Local Girl Scout Has Donated More Than 1,500 Books…And Counting

New Tampa Girl Scout Cadette Elaine Feaster is collecting books to donate to kids in elementary schools who might not have any books at their homes.

Elaine Feaster is a seventh-grade student at Liberty Middle School in Tampa Palms who lives in Richmond Place.

She’s also a Cadette in Girl Scout Troop 1247 who believes in the Girl Scout Law. “It says to make the world a better place, and I want to do that for kids in need.”

She’s been a Girl Scout for five years, in a troop that meets at St. James Church on Bruce B. Downs (BBD) Blvd. in Tampa Palms, and is comprised of 14 middle-school-aged girls from many different schools.

As a Cadette, she’s eligible to apply for the Girl Scout Silver Award, which requires her to complete 50 community service hours and to create a project that will have a lasting impact on the community.

So, she decided to collect books to help promote literacy, especially among underprivileged kids.

“We have to get the books in kids’ hands in elementary school when they’re eager to learn,” Elaine says. “It’s like riding a bike or learning to swim. You want to learn when you’re young.”

“I totally believe in what she’s doing,” says Elaine’s mom, Jane. “I was oblivious until Elaine started kindergarten at Clark Elementary and I overheard a teacher saying she had kids wanting to take books home because they don’t have any books at home. It blows my mind. It’s outrageous.”

In Elaine’s research, she says she found statistics such as this: Students who don’t read skillfully by the third grade are four times more likely to drop out of school; nearly 85 percent of youths who face trial in the court system are functionally illiterate; and the more types of reading materials there are in the home, the higher the students’ reading levels.

So, Elaine teamed up with an organization called Parents & Children Advance Together (PCAT) family literacy program, which provides free programs to underserved children to help them learn to read.

At that time, Elaine collected about 175 books, just from word-of-mouth efforts, and donated them to PCAT.

As support for her project grew, Elaine had to consider how to manage collecting even larger numbers of books, so she asked the New Tampa Family YMCA (16221 Compton Dr. in Tampa Palms), where she and her family are members, if she could set up a donation bin. Now, thanks to the New Tampa Y’s support, anyone can drop off book donations for elementary school students there.

In just a couple of months, about 1,600 books were donated through that bin. After sorting out cookbooks, calculus books, and others that aren’t a good fit for elementary school kids, plus setting aside some early education books that would be helpful for PCAT, Elaine still had about 1,500 elementary- level books to donate.

She gave them to Foster Elementary in the Old Seminole Heights area of Tampa, where she says 98 percent of the students receive free or reduced lunch.

“We actually donated more books than there are students,” Elaine says. “There are only about 500 kids, and we donated 1,500 books.” She says she was told the teachers would select appropriate books for their classes, so the students would be able to check them out from their classroom libraries to take them home and read, then bring them back for new books.

Elaine says she will continue to collect books at the collection bin until about January. While she’s currently only collecting books for elementary school reading levels, she encourages everyone to clean out their bookshelves and donate what they have to any local school or even the public library.

Elaine hopes to earn her Girl Scout Silver Award with her efforts for this project, then hopes to build on her project for the Girl Scout Gold Award, which is the highest award in Girl Scouting and is available only for high school students.

She says since she dropped the books off at Foster Elementary in September, she has probably collected an additional 500 books. She will be identifying another school for the next round of donations.

“I just want to thank everyone in the community who has donated books so far,” she says. “When I started, I thought my goal would be about 500 books. I didn’t expect more than that, but everyone in this community is so caring. Because you donated a book, a child can be a doctor or really successful in life.”

H.S. Sports: Finally For Freedom Football & Swimmers Head For County Meet

The streak is over.

After seven seasons of lopsided losses to their neighborhood rivals just up Bruce B. Downs (BBD) Blvd., Freedom High’s football team finally has New Tampa bragging rights.

The Patriots used a 99-yard drive in the final minutes, capped by junior Dominick Vazquez’s first rushing touchdown of the season with 1:42 remaining, to knock off New Tampa rival Wharton 12-7 on Sept. 28 in a Class 7A, District 8 clash.

The Patriots’ win was their first of the season, and first over Wharton (now 2-4, 0-3 in 7A-8) since a 16-7 victory in 2009 under coach James Harrell.

When he was told his team had ended a losing streak that long, said Freedom head coach Floyd Graham, who is in his second season, said, “It just blew my mind. I know it’s a huge rivalry with the schools just three miles apart, and a lot of the guys on both teams went to middle school together, so it was a big deal to win this.”

