New Tampa Teen Is Area’s First Stars & Stripes Award Recipient

Jenna McLaughlin, a senior at Wharton High, is the 43rd recipient of the Stars & Stripes award in the state of Florida, and the 980th overall recipient in the 27-year history of the American Heritage Girls organization. (Photos: Karl Greeson)

Jenna McLaughlin recently became the first girl in the New Tampa and Wesley Chapel area to earn the highest award that can be achieved from American Heritage Girls (AHG), a faith-based, scouting type organization.

Jenna is an 18-year-old senior who will graduate from Wharton High this spring. She also attends dual enrollment classes full time at Hillsborough Community College.

She is just the 43rd recipient in the state of Florida, and the 980th recipient in the 27-year history of the organization, to win the Stars & Stripes award. To qualify for the award, girls are required to earn 16 specific life skills badges in categories such as outdoor skills, science and technology and personal well being. They also must hold a leadership position in their troop for a minimum of six months, write a resume and essay about their personal spiritual journey, present at least three letters of reference, pass a Board of Review, and plan, develop and lead others in a service project that requires a minimum of 100 hours and makes a lasting impact on the community.

For Jenna’s project, she built a large stone fire pit (see photo) at St. James United Methodist Church in Tampa Palms, which hosts her AHG troop. The fire pit was completed last fall and has already been used by different ministries both in and outside of the church for outdoor gatherings.

“I’m so grateful for all the support I received from my troop members, leaders and other volunteers,” says Jenna. “It was really rewarding to see it go from an idea in my head to an actual fire pit people can enjoy.”

Jenna’s mother Celeste is a troop coordinator and little sister Rylie is also in American Heritage Girls.

While the project represents one of the final steps to earn the award, Stars & Stripes is about much more than just the project. It is the pinnacle of the journey that aims to teach girls life skills, leadership, and a heart for service.

“I have had so many experiences that I wouldn’t have had if it wasn’t for AHG,” Jenna says. She recalls going on a trip to earn the snow skiing badge, and spending a week living on a sailboat off the coast of Maine, learning about sailing and helping with many of the on-board tasks, from steering the boat to pulling up the anchor and preparing meals.

American Heritage Girls was founded in 1995 by parents looking for an organization that would embrace Christian values and encourage family involvement.

Founder Patti Garibay today serves as the executive director of the organization, which currently has troops in all 50 states and more than 50,000 girl members.

“Jenna, you joined AHG in 2013 as a Tenderheart and now you have achieved the highest accomplishment in this program, the Stars & Stripes Award,” said Garibay in a congratulatory video that was shared with the audience at Jenna’s award ceremony on Jan. 23. “All of us at American Heritage Girls — the staff, the board, and the volunteers — are so very proud of you.”

Jenna is one of 40 girls in her troop, which was founded five years ago by a leadership team that includes her mom Celeste, who is a writer for the Neighborhood News. Girls range in age from six to 18.

For more information about  American Heritage Girls, go to AmericanHeritageGirls.org. To connect with the New Tampa or Wesley Chapel AHG troops, use the “Find A Troop” button on that website.

New School Boundaries Could Bring Big Changes 

No matter which scenario proposed by the School District is adopted, Liberty 
Middle School is expected to lose hundreds of it current students to other schools for the 2023-24 school year. (Photos: John C. Cotey) 

 The long process of finalizing controversial school boundary changes proposed by the Hillsborough County School District is going to take just a little bit longer.

In an email to parents on Jan. 25, Superintendent of Schools Addison Davis wrote that his recommendations, after weeks of community meetings, would not be presented to the School Board on Jan. 31, as expected, and would instead be provided to the parents and the Board at a workshop now scheduled for Monday, February 13 at 10 a.m.

Please note that no public comment is permitted at School Board workshops.

The Board also will hold special meetings on Tuesday, February 28, and Thursday, March 9.

The email also said that between the workshop and the special meetings, five new community meetings would be held. The closest to New Tampa, which isn’t impacted as much as other parts of the District, would be held on Monday, February 20, 6 p.m., at King High on N. 56th St.

The School District, which paid New York architectural firm WXY Studio $567,000 to help with the new boundaries, has developed three scenarios, and as many as 24,000 students throughout Hillsborough County could be shifted to new schools. More than 100 of the District’s 303 schools could be affected by a process designed to save millions of dollars by improving efficiency, addressing imbalances in enrollment — some schools are overcrowded while others are so far below capacity that they may have to be repurposed — and reducing travel.

