Tampa Premium Outlets launches (w/ photo gallery)

Ribboncut2For those who have been anxiously awaiting the opening of the Tampa Premium Outlets (TPO) for many years now, Wesley Chapel resident Lisa Bastone may have summed it up best.

“It’s about time,” she said.

Bastone was one of hundreds who showed up at the TPO (located at 2398 Grand Cypress Dr., at the interchange of I-75 and S.R. 56) hours before it officially opened at 10 a.m. on Thursday morning, just to look around and bask in the shiny newness of the upscale outlet mall before the big weekend crowds arrive.

“It’s an event, you can’t miss things like this,” Bastone said. “This is going to make this area explode.”

The 441,000-square-foot mall, already home to more than 100 retailers, kicked off its opening with the Distinguished Men of Brass band,  local dignitaries and fireworks as Stephen Yalof, chief executive officer of Simon Premium Outlets, Danielle DeVita, senior vice president of development for Simon and Pasco County Commissioner Ted Schrader all simultaneously cut the ribbon to officially open the mall to shoppers.

The mall is rolling out with grand opening festivities all weekend.

Here is the schedule:

Main Stage Entertainment
Lagoon Court
Friday, October 30, 1 – 9 p.m.
1 & 4:45 p.m.    Caribbean Crew
2:15 p.m., 6 & 8:30 p.m.    DJ Rekka
3:30 p.m. & 7:15 p.m.    Nalisio & The Fellas

Saturday, October 31, Noon – 6:30 p.m.
Noon & 3:30 p.m.    City Sound Quartet
1:15 & 4:45 p.m.    Marlon Boone
2:15 & 5:45 p.m.    C’Nergy

Grand Opening Fireworks
Lagoon Court near Main Entrance
Friday, 9 p.m.
Celebrate the Grand Opening of Tampa Premium Outlets with a spectacular Fireworks Show!

Strolling Entertainment
Thursday – Saturday, Noon – 6 p.m.
Enjoy entertainment while you shop including stilt walkers, face painters, a magician and more.

Visit The VIP Shopper Club
Coral Court by Saks Fifth Avenue OFF 5TH
Thursday – Sunday, Noon – 5 p.m.
VIP Shopper Club Members have exclusive access to the VIP Shopper Club lounge during the Grand Opening Weekend. Enjoy photos with your friends, chair massages, beauty touch-ups, and more. Not a member? Join for free outside the lounge or by visiting premiumoutlets.com/vip.

Meet Bethenny Frankel
VIP Shopper Club Lounge
Saturday, 1 – 4 p.m.
1 p.m.    Fashion Essentials for the Perfect Wardrobe
1:30 & 4 p.m.    Autograph Session with Bethenny*
3:30 p.m.    Essential Accessories to Elevate Your Outfit

*Bethenny will mingle with fans as time and space permits in the VIP Shopper Club Lounge. Autographs only please.

Halloween Happenings
Haunted Pirate Ship
Minnow Court near Forever 21
Friday & Saturday, Noon – 8 p.m.
Fit for a pirate, dead or alive! This Haunted Ship will transport guests to a haunted world of hidden treasures and shipwrecked sails.

Halloween Crafts
Friday & Saturday, Noon – 6 p.m.
Fun for the kids with interactive craft stations.

 Headless Ghosts
Friday & Saturday, Throughout the Day
These spooky ghosts will make you lose your mind when they lose their heads! Watch as these interactive ghosts entertain the audience and drop their heads before your eyes.

Grand Opening Prize-An-Hour Giveaways
Near Main Stage
Register every hour at the registration table near the Main Stage from 11 a.m. – 4:55 p.m. Thursday, October 29 and Friday, October 30th for a chance to win a fabulous prize package. Must be present to win. Drawings will take place at the Main Stage at the top of each hour. Winner will have 30 minutes to claim their prize. See entry form for complete rules and regulations.

Shoppers are encouraged to visit the Tampa Premium Outlets website by visiting www.premiumoutlets.com/tampa
and social media platforms including Facebook at @tampapremiumoutlets and Twitter at @TampaPO.  Share your favorite moments using hashtag #TampaPremiumOutlets.

 

 

Ninth Annual Tampa Fisher House Golf Classic

WEB-fisherhouse-valFor the ninth consecutive year, Arbor Greene resident and New Tampa Noon Rotary Club president Valerie Casey is putting on a charity golf tournament to benefit the Tampa Fisher House, the residence on the campus of the James A. Haley Veterans Hospital on Bruce B. Downs (BBD) Blvd. (south of E. Fletcher Ave.), which houses (for no charge) the families and significant others of the wounded veterans being treated  at the hospital.

Valerie and her committee, led by her fellow New Tampa Noon Rotarian Barry Shuman, invite you to join them for a day of great food and golf on Friday, October 30, at Pebble Creek Golf Club (10550 Regents Park. Dr., off BBD).

The entry fee donation of $125 per player includes lunch, greens fees, golf cart, “goody” bags, multiple prizes for top teams, putters and drivers, and the opportunity to win some great silent auction prizes. Lunch & registration begin at 11:30 a.m., with the shotgun start at 12:30 p.m.

A big shout out to the tourney’s “Event Sponsors” — Paver Works, Patriot Divers, Pepin Distributing and Stay In Step SCI Recovery Center, as well as “Patriot Sponsors” Delta Airlines, Harder Law, AT&T, Sun Coatings, Charles Schwab and Vital Network Services. This publication is one of 14 “Honor Sponsors” for the event.

