About Broward People

Broward People was created to tell the story of everyone who has made Broward County, Florida his or her home. In respect to fairness, if i am going to expose everybody else, I had better include myself. Yes, I am the founder of this project but how about you just call me the Queen?

Photo courtesy Jazzy’s Hideaway, Fort Lauderdale

Anita’s Story

“I don’t know how writing and swimming and sports heroes are connected but I know in my heart they are.”

“I was one of six college kids packed into a gas-guzzling 1971 gold Chrysler. We endured a non-stop, 26-hour drive from East Lansing Michigan to the long-gone Holiday Inn on Las Olas and A1A. Spring break from Michigan State meant 10 days of thawing out, tanning and 52 hours in a car.

Those trips inspired me to move to Broward soon after college and now I live walking distance from where that Holiday Inn used to be. Then, the airport was one small terminal, northbound I-95 ended at Davie Blvd and the primary residents on University Drive were cows, horses and few ducks. For the next 13 years, I taught high school English at Coconut Creek, Plantation and Boyd Anderson High Schools and went to FIU for graduate school in journalism.

It was through school that I snagged an assignment editor and field producer job at the WSVN-7 Broward Bureau. That job was a front row seat to interesting, poignant, hard-to-believe-people-really-did-that stories and incredibly funny stuff … every single day. I loved every minute of my 26 years over there. It was a place where I finally fit it. On my last day I confessed to everyone that I did never did learn the computer system.

To this day, I still appreciate that I live somewhere warm enough that I can leave my home with wet hair and dry it out of the car window on the way to where I am going.

By the time I started Broward People, I had mastered the art of micro-non-fiction, a complete story in about 750 words. I started doing seminars on it and formed area writers groups. This helped me begin a side hustle of helping authors with their books, something I had always wanted to do. People were paying me to write for them or to teach them how to do it.

In between, I fine-tuned my swimming and joined Swim Fort Lauderdale, our local multi-championship masters swim team. I have a drawer full of swimsuits, a sack full of caps and goggles and a motherlode of swim medals, swim ribbons and swim awards. I still compete nationally and internationally. I have represented the USA in both the 19th and 20th Maccabiah Games in Israel and have both bronze and silver medals from those competitions. I missed a gold medal in the 200-meter freestyle by .4 seconds to a Lithuanian woman who grunted like a lion. I could go on and on about how swimming enhances my life. I grunt during swim practice now too: it empties the lungs to make room for the next giant inhale.

I am on the Board of Directors of the Broward County Sports Hall of Fame that honors local residents who have set unique standards of excellence through sports. I don’t really know how the writing and the swimming and the honoring local sports figures are connected but I know in my heart they are.”

Anita’s Bag

“This spoon and fork won’t break if I find something yummy to eat.

The new iPad mini becomes my writing studio no matter where I am.

My long hair can go into an instant twist if I always carry bobby pins.

I always carry watermelon, green apple and tangerine Ice Breakers.

Candy Balm Lip gloss in Chocolate Rose is my concession to wearing makeup. Trader Joe’s balm smells great, gives instant and lasting shine and moisture.

This giant black ostrich leather Birkin bag is the purse of my dreams. The original owner was selling it on the Offer Up site. I met her in the CVS parking lot on US1 and SE 17th Street and bought with an envelope of cash … my kind of shopping.”