“When we look at schools that are being overutilized, those are (schools) operating at 110% (of their capacities) or greater,” Davis said. “Underutilized is 60% or under, and we have 24 schools that must be addressed.”

Many schools in New Tampa could be affected, although none are in danger of being repurposed.

In all three scenarios proposed by the District, for example, 133 students at Heritage Elementary and 49 students at Pride Elementary would be moved to Hunter’s Green Elementary. 

Pride is currently at 124 percent utilization, though losing 49 students would still keep it over capacity, at 119 percent. Heritage currently is at 111 percent, but after losing students to Hunter’s Green, would be at a more desirable 95 percent.

Hunter’s Green is currently at 84%, and the influx of new students would put it at 101% of its capacity.

Each scenario means different things for different schools. The only New Tampa public schools not affected in some way are Clark and Tampa Palms Elementary schools.

In Scenario 1, Heritage, Pride, Hunter’s Green, Chiles Elementary and Liberty Middle School would be affected by losing or gaining students.

In Scenario 2, Wharton, Liberty, Benito Middle School, Turner/Bartels K-8 School, Heritage, Hunter’s Green, Chiles and Pride elementaries are affected.

In Scenario 3, the most aggressive of the three proposals, nearly 1,000 students combined at Pride, Hunter’s Green, Heritage, Wharton, Freedom, Chiles and Liberty would be affected.

On paper, it looks as if many students that are bused into New Tampa schools would remain closer to their neighborhood schools instead, saving on travel costs during a time when the district has a bus driver shortage. Changes like Wharton losing 423 students to King (Scenario 2), Chiles losing 112 to Mort (all three scenarios) and Liberty losing 329 to Buchanan (Scenario 1) or 329 to Adams (Scenario 2) middle schools appears to point towards a reduction in bused students, as opposed to moving New Tampa residents.  

Hunter’s Green Elementary takes on students from Heritage and Pride in every scenario.

All of the numbers presented so far can change, as Davis takes into account all of the public feedback — 15,000 people have attended community meetings (including the one held at Wharton on Jan. 13), and the district’s website (HCPS-boundary.org/home) has had more than 335,000 page views, 126,000 address searches and 15,500 comments on the interactive map.

“The School Board will make the final decision, and they could take any recommendations (by Davis) and make changes to those,” said Hillsborough Schools spokesperson Erin Maloney. “There’s still a lot of stuff to work out, and none of the numbers you are looking at are final.”

The delay means parents like Dawn Eagle will have to wait a little longer to find out the fate of their children for the 2023-24 school year. She was one of roughly 100 parents to attend the Jan. 13 community meeting at Wharton, hoping to learn her options.

Scenario 2 would move 163 kids from Benito, including Eagle’s daughter, 6th grader Jessica, to Turner-Bartels.

Eagle already has put her sons, who are now at Wharton, through Heritage Elementary and Benito, and would like Jessica to follow the same path.

“It’s closer to our home and all we’ve ever known,” she said. “We know the administration, we know the teachers. We’ve had a great experience and we don’t want to disrupt that.”

But Eagle’s concerns go further than that. Jessica is in the orchestra at Benito, and Turner-Bartels doesn’t offer orchestra. Also, driving from their home in K-Bar Ranch to Turner-Bartels in Live Oak Preserve would be far more inconvenient.

The Eagles have options, like school choice or magnet schools, and Dawn hopes if Scenario 2 or some version of it is chosen, she would be able to use school choice so her daughter could stay at Benito. 

“I do appreciate trying to set up these scenarios and having discussions so the community can be heard,” Eagle says. “I appreciate the effort being made. I understand they’re trying to do a job and everything comes down to money. That’s unfortunate but I get the reality. But logistically, this restructuring for our neighborhood doesn’t make sense.”

Porter Donation Brings Porter Family Indoor Performance Facility To Life

Local dignitaries and members of the Porter family were on hand on Jan. 10 for the unveiling of the new Porter Family Indoor Performance Facility on the USF Tampa Campus.

Wiregrass Ranch developer JD Porter says that athletics have always been important to his family, so when the chance came to play a significant role in helping the University of South Florida add a state-of-the-art training facility, Porter said it was impossible for him to resist.

On Jan. 10, Porter and his family were on hand to celebrate the opening of the Porter Family Indoor Performance Facility on USF’s Tampa campus. The 88,000-sq.-ft. facility features a 100-yard turf field, an observation deck, scoreboards, locker rooms, a reception lobby and more.

