After growing up in southern California and attending University of California at Irvine and Berkeley, Margaret Blume moved to Boca Raton with her husband, pulmonologist Robert Blume, in 1991, “trading off earthquakes for hurricanes,” and creating waves of her own over the years in her adopted city. Her quiet generosity throughout Boca has included volunteering and philanthropy at the Kids Ecology Corps, the Women’s American ORT, the Boca Raton Museum of Art, the Literacy Coalition (she built the Blume Literacy Center), Mounts Botanical Garden (she built the Moai sculptures and wrote a book about them) and the Blume Tropical Wetland, Old School Square, the George Snow Scholarship Fund (she danced in Boca’s Ballroom Battle), the Weiss Center (the Blume Café), the YMCA and more.
And what’s next? Blume has been named the 2023 Honorary Chair for the Junior League of Boca Raton Woman Volunteer of the Year Award Luncheon. Next on her “project list” is the anticipated installation of a “Pump Track” in Okeeheelee Park (a playground for everything with wheels).
ENDEAVOR ESPECIALLY CLOSE TO HER HEART:
“The Blume Literacy Center, that recently celebrated its 10-year anniversary, provides a permanent home for literacy. They have AmeriCorps programs, graduation coaches, after-school programs, adult programs. It’s just booming. It’s a gift that keeps on giving. It’s such an important basic skill. How could I do better? It’s not political. It’s just a pure benefit to humanity.
“My No. 2 is Moai at Mounts Sculpture Garden at Mounts Botanical Garden … it’s a jumping-off point, because somebody who’s curious who has seen that—not everybody—can go study so many things like sculpture, engineering, history, spirituality. Also, the Moai had a very special way of life on the island where they all worked together—it’s just a wealth of so many things.”
WHAT HAS INSPIRED HER TO GIVE BACK:
“The challenge of creating and finding projects of true and lasting value.”
WHY GIVING BACK IS IMPORTANT:
“When you are able to give back, it is an honor and a responsibility. … It gives me a great sense of purpose. I know the kind of person I am; I have to have a sparkle in my eye; I want to be excited about something and look forward and have a challenge. … I want to improve [myself and the world at large].”
FAVORITE QUOTE:
“If I have seen further, it is by standing on the shoulders of giants.”—Isaac Newton
This article is from the September/October 2023 issue of Boca magazine. For more like this, click here to subscribe to the magazine.
