gift cards for all the teens so they could choose their own gifts this season as well as other gifts. And they surprised the Boca Raton Pen women with a special gift they created for us – an original painting, with the words, Thank you, Boca Raton Branch, National League of Pen Women.

We hope to continue this gratifying and worthy community outreach program for the Milagro Teen Center for many years to come. Generous contributions from our Pen members made this holiday event possible.

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A silent auction, which is a highlight of Pen women’s opening luncheon, is a primary fundraiser for a student scholarship program. Proceeds from the auction fund scholarship awards for talented students who need financial assistance to pursue careers in the arts. An annual community outreach event for teens at the Milagro Center in Delray Beach is also supported through this event.

Traffic at the auction tables was brisk as attendees bid and outbid each other for one-of-a-kind items: original art work by Pen women artists; Lynn University theater and concert tickets; Norton Museum passes; gift cards from Publix Super Markets, Max’s Grille and Rapoport’s Restaurant Groups; a gourmet basket from The Fresh Market; a tray of alfresco dining items; a spa basket; beauty treatment certificates; jewelry and more. And a bonus book table displayed Pen women authors’ books at discounted prices.

A sumptuous luncheon buffet offered baked salmon, chicken, pasta primavera, fresh vegetables, a salad bar, and a pastry and fresh fruit station.

There were many surprises when the auction bidding closed and winners were announced. A bonus raffle followed, giving everyone a chance to win one one of nine prizes donated by Boca Pen members.

The success of this annual event was made possible through generous donations from many sponsors – Publix Super Markets, Inc.; the Norton Museum; Lynn University; Max’s Grille and Rapoport’s Restaurant Groups; The Fresh Market, Boca Raton; JBLH Communications, and Boca Raton Pen Women members.

Pen Women and Guests 

Front Row L: Marlene Klotz, Marion Ralph Back L: Etta Schaeffer, Lea Becker

From L: Marleen Pasch, Elaine Bossik, Barbara Bixon

From L: Amy Wang, Barbara Lunde

From L: Pat Wilson, Prue Carrico, Jo Jo Harder

From L: Sheila Firestone, Prue Carrico

From L: Carol White, Alexandra Goodwin

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Artists Prue Carrico, Bea Doone-Merena, Lidia Tohar and Rhoda Hollander are showcasing their paintings, drawings and mixed media art with a tropical twist theme.

The exhibit opened to the public on Saturday, June 8, 2019 with a reception hosted by the Cultural Council of Palm Beach County. The reception featured poetry and essay readings by Boca Raton Pen Women authors, and original music by Pen women composers Dr. Joan Cartwright and Sheila Firestone.

Reception Photo Gallery

Prue Carrico

Bea Doone-Merena

Bea Doone-Merena

Lidia Tohar

Author Etta Schaeffer

From L: Joan Cartwright, Lea Hope-Becker, Sheila Firestone

Rhoda Hollander: Cut Paper Still Lifes

From L: Pen women Prue Carrico, Marlene Klotz, Etta Schaeffer, Mimi Paris, Elaine Hutt

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