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Board Member, Art Foster, and his wife, Joan.
Please allow me to introduce you to one of Board Members here at Venetian Falls and his wife – Art and Joan Foster. I was graciously invited into their lovely home to share some of the “Life and Times” of the Fosters.
Art and Joan are both from New Jersey. They had lived in Egg Harbor Township, which is in South Jersey, for 35 years until the sale of their home there in 2008. In fact Art was the Mayor of their town. They were always accustomed to coastal living so being on the coast of Florida is their kind of life style.
Both Art and Joan have had interesting experiences out in the world of the public and private sectors of employment through the years. Art has been the owner of the Coast Mortgage Corporation in Smithville, New Jersey. He was the President/Delaware Division and the Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer of the Collective Bank in Egg Harbor Township,
New Jersey. And earlier on, he worked for RCA Corp. in Contracts/ Administrator/Purchasing and as a financial accountant for Stephen P. Radics.
Joan worked early on as an executive secretary for RCA (and as you might guess, that is where Art and Joan met). Then Joan worked as an executive secretary for the School Board Office of Business Administration. (We had a very interesting discussion about the dynamics that pursued with Joan working in the Business Office and Art sitting on the Board of Ed. Then even more interesting to hear their stories about when Art was Mayor and how the dynamics changed. They soon learned how their strong personalities were an asset to them both during that time.) The Fosters have two boys. One lives in New York City and the other in Texas with his wife and two children.
With all of their interests and hobbies, they have no problem staying busy in retirement. Art plays golf as well as organizes the men’s golf groups for Venetian Falls. He enjoys investing and doing work (lots of work) for the Board of Directors for VF. Joan enjoys reading, exercising and playing Mah Jongg. But she continued in saying that she loves “anything” the clubhouse has to offer. She also loves to volunteer and gets involved in many, many volunteer opportunities in the VF community. The Fosters have gone on 2 cruises with other VF residents and they attend 80-90% of all the functions offered here at VF. They partake in many of the downtown Venice activities as well. In addition Art and Joan belonged to the Venice Newcomers when they were new residents, but now as veterans are in the Nova part of that group. (FYI – To belong to the Venice Newcomers you can join at any time as a newcomer, but you have to be residing here for at least 8 months at any one time). Art and Joan have resided full time at Venetian Falls since August of 2008. They discovered VF and decided without a doubt to purchase a home here after searching AND researching (and I want to accentuate the research) since 2001-2002. Talk to them sometime about how they not only traveled and stayed in places all over the state of Florida, but analyzed maps for latitude lines, and the accessibility to the gulf along the various coastal cities, as well as studying statistics on other retirement communities before making their final choice to settle here in Venice. If anyone has doubted their choice or are in the middle of making a choice about Venetian Falls, this writer would recommend that you have a long conversation with Art and Joan. Chances are very good that your doubts would be lifted.
When Art and Joan were asked what their favorite part of Venetian Falls is, they both immediately agreed that it’s the people. The social activities that are offered here tend to draw the community closer and because of the outstanding facilities that are available VF stands out far above others. Without the facilities the VF would be just like any other community instead of being the pristine retirement community it presently is. Thanks to both Art and Joan Foster for allowing me to interview them. They are a delightful couple living at 1956 Batello Drive, so if you happen to be walking or biking by and you see them, stop by and say, “Hello.”
Respectfully Written by Pam Gabana
Spotlight on Melinda Short, Venetian Falls Board Member
 Please meet Melinda Short, presently a Venetian Falls Board Member and full-time resident since 2008. Melinda was originally from Erie, Pennsylvania. She moved to Columbus, Ohio where she met and married Deke Short. They lived in Columbus until 2008. They purchased their home here in June of 2006 and after retiring, moved to Venetian Falls full-time in 2008.
Melinda lives with her husband, Deke, and with their Westie dog named Stu. Melinda’s mom and dad live in Sebring, Florida. She has a brother living in Sebring as well, and her sister lives in Ohio.
Melinda holds a MBA degree and worked 30 years for Abbott Nutrition, a division of Abbott Laboratories. This company produces products such as: Ensure and Similac. Her 30-year tenure included 15 different positions throughout her career. The positions encompassed the areas of finance, marketing, sales, manufacturing, and systems development. Her last position was in sales.
She is currently an adjunct professor at Franklin University in Columbus, Ohio. She teaches a virtual classroom online for courses in: 1) Business Ethics for Leaders and 2) Principles of Finance. Her 6-8 classes per year include students from around the world. Especially interesting is that many of our servicemen and women are enrolled in her classes. Online teaching provides time flexibility for both her students and herself. As long as she has her laptop with her, she can be physically anywhere and still conduct chat sessions with her students. For those in various time zones, she records the chat sessions and they can then listen to them in their own time zones.
Melinda spends many hours volunteering each month. She has been very active in the organizational steps for the Venetian Falls Community. In 2008 she was a member of ADHOC team as financial chairperson. Then she worked on the transition team in 2011, as well as running for the Venetian Falls Board and was elected as Treasurer. Many hours are spent keeping the community running smoothly and financially sound.
She volunteers at the Ringling Museum in the youth and family program, which involves children of all ages. She leads the children in activities that tie into exhibits that are taking place at the museum.
Melinda also volunteers her time to the Marie Selby Botanical Gardens. She gives interactive school tours through the gardens. On the 1st Tuesday of each month she works with the “Little Sprouts” (children under 5 years old) where mothers bring their little ones to the museum and Melinda reads them a story (nature themes) and then engages the children in an activity related to the story. Also for the Gardens, she volunteers in the “Kid’s Corner” where she oversees several open activities for children who come to visit throughout the day.
Melinda’s volunteering doesn’t end there. Since she and Deke love to cruise with multiple cruise clubs around Florida in their 34’ SeaRay Sundancer sports cruiser, they belong to the Venice Yacht Club. So Melinda has chosen to offer her volunteer services there as well. She’s on the membership and the by-laws committee.
When asked why she and Deke chose Venetian Falls for their full-time residence, she shared the reasons of wanting to live no farther than an hour from her parents, wanting to be by water, and because they really weren’t interested in living on a golf course.. They toured both east and west coasts of Florida before finding Venetian Falls. She loves the lifestyle of the community, has found the people to be very friendly, and the fitness center is a big plus for her.
It would be an incorrect assumption if one were to think that Melinda would have no extra time beyond her numerous volunteer responsibilities. Both she and Deke are scuba divers so they travel a lot to dive. She also enjoys foreign travel and has visited several interesting places with friends. Melinda has many plans for future travel that she has included on her “Bucket List.”
Thank you Melinda for taking the time to share a little about yourself with us. Good luck with fulfilling your “Bucket List” and keep enjoying your teaching and your valuable volunteer activities.
Respectfully submitted by Pamela Gabana
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