The Winner's Are...

1st Place Love at the Coral Gables Youth Center Submitted by Kelly Sastre I had just arrived at home in Kendall at 4:30 in the afternoon from my part-time job at an office in the Grove when my mother told me that I had just received a phone from someone at the Coral Gables Youth Center for a coaching job. I had applied for a coaching position several weeks before that and thought I did not get the job since it has been such a long time since I had completed the application. I was thrilled to hear the news about the interview. I was about to graduate from Gables High school and planned to study recreation management so this was an exciting opportunity for me. I was not thrilled however to know that I had to get back in my car and drive back to Gables in traffic for a 5:30 meeting. The drive was horrible and I was a little nervous. I was to meet a person named "Aro". I thought: "that is a strange name, but ok - I want this job, strange name or not". I need to be impressive. Little did I know that "Aro" was an institution at the Youth Center who was a respected and beloved volunteer coach for many years there who touched the lives of thousands of children in Coral Gables. Many of these children are leaders in our community today. I parked my car on University Drive, walked past the basketball courts to my right, to the long hall way between the field, the teen room and the offices. Then- I saw him down at the end of the hallway walking toward me. This man, who was obviously a coach of some kind, was wearing green shorts, a yellow youth center shirt and green sneakers carrying a clipboard and papers. There were a whole bunch of little boys jumping around him all calling his name and asking him questions about an upcoming soccer game. I could tell that those little boys admired their coach. As he walked toward me and me toward him, I could not help but think that he looked like the Pied Piper. It was such a cute scene. As he came closer, he reached out his name and said, "Hi, I’m Aro, you must be Kelly." I took one look at him, just one look and thought to myself, that is it - I do not care if I get this job or not, I am in LOVE! I’ll take the coach instead of the job. How crazy is that? I was there for a job interview to coach a girl’s softball team and now all I care about is this coach of little boys who I did not even know just a minute before. It was love at first sight. He asked me to join him in the office to fill out an application. I think I made him a little nervous too because he kept dropping all the papers he was carrying. I could hardly remember my name much less fill out a job application. I did finally finish it and I handed the application to him. He read the first line and said, "I’m sorry you have a made a mistake on this application." I said, "excuse me, what do you mean?" He then proceeded to tell me that I had written HIS social security number on the application instead of mine. What? I did not even know what this man’s last name was let alone know his social security number. I said to him in a matter of fact tone, "Impossible. I know what my social security number is." He insisted he was correct and asked to see my card. I took the card out of my wallet and he took his card out of his wallet and sure enough, I had written his number on the application. Our social security numbers are very close and I had transposed a few numbers, I am sure that the error was due to being unable to think clearly since I was busy falling in love. I felt like an idiot and was embarrassed. He was very gracious about the whole thing and we laughed about it. This led to a long conversation that started from the office, down the stairs, down the hallway to my car. We exchanged phone numbers and he told me to call him if I had any questions related to coaching softball or the youth center or about sports or about anything. I could hardly drive home. My brain was thinking of a million questions to ask. I just needed an excuse to call him. When I arrived home after the hour long interview, my mother asked me how the interview went. I plopped down on the couch, sighed and announced, "I have just met the man I am going to marry!" My mother said "What, I thought you we went for a job interview, not a date!" With that, the phone rang and it was "the coach". He wanted to make sure I gotten home safely. That night we spoke to each other about 3 or 4 times on the phone. We had our first date two days later and 10 days from the moment we met, he asked me to marry him. We were the love story at the Youth Center and all the kids at the youth center were a part of it. Six months later, we married at a beautiful ceremony at University Baptist Church where our friend and fellow youth center coach; Pastor Dan Yeary performed the ceremony. As we walked down the isle after the ceremony, several of the children who were at the youth center walked across the street from the youth center and snuck in the church to watch the ceremony. To this day, one of our favorite pictures of the wedding is the picture of us surrounded by the kids we were coaching in the church. Aro and I devoted many years of our lives to coaching children and working with children in our city. All three of our children, now grown, two of whom are married, played soccer at the Coral Gables Youth Center and attended Coral Gables Senior High School. Our oldest son found love in the Gables too, as he married his high school sweetheart from Coral Gables Senior High...but that is another love story. The love at first sight fairly tale that started in the hallways of the Youth center on March 26th, 1977 has continued for 30 years. We even renewed our vows on our 25th wedding anniversary. For us, every day is Valentine’s Day. 2nd Place Love Introduced By Marjory Stoneman Douglas Submitted by Michael F. Chenoweth My