How could it be the 45th Annual Awards and Installation Ceremony coming up for the Hollywood Chamber of Commerce? Could two years have passed since we bid former director Don Dolton farewell? Has a year already passed since we celebrated with the Brazil Theme and those wonderful dancers?
I'm looking forward to getting dressed up and seeing lots of familiar faces down by the ocean at the beautiful Westin Diplomat Resort and Spa. The company will be great, the atmosphere festive, and the weather cannot be beat.
See you down by the beach!
Oh, and by the way. . . to keep abreast of other upcoming events and items of community interest, visit my website, http://www.homeinsouthflorida.com/. You'll find lots of great information, including new real estate listings, or just find out how much your home is worth in today's market!
Last week’s interest rate drop…the second drop in as many weeks, is causing many of us to think about refinancing or getting off the fence and jumping into the housing market. Whichever the case, you will want to make sure your credit report doesn’t have any errors in it.
A Federal law allows each of us to request a free credit file disclosure, commonly called a credit report, once every 12 months from each of the nationwide consumer credit reporting companies: Equifax, Experian and TransUnion. Only being a month into the New Year, now is the perfect time to get your credit report to confirm everything looks as it should. You can get your free report online at AnnualCreditReport.com, by phone at 1-877-322-8228 or by mail at Annual Credit Report Request Service, P.O. Box 105281, Atlanta, GA 30348-5281.
You can search homes for sale at HomeInSouthFlorida.com or learn the value of your current home at PriceMySouthFloridaHome.com. Of course, you can always give us a call for all your real estate needs.
How cool is this? Hollywood has it’s own trolley, the Hollywood HOTexpress, that departs approximately every 30 minutes. And get this -- the fare to ride is only a buck for a round trip and children under 12 years of age ride FREE!
The routes are pretty impressive, too. You can ride the trolley to the Hollywood Beach Broadwalk, Historic Downtown and The Arts Park from a multitude of locations. Hours are Thursday and Friday 5 p.m. to 1 a.m., Saturday Noon to 1 a.m. and Sunday Noon to 9 p.m.
You can hop on and hop off wherever you’d like which makes for an easy and interesting way to navigate around the city. This means you can spend the day at one of the area’s beautiful beaches and then take a jaunt downtown for dinner.
If you do, be sure and check out the new hot spot on Hollywood Boulevard Saratoga, 1917 Hollywood Blvd., I have not tried it yet, but everyone is positively raving about it. So, I will make it there this week. I mean, how I could I resist great Italian food in my own backyard?
Of course, you could do the reverse route, too. If shopping is your thing, for example, you could take the trolley and shop-till-you-drop in the downtown area, then later take the trolley to one of our great oceanfront restaurants. As you know, we have some great restaurants ranging from casual to the five-star dining at The Westin Diplomat. Nikki Marina is my personal favorite!
All this talk of food is reminding to get dinner in the oven for my always-hungry family! To find out more about the trolley please visit downtownhollywood.com.

Call me biased if you will because I’ve been based in downtown Hollywood for such a long time and have known Linda Strutz , who is The Arts Academy, for so many years. But I just have to say what a great place it is for people of all ages, from toddlers to seniors. Really, it’s just fabulous!
My daughter, Heather, went to the Arts Academy as a young girl (back when it was on still Hollywood Boulevard) spent several months there at a time for summer camp. And just this year, as a teenager, took ballet and lyrical jazz lessons.
The Arts Academy offers everything from fitness classes, Pilates (which I have been trying to fit into my hectic schedule, by the way), acting/theatre, music/vocal and more. I cannot say enough great things about Linda or the beautiful Arts Academy of Hollywood that only exists because of Linda’s dream, not to mention all of her hard work and determination.
So, who knows? Maybe I’ll see you at a Pilates class soon!
For more information, visit http://www.artsacademyofhollywood.com/aaoh/.

I have been involved with the Broward Outreach Center (BOC) for some time so naturally when I recently received an email from Franchine Daley, Community Development Associate asking for help in their Hope Tote Campaign, I just had to say yes.
From now until March, the BOC partners up with the Miami Rescue Mission to hosts its annual Hope Tote Campaign A Hope Tote is a small purple plastic bag that can be filled with inexpensive unused hygiene items like soap, shampoo, toothpaste, tissue, socks, even underwear. I think it’s a valuable program and plan to do all I can to help. I hope maybe you will consider helping out as well.
The BOC is a great organization. It’s different from many other area shelters. One thing I love about the BOC is the way they accept women along with their children and teach them valuable living skills. I believe this is so important in helping them to get back into mainstream society.
In December, I worked with BOC in providing a holiday party for the families where a gift was given to every child. I thought that was wonderful! I also worked with the BOC helping to coordinate an outing where the families went and saw a local production of West Side Story.
So, it is my pleasure to help them once again by getting the word out for this worthwhile effort. I hope you will join me in making sure it is a success!
You can contact Franchine Daley directly at: fdaley@caringplace.com. Their website is: browardoutreachcenter.com.
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