The Rotary Club of Wesley Chapel Noon is proud to have again served more than 500 “Turkey Day” meals with all of the trimmings at two locations on Thanksgiving morning, Nov 26 — including 450 meals at Atonement Lutheran Church on SR 54 in Wesley Chapel — during the club’s sixth annual “Turkey Gobble.”
The 100-member WC Noon Rotary, which meets Wednesdays at noon at Stage Left on SR 54 in Lutz, has been feeding area homeless and other needy individuals & families at the church (which also is the location of the free Helping Hands Food Pantry for locals in need) every year since 2010. At this year’s “Gobble,” more than 50 volunteers from the WC Rotary (including club members and their family & friends) fed more than 450 families at Atonement Lutheran, while the WC Rotary’s “satellite” club in Land O’Lakes served another 50 meals at Keystone Community Church on S.R. 54 in Lutz, the third year in a row that the Rotary Club has “Gobbled” at Keystone.
“We also donated 150 ‘snack packs’ for those families to take with them,” said Dineen Pashoukos Wasylik, the Rotary Club’s Turkey Gobble organizer this year for the third consecutive year. She also thanked a contingent of volunteers from Boy Scout Troop 149, based in Lutz. “And, some members of our club again went into the woods to take meals to the homeless camp (located off S.R. 54).”
Dineen also thanked other members of the community, who pitched in by delivering meals to housebound people in need. “I am so thankful for the volunteers who spent time on a holiday to put the ‘giving’ in Thanksgiving,” she said.
I am always so proud to say that I’m a member of the Wesley Chapel Rotary Club. If you want to be part of an organization that truly believes in the Rotary International motto of “Service Above Self,” one that always gives back to its local, regional and even international communities, visit WCRotary.org. First-time visitors always receive lunch for free at our regular Wed. meetings at Stage Left and you can even sign in as my guest.
Steven Reynolds, 70, shot his stepdaughter to death Nov. 23 before turning the gun on himself and committing suicide at Florida Hospital Tampa near the USF campus at 3100 E. Fletcher Ave.
Reynolds shot 41-year-old Alonna Tedesco (photo) just after 7 a.m. Monday morning on the hospital’s third floor, according to Hillsborough County Sheriff’s Office (HCSO) spokesperson Donna Lusczynski.
Reynolds died at the scene. Tedesco initially survived the shooting, but after deputies transported her to an emergency room, the efforts to save her failed.
Officials said they were unsure of the motive. Investigators were looking at hospital security footage as we went to press.
The shooting was contained to the hospital room, and the hospital continued normal operations after the incident.
Tedesco was at the hospital visiting her mother Mary Reynolds, who suffers from Alzheimer’s disease. She recently wrote on her Facebook page beneath a photo of her mother, “All I have to say is Alzheimer’s is a horrible disease! This wonderful woman at the age of 67 looks like the epitome of health! Her body is in great shape yet her mind is so ill! I wish I knew how to cure this disease, I miss my mom!”
According to reports, Tedesco was married to prominent Land O’Lakes physician Dr. John Tedesco. They lived in the Lake Jovita Golf & Country Club neighborhood of Dade City.
Alonna has worked as the school nurse at Hudson Middle & High schools since August.
“As much as this tragedy saddens the Pasco County Schools family, it also affects Mrs. Browning and me personally,” said superintendent of schools Kurt S. Browning in a prepared statement. “We have known Alonna for many years and are shocked to learn of her horrific passing. She was a good friend and a talented professional. Our thoughts and prayers are with her friends and family.”
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Twistee Treat Gets Unexpected Visitor
Cameron Blake Jackson has given new meaning to the term the “drive-through” as he drove his vehicle smack dab into the Twistee Treat on the corner of New Tampa Blvd. and BBD on Nov. 23. And for a tip, he left his car.
Jackson originally rammed into the front of the Twistee Treat around 5 a.m. in the morning, and fled the scene on foot.
Around 10 a.m. Jackson contacted the police to say his vehicle had been stolen. The information he provided about his vehicle matched the description of the vehicle police had impounded earlier that morning. Questioned by police, Jackson, who was here on business from Texas, admitted to crashing the car into the Twistee Treat and walking two hours back to his hotel.
Jackson was issued a criminal citation for hit and run.
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Car Thieves Thwarted
Early in the morning on Nov. 2 a stolen car was identified by a Tampa police officer in New Tampa, and after a two-county pursuit, ended in south St. Petersburg with seven people detained by the St. Petersburg Police Department (SPPD).
According to TPD, at approximately 3:39 a.m., Sgt. O. Rosa was on Tampa Palms Blvd. at Bruce B. Downs (BBD) Blvd., when he discovered the car ahead of him at a traffic light had been reported stolen. Rose initiated a pursuit, which he eventually backed off of as it was picked up by a TPD helicopter, which tracked the car all the way to 15th Avenue S. and 7th Street S. in St. Petersburg.
Several of the suspects in the car jumped out and ran into the house, which was quickly surrounded by Tampa and St. Petersburg police officers.
Seven people were detained and transported to the St. Pete Police Department for interviews.
There were no injuries or crashes reported in the pursuit.