For more info, email Valerie at ValCasey3@aol.com or call Barry Shuman at (516) 523-2678.

For more info about the Tampa Fisher House, visit FisherHouse.org.

Former Wharton LB awarded $2-million

wharton-sliderThe family of former Wharton linebacker Sean McNamee and the Hillsborough County School Board agreed Tuesday afternoon to a $2-million settlement — believed to be the largest in district history — involving a 2013 accident that left him in a medically-induced coma for nine days as doctors worked to repair damage to his brain.

The McNamees will receive $300,000 from the county, the largest they can receive due to a sovereign immunity law that protects the state. The family’s attorney, Steve Yerrid, will petition the state legislature for another $1.7-million, and as part of the settlement, the school board will support the claims bill.

Both parties had attended a court ordered mediation on Sept. 14 and agreed to a settlement value of $2-million, provided the school board voted in agreement.

McNamee, a 6-foot-2 junior at the time, was injured prior to a Wharton practice on Oct. 9, 2013. He was playing catch with teammates when he fell to the ground and struck his head on the corner of an unattended paint machine that had been used to line the field for that week’s game. Because practice hadn’t begun, McNamee was not wearing a helmet.

The injury fractured his skull, and a trainer who tended to McNamee called his mother Jody to come pick him up. Somehow, he was still able to slip away from school and drive himself four miles home.

McNamee was taken to the hospital where doctors had to perform emergency surgery and reduce swelling and remove blood from his brain. Doctors called in his family and told them to say their goodbyes because they were unsure he would survive. He was placed in a medically-induced coma for nine days before pulling through.

Also in the agreement, the county agreed to implement new guidelines, called “The McNamee Protocols,” in dealing with the proper training and instruction in how head injuries are handled, addressing the fact that despite the fact McNamee was looked at by a trainer, he managed to drive home and that EMS was not called.

The county school board also agreed to purchase liability insurance coverage with minimum limits of $1-million as part of the settlement.

Making Strides Event At Shops At Wiregrass Expected to Raise $175K+!

Strides10Congratulations to the American Cancer Society (ACS) of the South Nature Coast of Florida (serving Pasco, Hernando & Citrus counties), which hosted another amazing “Making Strides Against Breast Cancer of Pasco” event at the Shops at Wiregrass mall in Wesley Chapel on October 24, near the end of Breast Cancer Awareness Month.

Blessed with beautiful weather again, ACS South Nature Coast senior market manager Robyn Liska says the 5-kilometer (3.1-mile) Making Strides walk between the Wiregrass Mall and Florida Hospital Wesley Chapel again attracted an estimated 5,000 people, including more than 1,250 registered participants on 176 teams, who were expected to raise more than $175,000. Whether they walked in memory of someone who lost their battle with breast cancer or in honor of someone still fighting the good fight, there’s no doubt that the sea of people dressed in pink were moved, inspired and entertained all morning and were joined together by being touched by this dreaded illness.

Strides6The top fund-raising team at this year’s Making Strides of Pasco event, by far, was the “Clerks for a Cure” squad, which raised more than $16,000, although four other teams raised between $5,000-$8,000 each. The largest team was the 53-member “Boobalicious” squad (who participated together in memory of Janet Walker, who lost her battle earlier this year), although several other teams also had at least 30 members each.

According to ACS’s website, Cancer.org, “Making Strides Against Breast Cancer walks are the largest network of breast cancer awareness events in the nation, uniting nearly 300 communities with a shared determination to finish the fight.”

'Martial Arts For Life' takes aim at trafficking

MartialWEB1By GARY NAGER

It seems you never really know what effect an event is going to have on you until you actually attend it.

A case in point — I was really only going to the “80s Flashback Bingo” event, sponsored by CORE Spine & Rehabilitation Center, LLC, to support Wesley Chapel Noon Rotary Club president-elect (and CORE owner) and chiropractor Pablo Rivera, DC, and his wife Christine in their efforts to help the “Martial Arts for Life’ Foundation, the 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization started by Sensei Ernesto Fuentes of the Keiko Shin Karate dojo at 3753 Bruce B. Downs (BBD) Blvd. here in Wesley Chapel.

The thing I didn’t know until I went to the fun event, which was attended by more than 50 people and raised nearly $2,000 for the Foundation, was the effect Fuentes and his cause would have on me.

MartialWEB2The Riveras have had their children trained in karate by Fuentes, who said that he moved his family from his native Venezuela a few years ago because his daughter was targeted by human traffickers and he was told by law enforcement officials that the only way “to prevent her from being taken was to take her out of the country.”

Fuentes and his family escaped to Miami but ultimately settled in Wesley Chapel. During the ‘80s-themed event, he made an obviously emotional presentation about human trafficking — including mentioning that Florida has the third highest number of children being trafficked in the U.S. and that the Tampa Bay area is unfortunately the leading location for trafficking in the Sunshine State, where the average age of the victims is only 12.

“Trafficking is a huge business,” said Fuentes, who also recently added training the children at the Everyday Blessings foster home in Thonotosassa, which specializes in caring for siblings at their location. “It is up to us to do something about it.”

For info about Keiko Shin Karate, call 994-9253. For CORE Spine & Rehabilitation (5900 Argerian Dr., Suite 101), call 373-5317 or visit Facebook.com/CoreSpine. — GN