Letters: Tom Staed's help for the Boys & Girls Club and appreciation for mural

Contributions of Tom Staed

I read the note from Josh Wagner in the paper yesterday about completing the Veterans Memorial Plaza at the base of the new bridge and dedicating it to Tom Staed. Staed was a kind and caring business and community leader that I was fortunate to know and work with that made our local Boys & Girls Club a reality.

It is because of him we are here today.

Back in 1998, our Boys & Girls Club was expanding from two clubs to four with new sites in Daytona Beach public housing and a park in Deltona. The paid staff of seven, expanded to twelve and there were added costs for transportation and insurance. We needed money and though we had just hosted our first successful Steak ‘n Steak dinner at the Daytona International Speedway, we were looking to build our resource development base and involve the right people.

Enter Tom Staed to our board of directors. He agreed to become President of our small fledgling organization in the year 2000 and his respected leadership and reputation gave us immediate and new-found legitimacy. More people and businesses stepped up and we have never looked back.

In honor of Staed, we will be collecting pennies at our eight Boys & Girls Clubs from November 29 through December 12. We did this previously and raised over $1,000 and plan to do so again to honor his commitment to our Boys & Girls Club and his service to our community and nation. Anyone wishing to contribute can come by one of our eight Club locations or administrative office and donate as well.

Thank you, Tom Staed.

Joe Sullivan, Chief Professional Officer, Boys & Girls Clubs of Volusia/Flagler Counties, DeLand

Appreciation for One Daytona Mural

The Sister Cities Association of Volusia County was very pleased to see the article in the News Journal on Nov. 22, by Brenno Carillo, about Erwin Dazelle, artist from Bayonne, France, sister city of Daytona Beach. Erwin has been an active participant and supporter of our sister city relationship with Bayonne, inviting our members into his studio in Bayonne and donating his artwork to our annual scholarship fundraiser to benefit Volusia students. in 2023, we will celebrate 25 years of friendship, cultural and educational exchange with the citizens of Bayonne, France.

Thanks to Gallery 500 Director Amber O’Neal for inviting Erwin Dazelle, international artist, to paint the outstanding and inspirational murals depicting our city for the Daytona Beach Mural Trail.

Dixie Blake, President Sister Cities Association of Volusia County, DeLand

DeSantis made the right calls

A recent writer completely misses the point, and improperly states as fact five points. First, Governor DeSantis got a COVID vaccine, the single-dose Johnson & Johnson. Second, yes, he does promote the use of monoclonal treatment, it's called an option. Third, he never forbade the use of masks, what he did do is force school districts and businesses to allow citizens to choose what is right for them, and their kids. Fourth, Dr. Joseph Ladapo has questioned the efficacy of the vaccines. Originally, we were just going to have to get the shots, now they are saying we need boosters. And yes, DeSantis has sued the president to prevent mandates. What the writer fails to understand is we live in a constitutional republic and nowhere in our Constitution does it grant the powers to the U.S. government or any state government to require any person to get any type of medical treatment.

It isn't about politics as the writer suggests, it is about what the government is legally allowed to do or requires us as citizens to do. We have allowed over the last 90 or so years allowed vast government overreach in so many aspects of our lives and just accept it. That doesn't make it right, or even legal. If you choose, as I have, to get the vaccine, great. If you choose to wear a mask, great. That being said, it is not the job of the government to mandate anything. People are allowed to make their own choices.

Florida, without mandates currently has 61% fully vaccinated, and 71% with at least one shot. Seems like people are deciding for themselves, we should keep it that way.

So far, around 14% of the US population has gotten COVID in just under two years. Right now, Florida is ranked seventh in active cases, Florida ranks ninth in deaths per million population and second in total recovered.

If that is a failure, that sure is a failure that I can live with. People need to look at facts instead of looking at everything through their politically jaded lenses. Florida has, in spite of not doing all the idiotic shutdowns, mandates and other requirements done all that and has the largest percentage of people over 65, just under 25%.

The truth is, there was no playbook for this, but DeSantis clearly has been making the right calls, if not, Florida would have a lot more dead, and a whole lot more cases.

Sean R. O'Sullivan, Ormond Beach

Court’s DUI program continues

The last couple years COVID-19 has changed many things in people's lives. One for me has been my annual trip to Daytona Beach. With all the happenings of last year, we decided to stay in New York rather than travel to Florida for two months.

This results in my missing my visits to the Volusia County DUI program headed by the Honorable Judge, Judith Campbell. On Feb. 14, 2022, I will have 48 years in recovery from alcohol, and I know the importance of the program for Volusia County and its residents and its importance to me.

In January of this year, I contacted Judge Campbell and she offered to allow me to be part of the DUI program via Zoom, something I knew nothing about at the time. Now 11 months later, I am still participating, via Zoom, each Wednesday.

It’s great to see the effort that Judge Campbell and her team put in to continue this worthwhile program and equally as great to see how it changes the lives of participants as they make their way through the steps of the program.

I thank Judge Campbell for allowing me to be a part of this all-important program.

Edward Biittig, Duanesburg, N.Y.

Dionne on-point

It was so refreshing to read E.J. Dionne’s' article "Anger-stoking versus bread-and-butter issue in Congress" in last Sundays' paper. I believe his insight into what is going on in todays' politics was spot-on. It is shameful that our elected officials are more engaged in bickering and denigrating the other party than doing the job they were elected to do. While the Democrats certainly have their own issues as Dionne pointed out, I believe too many Republicans have moved in a direction that is clearly not in the best interest of our country. As a country, we cannot continue to tolerate this behavior of our elected officials or we will all suffer the consequences.

Mark Buechin, Daytona Beach

What you can do for your country

Back in 1961, President John F Kennedy said "Ask not what your country can do for you, but what you can do for your country." After 60 years we now have many millions of citizens who don't want to do anything for their country, themselves, or anybody else. The question I hear people around here asking now is "What has our country done to us now?”

The question I hope people start asking themselves and others now is "What did JFK say?"

Nathan Dobbs, Ormond Beach

This article originally appeared on The Daytona Beach News-Journal: Readers' letters: Tom Staed's help for the Boys & Girls Club