The Patriots (2-4, 1-1) have had problems all season long finishing games, hampered by having to play so many players both ways due to a small roster of roughly 30 players. For the fourth time this season, the Patriots failed to score in the first half, but for the first time, they found a way to score critical second half points and offset a 42-yard touchdown run by Wharton’s D.J. Green that had given the Wildcats a 7-0 lead.

And, they did it with a backup quarterback seeing his first action of the season. With senior signal caller Sebastian Cuevas injured near the end of the first half, junior Jayland Desue, the team’s leading receiver, entered the game under center and led the Patriots to a pair of scoring drives.

The first was topped off by a 10-yard touchdown run by Stanley Elisme, cutting the Wildcats’ lead to 7-6. The second was one Graham may never forget, both for the way it started and the way it ended.

Three plays after taking over on their own 1 yard line with about six minutes remaining, Freedom faced a 4th-and-2 from the 9. Never in 27 years had Graham gone for a fourth down inside his own 10-yard-line. He looked over at defensive coordinator Henry Scurrey, who said “We have to go for it. What do we have to lose?”

So, Graham and the Patriots went for it. As Wharton scrambled out of punt return formation, junior Jeremiah Ashe (left) dashed eight yards on a jet sweep to keep the drive alive.

“I just knew I had to do anything I could for my teammates to help get this win,’’ said Ashe. “I was a little nervous, but I did what I had to do.”

The unlikely conversion created a spark on the Freedom sideline. A few Wharton penalties moved the Patriots along, and Vazquez scored with 102 seconds left to give Freedom its first lead of the season.

Wharton’s last gasp attempt at a comeback ended on an interception by Ashe, who now has had an interception in every game this season.

“It’s one of the best feelings,’’ said Graham. “I can’t stress to you how hard they have played for three weeks and come away with nothing…. They have given everything they had, come into the lockerroom afterwards with blood on their knuckles and so dehydrated. We’ve been so banged up. That makes this extremely special.”

(l.-r.) Freedom swimmers Hannah Labohn, Genevieve Clark, McKaley Goldblum & Abigail Leisure are headed to the county swim championships.

SWIMMING: The future is bright for the Freedom High girls swimming team, which placed third at the Western Conference swim championships in Brandon on Sept 27.

The quartet of sophomore McKaley Goldblum, sophomore Abigail Leisure, freshman Hannah Labohn and senior Genevieve Clark (photo, above right) advanced to the Oct. 6 county championships at Bobby Hicks Pool by finishing in the top two in two medley relays and five individual events.

The foursome finished second in the 200-yard medley relay, and first in the 400 freestyle relay.

Goldblum finished first in two events – the 100 and 200 freestyles – while Leisure and Labohn captured gold in the 200 individual medley and 100 breaststroke, respectively.

Clark advanced to the county championships after a second-place finish in the 50 free.

The Freedom boys advancing to individual events at the county meet were freshman Zach Kopel (first in the 200 free, second in the 500 free) and junior Christian Morera (second in the 100 backstroke). Kopel, Morera, senior Cobyn Panarelli and freshman Glynn Morgan took second in the 200 medley relay.

Wharton sophomore Charles Fields is headed to the county championships after a second-place finish in the 50 free, and first-place in the 100 free. He will be joined by sophomore Derek McDonald, junior Jeff Korver and senior Joseph Malone, who swam with Fields on the winning 200 freestyle team.

Senior Raweerat Khunduang led the Wharton girls with a win in the 50 free and a second in the 100 free, while teaming up with junior Juliana Silva and seniors Kyra Okin and Valeria Ramos to take second in the 200 free relay.

Another New Tampa Resident Taken Too Soon — Joel Miller (1988-2017)

In February of 2015, I finally got to do the exclusive interview that former Wharton High football star Joel Miller had promised from Day One he would give me — where he finally got to tell me and our readers his side of the story of the locker room incident between him and former University of South Florida (USF) head football coach Jim Leavitt that ultimately cost Leavitt his job when Joel was a walk-on onto the USF team.

Unfortunately, that incident became the defining moment of his too-short life and that interview was the last real conversation I ever had with Joel, who passed away unexpectedly on September 10 at the too-young age of 29. Joel was a month or so older than my older son Jared, who first got to know his friend when both played youth football for the New Tampa Wildcats.