wife, Pam, and I were introduced on June 17, 1977, by Marjory Stoneman Douglas at the Riviera Country Club. We had each been driving Marjory to some of her many speaking engagements, but had never been aware of one another. Marjory held her annual Friends of the Everglades Board of Directors meeting at the Riviera Country Club that year, and she invited both of us to attend. In the lobby before the luncheon, a gaggle of environmentalists from all over South Florida, some of whom had been driving for hours to get to the meeting, were congregated talking about current Everglades issues in their respective parts of the state. The elegantly dressed club members and guests, who were not part of the Friends of the Everglades contingent, probably wondered who these scruffy visitors were. When Pam and I met there in the lobby, there was something magic that happened. I don’t remember anyone else from the rest of that day. Marjory saw (with her limited vision) us talking, then went into the dining room and moved the place cards (every proper English dinner has place cards at the table) so that Pam and I were seated next to one another. Pam says she remembers how I smelled (?) and I remember her gorgeous eyes. We got together a week or two later for a Sierra Club canoe trip through the canals of Coral Gables that ended up at a house on the Coral Gables Waterway. We’ve been together for almost 30 years since then. 3rd Place Love Just A Few Blocks Away Submitted by Tammy McIntyre In 1953, I lived a block off of Granada, just off Venetia.  Fred lived three blocks off Granada, on Venetia.  Our paths may have crossed at that time, but if they did, neither of us was the wiser.  And expectedly so - I was in diapers; Fred was attending Coral Gables High School. I eventually became the Judicial Administrator to United States District Judge Lenore C. Nesbitt (a long-time Coral Gables resident) in 1993, and Fred had a case before her.  We finally met face-to-face.  At some point in time, Fred roped me into giving him a ride from the courthouse to The Collection, where his car was being repaired.  In the ensuing months, Fred’s car seemed to need a great deal of repair, and to this day, I wonder if the repairs were actually Fred’s ruse to a romance in The Gables. Early in our relationship, our car conversations centered around our experiences growing up in The Gables.  We found it humorous that we had lived so close to one another, had had so much in common, and yet, it had taken nearly forty years for us to come together.  How many times over those years had our paths crossed while swimming at Venetian Pool, sitting in Jahn’s ice cream parlor, going to movies at the Miracle Theatre, or simply walking down the streets near our homes?  Probably countless, as destiny worked its slow magic. Over the course of several months, we developed a mutual fondness, which blossomed into a very deep and loving relationship spanning some eight years now.  Fred and I reside in his childhood home on the corner of Venetia and Cortez and, together, continue to enjoy all of the wonderfulness of Coral Gables.  We attended his fifty-year high school reunion at the Biltmore Hotel and celebrated at the first Valentine’s dinner event held at Venetian Pool.  Our weekends usually entail some activity in The Gables, whether it be taking our bichons to the Farmer's Market, enjoying a dinner out at one of the many romantic restaurants in The Gables, or taking a simple bike ride revisiting childhood haunts together. Our love has grown so much deeper since we moved into the house on Venetia.  We are not only sharing old memories with one another, but are now making many new   ones.   2007 Greatest Love Story Contest Entries Gabriella Ortiz & Alex Garcia's Story of Love in The City Beautiful! Submitted by: Ani Ortiz (mother of the bride-to-be) A year ago this month (Feb. 11th. to be exact) my daughter, Gabriella, and her future husband, Alex, shared one of the most beautiful nights of their lives. Alex proposed to Gaby under a glorious canopy of stars at the waters edge of Matheson Hammock. Alex carefully arranged small, tea light candles on the sand to form the shape of a huge heart.  Within the candle lite heart, he wrote "will you marry me" on the sand.  The evening was magical, the answer was "yes"..... afterwards the happy couple joined both their parents, Dr. & Mrs. Juan C. Garcia and Mr. & Mrs. Jose I. Ortiz for dinner and a champagne toast at the Red Fish Grill Restaurant. The following evening, Alex surprised Gaby with more romance and fairytale.  To celebrate their engagement, they dined at the beautiful Biltmore Hotel, followed by an enchanting horse drawn carriage ride throughout  beautiful Coral Gables. Gabriella is a resident of Coral Gables and is employed at Riviera Day School of Coral Gables.  Alex is a graduate of the University of Miami and a former, five year member of the UM Hurricanes football team. He is an engineer with IBM.  The wedding is scheduled for this summer! Life Beautiful in the City Beautiful Submitted by Catherine Fox and Stephen Scott "What was it that you ever saw in me in the first place? she asks", for the umpteenth time. It’s not that she’s forgotten, it’s just that she likes to hear the way his lyrical accent dances over the words. "When the breeze caught the hemline of that dress you were wearing, and blew it up over your head, I knew you were the one for me". He answers for her, for the hundredth time, without any animosity because he likes to replay the scene in his own mind. And so they go back and forth, reciting the "aha’s", the epiphanies, the precious and the unforgettable for one another. They retrace their love journey, up and down avenues and streets, through the circles, the courts, the ways and the places. The night that everything stood still at La Palma Ristorante off Alhambra