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Bush to meet with fundraisers in Florida

WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. — President Bush is coming to Palm Beach County today to meet with major contributors to the Republican Party and give praise to a Jupiter school volunteer.

Yirela Alcantara will meet President Bush when he steps off Air Force One shortly after 5 p.m. at Palm Beach International Airport and receive the President's Volunteer Service Award.

The 41-year-old mother of two is a volunteer at Jupiter Elementary School and Independence Middle School in Jupiter. Alcantara, whose husband is a chemical engineer with FPL, became a volunteer five years ago after her youngest child entered school.

"I love doing it," said Alcantara. "I love the response you get from the kids and the teachers are always appreciative of whatever you do."

Alcantara said she has been so busy she hasn't had time to think of what she will say when she is introduced to the president.

"I'm very excited and I'm very honored," Alcantara said.

After meeting with Alcantara, Bush is expected to travel to the Palm Beach home of Dwight Schar for a meeting with about 40 Republican Regents — people who have given at least $250,000 to the GOP.

Schar, 63, is chairman of NVR Inc., a Reston, Va.-based home-construction company, the eighth largest in the nation. Last year, Schar purchased Casa Apava, on South Ocean Boulevard from billionaire Ron Perelman for $70 million.

Schar, who is part owner of the Washington Redskins football team, is well known in Virginia political circles. Last year, President Bush attended a fundraiser at Schar's Virginia home for Jerry Kilgore, the unsuccessful Republican candidate for governor in that state. Schar also was a Bush "Ranger" in the 2004 campaign, meaning he raised at least $200,000 for the president.

Bush will be visiting a home that was designed in 1918 for Frances Payne Bolton, a Standard Oil heir. Her husband was an Ohio congressman. Schar, who grew up in Ohio where he was briefly a school teacher before getting into the home-building business, purchased the 26,000 square-foot Casa Apava and additional land around the home, giving him one of the few properties in Palm Beach that extend from the ocean to the lake.

Republican leaders also are having a meeting at the nearby Breakers hotel.

Brian Crowley writes for the Palm Beach Post. E-mail: brian_crowley AT pbpost.com