Jared and I spoke shortly after we heard the news that Joel had passed and both of us were heartbroken for his entire family — his mother Kathy, his father Paul and his siblings.

“Joel and I became a lot closer after high school,” Jared said. “I can’t believe he’s gone.”

Of course, Joel would become one of the top running backs in Hillsborough County when he played for Wharton, where he ran for more than 2,600 yards his final two high school seasons and won Hillsborough County’s 2006 Golden Helmet Award for Class 5A-6A players.

He and Jared remained friends following the Leavitt incident, when all this smart, tough, talented young man wanted to do was to finally be able to tell his side of the story.

We published my interview with Joel in our February 28, 2015, issue, and it was easy to tell that he still hadn’t reconciled how or why the incident happened or how he ended up being blamed for what happened to Leavitt afterward.

“I wasn’t the whistleblower who called the media after the incident,” Joel told me. “I never wanted anyone to find out what happened. I just wanted to play football.”

I was sad that neither Jared nor I were able to attend Joel’s Celebration of Life at St Mark the Evangelist Catholic Church on Cross Creek Blvd. on Sept. 23, but I tried to picture myself in his parents’ shoes and my heart bleeds for Kathy, the long-time local school teacher who I know loved Joel the way I love both of my boys.

Like many other people, I found out about Joel’s passing on Facebook, where I saw this post from Kathy:

“My baby Joel passed away today. I am numb and heartbroken. As you all know, we were very close… I don’t even know what to say or what to do…I know he knows I love him and hope he is at peace… My Joely.”

And then, after his memorial service on the 23rd, Kathy posted:

“Our family would like to thank everyone for donating money towards Joel’s Memorial Service. It was beautiful. Thank you to all who attended the Celebration of Life. We truly appreciate it very much. It was great seeing everyone and hearing the stories that included Joel. We also appreciate all the cards, texts, phone calls, visits and food. This has been a very difficult time for all of us. It still doesn’t seem real. We want each and every one of you to know how much your support has meant to us. Love, the Miller Family.”

A few days later, on Jared’s own 29th birthday, he posted:  “I dedicate this birthday to Joel Miller. I will forever miss you man! Wish that you were here. Love you, bud. My prayers are with your family!”

And, one of Joel’s former coaches at Wharton (and for the New Tampa Wildcats) Craig Rainey, who also was our neighbor when I first moved my family to Florida, posted this:

“Joel, I really don’t even know where to start and can’t believe it. I will never forget you coming in as a freshman introducing yourself, telling me you were our starting running back. From that day forward I knew you were going to be fun to coach and you were. So glad that we developed a friendship and always kept in touch. I have many memories that I will never forget. You were a great kid and touched so many around you. I love you and am going to miss you kid. RIP. Godspeed. Heaven has gained another angel. My thoughts and prayers are with the entire Miller Family.”

Rest in Peace, Joel. You are missed.

  

Buckhorn: New Tampa Should Be Happy With City’s 2018 Budget

City of Tampa Mayor Bob Buckhorn spoke with the Neighborhood News recently about a number of issues related to New Tampa, especially the $970-plus million city budget for 2018 (see story on previous page). While some city residents have expressed concern over the proposed property tax increase from $5.73 per $1,000 of assessed property value to $6.21, many local leaders appear pleased with the budget overall.

NN: The wait for the expansion of the NTRC has been a frustrating one for many New Tampa residents. It seemed to make it into your budget proposals, but never survived the final cut. How important was it to make sure it survived this time?

BB: I absolutely understand it is a very popular center. The problem that we’ve had is trying to balance the budget in the midst of the worst recession since the Great Depression, and we are not even back to 2007 property tax revenue numbers yet.

In the 10 years since the 2007 recession really hit us, we have lost over $280 million in revenues as a result of the plummeting property values, as a result of reduction in the communications service tax revenues and the fact that interest rates are so much lower now. That loss of $280 million is a body blow to us. We are 700 employees less than we were in 2007, yet we have still managed to do the same job that we have always done and do it better than we’ve ever done it, with far less revenue (coming in). That tells you why some of the projects that would sort of be considered add ons have fallen off. It’s not because we wanted to, it’s because we had no choice.

NN: The local frustration stems from the fact that proposed funding in the past ended up diverted to other projects, like last year with the Cuscaden Pool in Ybor City. Is the perception that you care more about taking care of South Tampa a fair one?