Circle. It was late and the first restaurant they chose was closed. She remembered this place and so they decided to give it a try. While the food and wine were good, it was the emotional charge in the room that still makes the memory fresh and warm. A large table of older Cuban Americans sat adjacent to them, and she marveled at their animated story-telling even though she didn’t understand a word. Then the room grew quiet, and two of the men took turns singing ballads into the eyes of their beloved. "How far is this place?" He asks. "It’s just around the corner," she replies. "Honey, you’ve been saying that for the last twenty minutes." "Ok well, never mind, we’re here now. Why is that when you drive I navigate and when I drive, I still navigate?" They wander their way through nearly fifteen years of memories and moments, reminding each other how they got here in the first place; over the gestation dinners at Norman’s, steak at Houston’s, sushi at the counter from Sushi Maki, coffee at Starbucks, books from Barnes and Noble and darn, did that wine shop on Miracle Mile close? They decide there is nothing in the world that a person could possibly need that can’t be found between Douglas and Red Road, SW 8th and SW 72nd Streets. Their life and love together is a fifteen year map of the City of Coral Gables, complete with twists and roundabouts, banyan trees covering trees only she seems to know, delights and treasures, and missed little white street markers, that lead them to places neither knows. "Hey, look new condos. Wasn’t that where "the world’s greatest art supply store" was, that you dragged me through one time? Ughh." "Well, let’s not talk about all the bait and tackle shops I’ve been to with you!" "But I thought you liked going to Capt Harry’s. "Baby, as long as I’m with you, I’ll go anywhere. But I’d prefer to stay in the Gables, if you don’t mind." So as they peaceably look out over the night lights of the City Beautiful from their fifteenth floor apartment on Almeria Avenue, she thinks indeed, this is Life Beautiful. Proposal and Wedding Bells at Venetian Pool Submitted by Anna Wellens I listened to tales about beautiful palm lined streets, a spring fed swimming hole surrounded by waterfalls and Mediterranean architecture, and an abandoned hotel that was once used as a hospital restored back to its original grandeur. The love of my life used to share these amazing descriptions with me. As a girl from north Florida, it sounded like paradise. When my Miami born love finally let me take a peek for myself, I was enchanted. We spent hours walking around the lush streets of old Coral Gables neighborhoods, brunching at local cafes, each hour was filled with stories about his youth. Taking swimming lessons in the spring water and diving off of rock cliffs. He recalled the art lessons he took in the abandoned building, now lovingly called the Biltmore Hotel. It was clear he was in love. He had fallen hard as a child and had finally gotten back to the city his heart beat for. Of all the memories he had shared while we spent time in Coral Gables, the greatest story took place while he and I were nestled behind the trees inside the gates of the Venetian Pool. At that moment he confessed that he had been in love with me from the moment that we met, that he could not imagine his life without me and that he wanted to create lasting memories together. Then he asked..."Will you marry me?" My white dress was a vivid contrast against the blue green waters, and the smell of the Spanish paella filled the air. As I walked over the Venetian Pool bridge, looking at my handsome groom and my beautiful bridesmaids, I felt more relaxed and at home than I ever had before. The orchids surrounded us and the glimmer of the springs appeared as the sun set on the night. The carriage began to roll towards our beautiful suite at the Biltmore. And the story has just begun.... Fireworks at the Biltmore’s Fourth of July Submitted by Michele Alonso "The Building of Coral Gables has not been a thing of the moment, but a wonderful monument that will as solidly endure as does the everlasting coral upon which it is founded." George Merrick, 1926 As I reflect on George Merrick’s words, I can’t help but think not only of how prescient they were, but also just how well they parallel the elusive meaning of everlasting love, and of my love for my husband of seven years. We met, eight years ago, on a balmy summer night by the great pool of the Biltmore- introduced by a co-worker. It was the annual 4th of July festival, and the air was brassy with the sounds of John Philip Sousa marches and redolent of the smells of hot dogs and popcorn. I remember even then how distinctly American it all felt, how truly romantic it was. Recently transplanted from Rhode Island- the stately hotel, the festive atmosphere, and the happy crowds all conspired to act as a sort of Cupid- and the conversation between my future husband and I was soon charged with passion and excitement. We made wedding plans eight months later, and it barely needed to be said that the reception would be held at the Biltmore, and that Coral Gables would be our home. Since then, we take a room at the hotel every year for the 4th of July, a sort of renewal of our commitment to each other. It’s a distinct and visceral pleasure to watch, hear, and feel the celebrations below with the colorful panoply of fireworks as a backdrop. During a tour of the Biltmore once, a guide told us that it wasn’t too long ago that hotel was perilously close to being razed for a condominium complex. It’s fortunate in so many ways that it wasn’t, and also so very representative of what Merrick was trying to describe in his words: Coral Gables, like a great love, is something worth saving- a love, like the coral foundation of our city, you can build upon for all time. Back to Press Release