The joint effort between Hillsborough and Pinellas law enforcement began on Aug. 14, with SPPD Chief Anthony Holloway saying at a news conference that:
“We recognize that although our jurisdictions are defined by geographical borders, crime is not. In order to address this type of crime pattern and fight the rising number of auto thefts more effectively, we recognize that there is a need for an ongoing, collective enforcement effort.”
Comparing Jan. to June figures in 2014 with 2015, TPD reported a 47.4-percent increase in motor vehicle thefts. St. Petersburg police reported a 23 percent increase, while the Pinellas County Sheriff’s Office had a 31 percent increase.
The majority of the stolen vehicles, it should be noted, were unlocked.
The Auto Theft Task Force reported 62 arrests (36 adult and 26 juvenile offenders) resulting in 171 charges, including 37 for grand theft auto, in its first five weeks of operation.
Coach Mark Ritter goes over a game with Williams Middle School student Jonathon Cotey at last year’s scholastic nationals event.
More than a dozen of New Tampa’s best chess players will be competing this weekend in Orlando, as the United States Chess Federation holds its annual scholastic championships.
The 2015 National Scholastic K-12 Championships will be hosted by Disney’s Coronado Springs Resort beginning with the opening ceremony on Friday, December 4, 12:30 p.m, and concluding with the awards ceremony on Sunday, December 6, 5 p.m.
Most of the competitors attending are trained by longtime local coaches Mark Ritter and Tania Kranich-Ritter, who will be well represented in Orlando.
A dozen or so players from New Tampa and Wesley Chapel will be among the hundreds at Disney this weekend. They include:
Aarush Prasad (seventh-grader at Williams IB Middle School)
Ojas Kalia (7th, Williams)
Truman Hoang (freshman, Middleton High)
Shrey Gupta (8th, Williams IB)
Kelvin Ng (8th, John Long Middle School)
Parth Upadhyaya (5th, Lawton Chiles Elementary)
Melvin Uppgard (3rd, Chiles)
Lixin Zheng (8th, Louis Benito Middle School)
Teja Katipalli (4th, Harold H. Clark Elementary)
Jonathon Cotey (7th, Williams IB)
Khoi Cotey (5th, Richard F. Pride Elementary)
David Jin (4th, Pride)
Kevin Jin (5th, Pride)
The highest rated player in the group and the player considered to have the best chance at capturing a title is Hoang, one of the top players in the state.
Hoang, 15, is on the brink of earning Master status, boasting a 2176 rating (Masters are 2200). He is the second-highest-ranked among the 633 players from Florida competing. He is ranked in the top 100 in the country in the Under-16 age group.
“He puts in the most time and most effort at the board, it’s as simple as that,’’ said Ritter. “He loves the game and puts a lot of effort into it.”
While Hoang has a legitimate shot at a title, most of the players attend for the fun and the experience. The tournament has 569 teams registered from 39 states, and more than 1,570 players will compete in more than 60 classes, ranging from players rated anywhere from beginner to more than 2000.
“The experience is just tremendous,’’ said Ritter, who will stop by Saturday and go over the first and second round games with some of his students. “For one weekend, a gigantic hotel is taken over by chess players. Unfortunately, there is a prevalent attitude that being smart and good on an intellectual level is not cool. Suddenly, these kids are in an environment where everyone is doing the same thing they love to do.”
“It is inspirational,’’ said Kranich-Ritter, who has coached a handful of teams to nationals championships, including the 2006 Tampa Palms Elementary fifth-grade team. “You see so many children there — and you’re talking about more than 1,000 — and it’s the best in the country coming in to compete. You see that your sport, chess, that you love, is actually embraced by so many states and so many players. It’s inspirational to see so many of them under one roof. It’s the ultimate.”
Ritter and Kranich-Ritter have been running tournaments and clubs in the New Tampa area for 11 years, with club teams from around the area driving in to compete. Kranich-Ritter, who was the 1983 women’s state champion in New York, is the more serious one of the coaching combo, running local tournaments like a fine-tuned machine.
Ritter can sometimes be found comparing the talents of the 1971 New York Knicks or NBA Hall of Famers Bob Cousy and Bob Petit with, say, today’s Los Angeles Lakers and LeBron James with one of the player’s dads.
An internationally-rated chess master, Ritter is one of only five Level 5-rated coaches in the country, the highest level one can reach in chess. He has tutored five individual national champions, and runs open tournaments monthly, most at the Kumon Math & Reading Center of New Tampa. He also coaches after-school clubs at Pride and Chiles elementary schools, as well as an invitation-only Champions Club that has 28 members, including most of the students listed above.
Kranich-Ritter says she is looking forward to watching the players perform following this weekend. Often, she says, the big tournaments are an impetus for a player’s speedy progress.
“I believe that chess is the matrix of everything,’’ Kranich-Ritter says. “It’s abstract, more than mathematics, more than geometry and art and painting, but it is all of the above. The lessons you learn can be retrofitted to their professions one day. It is the blueprint for everything.”
By Gary Nager
“We also donated 150 ‘snack packs’ for those families to take with them,” said Dineen Pashoukos Wasylik, the Rotary Club’s Turkey Gobble organizer this year for the third consecutive year. She also thanked a contingent of volunteers from Boy Scout Troop 149, based in Lutz. “And, some members of our club again went into the woods to take meals to the homeless camp (located off S.R. 54).”