BB: I get it. I understand. I don’t know that we choose one part of the city over another deliberately. There were some needs in other parts of the city that were more critical, but we’re doing far more with far less than we ever have. Hopefully, with this year’s budget, we’ll be able to do some of the things that people care about that five years ago couldn’t be determined to be critical.

Tampa Fire Rescue Chief Thomas Forward speaks to the Tampa City Council on Sept. 28 on behalf of New Tampa’s Fire Station No. 23, which is now in the city’s Fiscal 2018 budget to be built on County Line Rd.

NN: There has been an emphasis on parks in recent years, to the extent I believe one of the City Council members said the budget put parks over people, or something to that effect. How important do you feel the park projects have been citywide?

BB: I think they are hugely important. I think one of the reasons Tampa is in the midst of a transformation is because we are building out the urban core and building an amazing city that is attracting some of the best and brightest talent in the world. If we’re going to compete for that talent, it won’t because we are building great suburbs. It will be because we built a great city and a great downtown.

There is an economic reason that much of the attention over the last 5-6-7 years focused on building the urban core, including things like the Riverwalk and Julian B. Lane Park, because if we’re going to compete for that bright young talent, those millennials out there that can live anywhere in the world, you’ve got to have an urban environment that makes sense. If you attract the talent, then you attract the companies and you attract the jobs…when you add parks and open spaces and are taking advantage of that waterfront, then building an 18-hour-a-day city that people can work, live and play in is critical to that.

NN: Is that hard to explain to people who think projects in their area are being overlooked?

BB: There is a method to the madness and it’s working. By every measure, this is a different city than it was six years ago, with the best chapters still to be written. Parks and green space are a big part of that. If you don’t have quality of life, all the brick and mortar projects don’t make a bit of difference.

NN: For those paying taxes in New Tampa, though, is it not reasonable to expect more bang for their tax buck?

BB: This is the (fourth) fire station that we’ve built in New Tampa. We’ve made a serious commitment to the health and safety of New Tampa for certainly the 6.5 years I’ve been the mayor.  Is there more that people would like? Absolutely. I get it. I understand the disconnect that some people feel from downtown Tampa in New Tampa. I’m perfectly cognizant of that. We work hard to try and eliminate that but I recognize that it’s there.

NN: So, this is a budget New Tampa should be happy with?

BB: I think (District 7) City Councilman Luis Viera has done a great job making sure the needs of New Tampa are reflected in this budget. There’s probably more in this year’s budget, if it passes at the higher millage rate, than there has been in the last 3-4 years…. A lot of things I think the folks in New Tampa will be very very happy with.

NN: The $90,000 to study and design a Sensory Park seemed to come out of nowhere. How did that come about?

BB: If you recall in my State of the City address, we launched an autism-friendly city project to make Tampa a city that is recognized for being autism friendly. (Note: In April, Buckhorn announced the “Autism Friendly Tampa” project, in which the city will work with the Center for Autism & Related Disabilities at the University of South Florida to provide more services to residents with autism.)

I don’t think people realize the number of people in our community that are touched by autism and have family members or friends that are somewhere on the spectrum.

The idea of a park that would be specifically geared towards those kids emerged out of those discussions. We had an obligation to finish building a park in the New Tampa area as a result of a developer agreement going back probably 15-20 years. We saw that location (behind the BJ’s Wholesale Club on Commerce Palms Dr. in Tampa Palms) as the perfect place to try and do it. It will be the first that we have done in the city. Hopefully, in next year’s budget, we can get the money for construction.

NN: After some debate, the City Council decided to lower your proposed millage rate increase. The new number won’t bring in as much property tax revenue, but can you still make do with that figure?

BB: We can because we made a decision to move $5 million of the remaining money from the BP settlement over to general revenue, which allowed us flexibility on the millage side. That is what allowed us to be supportive of the (.475 increase). There will still be pain in the budget, but we will be able to do the expansion of the New Tampa Rec Center, and some of the other projects that parts of our community care very deeply about. We also will be able to fund the new fire station (No. 23 on County Line Rd.). There will be a lot of benefit for New Tampa in this budget.

New Tampa Rec Center, Fire Station Survive Budget Battle

A large contingent of New Tampa residents showed up in red shirts at both budget workshops to speak to the council about the importance of the New Tampa Recreation Center.