“We think it’s going to be a difference maker,” said Porter, echoing the sentiment of everyone involved.

For decades, the lack of quality on-campus facilities has been a detriment to recruiting, particularly for football, which also has been saddled by the lack of an on-campus stadium.

But, the Porter family’s $5.1-million donation is the first step towards correcting those deficiencies, and a new on-campus football stadium is right around the corner, perhaps as soon as fall 2026.

At the event on Jan. 10, new USF football coach Alex Golesh said that not having this type of training facility is a huge disadvantage, “but I think a facility like this puts you on a level playing field.”

The Porter family has steadfastly supported USF. The James H. and Martha M. Porter Endowment for Alzheimer’s Research was established to benefit the USF Health Morsani College of Medicine’s pursuit of collaborative Alzheimer’s research with the USF Health Byrd Alzheimer’s Institute. In addition, the Porter family started the James H. & Martha M. Porter Alzheimer’s Research Equipment Operating Fund to support equipment purchases for use in that collaborative research.

Porter said his family, which founded a branch campus of Pasco-Hernando State College in Wiregrass Ranch and donated the land for the Wiregrass Ranch Sports Campus, was happy to help, and applauded the team that helped make it happen, which included Wesley Chapel resident (and former Speaker of the Florida House) Will Weatherford, who currently is the chairman of the USF Board of Trustees.

“It was a natural fit,” Porter said. “Athletics and education have always been important to our family, and this was just a great opportunity. Knowing that the right team was at the helm to actually execute the plan made it a fairly easy decision for us.”

Busy Month! AHWC’s 10-Year Event Feb. 5; BayCare WC’s Preview Feb. 18! 

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AdventHealth Wesley Chapel (AHWC) marked its 10th anniversary late last year, but due to bad weather that canceled its big party, the hospital’s administration and staff, and the Wesley Chapel community, never got to celebrate the big event.

On Sunday, February 5, the official ten-year celebration will finally be held. The hospital, Wesley Chapel’s first, promises a “free, fun-filled day of family-friendly activities and health & wellness for every age” from 1 p.m.-4 p.m.

The celebration will be held in the parking lot behind the hospital, which is located at 2600 Bruce B. Downs Blvd.

AHWC has been a well-known and active fixture in Wesley Chapel, since opening in 2012 as Florida Hospital Wesley Chapel, coming along at a time when there was not nearly as much in the area.

“I think we were really the catalyst for the growth here in Wesley Chapel,” Connie Bladon, the director of community outreach for AHWC, told us last October when the hospital turned 10. “You always want a good hospital, (as well as) good schools, safety and security, things like that….Everything (else has) sprung up around us.”

Since opening in 2013, the hospital’s popular 100,000-sq.-ft. health & wellness center building, which is now called the AdventHealth Wellness Plaza Wesley Chapel, also opened, and a major expansion in 2016 saw the number of beds double (from 83 to 169) and the hospital went from having just four operating rooms to its current 12, and from 20 emergency room beds to 35.

There is still room for AHWC to expand to 300 total beds. Since it opened, the hospital’s doctors have performed more than 56,000 surgeries and delivered more than 5,000 babies.

In 2021, AHWC teamed up with the Moffitt Cancer Center on a new three-story, 100,000-sq.-ft. medical office building, a new oncology unit with 24 in-patient rooms and two new operating rooms.

To register to attend, visit AHWesleyChapel.com/Events. — JCC

BayCare Preview Feb. 18!

Meanwhile, BayCare Hospital Wesley Chapel, an 86-bed, state-of-the-art hospital that will open in March is hosting a Community Event preview of the new hospital on Saturday, February 18, 10 a.m.-3 p.m.

BayCare Hospital Wesley Chapel will contain comprehensive medical services and health care resources including: Breast health, diabetes and endocrinology, diagnostic services (including imaging and lab), ear, nose and throat, emergency room, gastroenterology, heart and vascular, intensive care unit with virtual-monitoring beds, interventional radiology, orthopedics, primary care, pulmonology and respiratory, rehabilitation, surgery (including robotic surgery), urology, wound care and more.

The family-friendly event will include hospital tours, cuisine from local restaurants, wellness screenings, a local market, live music and entertainment and a kids village with games, activities, puppets and more.

For more information, and to register to attend, visit baycare.org/baycare-is-growing-in-wesley-chapel. — GN