Despite a Tampa City Council meeting that started on a Thursday evening and ended on a Friday morning — and, at one point, had nearly every Council member throwing up their arms and/or staring off into space in frustration over a property tax stalemate, the final vote at 12:06 a.m. on Sept. 29 preserved the Fiscal 2018 City Budget what most of the people in New Tampa who attended the public hearing were hoping it would:

1) Money for the expansion of the New Tampa Recreation Center (NTRC) in Tampa Palms,

2) Funding for a new fire station on County Line Rd. near Grand Hampton and

3 Money to plan and design an autism Sensory Park in New Tampa.

“Last night was pretty good,’’ said District 7 (which includes all of New Tampa within the city limits) City Councilman Luis Viera.

The seven City Council members voted 4-3 to raise the city’s millage rate from $5.73 to $6.21 per $1,000 of assessed, taxable property value, the first time in 29 years that city property taxes have been raised.

Mayor Bob Buckhorn requested in his $972.4 million budget for Fiscal Year 2018 (which begins Oct. 1) an increase to $6.63 percent. The increase settled on by the Council means an increase of roughly $100 per year for a home in New Tampa, where the median price is about $260,000.

Buckhorn’s original request to raise the millage by 0.9 percent (and produce $15 million in revenue) was voted down to 0.6 percent at the first budget hearing (by a 4-3 vote) on Sept. 18. But, when the vote came up again at the second meeting on Sept. 28, the Council members voted against the 0.6 by a 4-3 vote, with Council Chair Yolie Capin (at-large District 3) changing her vote.

That set off hours of negotiations between the council members to find an acceptable millage increase. The arguments included angry volleys lobbed at Buckhorn about future deficits of more than $50 million that many of the council members said they were unaware of until recently. Almost every number between 0.3 and 0.6 was debated and defeated— including a motion by Dist. 1 (also at-large) Mike Suarez not to raise the millage rate at all, which would have resulted in massive budget cuts — until an increase of 0.475 passed with votes from Viera, Dist. 5’s Frank Reddick, Dist. 2 (at-large) Charlie Miranda and Dist, 4’s Harry Cohen.

“When Mike Suarez proposed scrapping everything and it lost by only one vote (4-3), I thought I better compromise fast,’’ Viera said, leading to the 0.475 percent increase that pulled Cohen, who had been denied three times after putting through a motion to make the increase .45 percent, to their side.

Because the millage rate increase is less than Buckhorn wanted, and therefore will bring in less revenue than expected, parks and recreation will still endure almost a $600,000 cut in operational costs. But, unlike past budgets that had money included for the NTRC only to see it pulled at the last minute, Viera said this budget was a winner locally, especially with potential lean times ahead due to a $50-million deficit the city is expected to be dealing with.

“We got 100 percent of what we wanted,’’ Viera said. “The cut to parks and rec is a small compromise we had to make. There’s no way we could get the rec center passed next year,; it probably would be a 5-6-year wait. This was the magic year.”

The now-$970 million budget includes $1.9 million for expanding the NTRC, which is one of only two facilities in the city that is home to the city’s highly touted dance, acrobatics and sports readiness program and has a waiting list of roughly 3,000, according to Tampa Palms resident Tracy Falkowitz.

Falkowitz also has said that the current building itself will not be expanded. Instead, a second building will be built on the property to accommodate more children.

An additional $1.4 million of 2018 Community Investment Taxes are budgeted to complete the construction of Fire Station No. 23, which will be located in the Grand Hampton/Grand Colony area off County Line Rd.

The station will house 39 firefighters, an engine company, a truck company and a rescue unit. No. 23 also will be home to a new District Fire Chief, who will coordinate responses between all four of New Tampa’s fire stations.

And, $90,000 is in the budget for study and design of a “sensory-friendly” park on the land behind BJs Wholesale Club, which will be developed in conjunction with the University of South Florida.

Falkowitz, the attorney who spearheaded the push to protect the money earmarked for New Tampa in the budget, sat through the entirety of both budget hearings. She said she wasn’t surprised the debate lasted into the early hours, based on her many discussions with multiple council members.

She said she was only worried twice that the panel might decide on a low enough millage rate that budget cuts would be required. In fact, she said that Miranda approached her during one break and told her “I don’t think you’ve got it”. And, when the .45 rate – which would have required cuts that could endanger the NTRC — came up for a vote.

“This never could have happened without all the community support,’’ Falkowitz said. “Without the New Tampa Council, the neighborhood associations, the rec center moms and dads and kids. That sea of red in front of the council and those that spoke up at those meetings was tremendous. Before this year, New Tampa was never heard and New Tampa was never really addressed. This time, we came together as a community and they heard us.”