Local Couple Teach How To Mentor At-Risk Kids

Joe & Carol Gravante have turned their love of children and their own empty nest into an opportunity to teach a free mentoring class to help adults mentor at-risk kids. The classes began last week at Bridgeway Church on Wells Rd.

Joe and Carol Gravante, residents of Heritage Isles in New Tampa, are empty nesters who say that God gave them a new purpose after their three boys grew up and left home.

After raising their sons and hosting at least two dozen foreign exchange students, including 12 who stayed with them for a year and attended local schools, the Gravantes have turned their attention to mentoring at-risk kids in our community.

“Carol and I had started working with a mentoring group in Tampa several years ago, and when we first started we had no idea what we were doing,” Joe explains. “The training that we received was more about how the foster care system works, the formalities, not how to actually deal with the kids themselves. There was nothing available (to teach us) how to communicate and how to handle certain situations you might be put in that are different from raising your own kids.”

So, Joe says, he and Carol shared resources with other people they knew who also were mentoring. His sister-in-law in Missouri, for example, who helped him find school resources for a tenth grader who needed help to pass his classes. Joe also did online searches for answers to questions he had, and he tried different techniques with the teenagers he was mentoring.

Now, Joe and Carol have taken their experiences and developed a curriculum to help people learn skills that will help them be good mentors. After teaching the class Joe developed last year, it will be offered again this year at Bridgeway Church, located at 30660 Wells Rd. in Wesley Chapel. The classes started September 25 and meet every other Monday. There is no cost to attend, and childcare is provided for people who sign up for the class and need it.

Class topics include effective communication, anger management, time management, bullying, dealing with attitudes, when to say “yes” and “no” and much more.

“Really, these classes are good for anyone who’s raising kids, or even in the workplace,” says Carol.

Other Options

Joe says they also are currently coming up with a schedule of opportunities for people who want to serve their community and help kids, but don’t have the time to commit to mentoring a child one hour every week.

“We have two focuses,” explains Carol. “Some people want to get involved right away and do something purposeful.”

For those people, the couple is organizing events where anyone can come out and interact with at-risk kids in a large group setting. Joe and Carol say they have a friend with a horse ranch where they have taken groups of kids, and volunteers help to lead the horses and play with the kids.

“People find it’s quite fun!” Carol says. “Some people aren’t comfortable with the idea of working with at-risk kids. They worry they have too many limitations or the kids have too much baggage, but the events help people get more comfortable until they are ready for a one-on-one relationship with the students.”

Their goal is to encourage more people to provide that time to help students who need it. After all, Joe says, every child he’s mentored has benefitted from the experience.

“These kids just need time and attention,” he says.

Joe knows that because he once benefitted from mentoring, too.

“I had this (U.S. military) Colonel who changed my entire life,” he says. “I grew up in the city of Pittsburgh (PA). It was a steel mill town, and that’s all I knew. When I joined the military, this amazing man took the time and energy to make me see I could be so much more than what I was. He mentored me from 20 years old until 30-something. He was the one who really set me on the right path.”

Joe says the cycle of being mentored, and now being in a position to pay his experiences forward and serve his community, continues with the kids he’s impacted.

“I see the kids I’ve mentored already giving back in their communities,” he says. “It’s so good to see that you can make a difference that way, no matter how old you are.”

For more information or to register for the mentoring class, contact Carol at (813) 753-8338.

Facebook Pages Offered Lots Of Hurricane Irma Help

Jessica Meyers (left) of Little Italy’s Family Restaurant & Catering & Jennifer Ames of the Wesley Chapel Community Facebook page brought food and supplies to the National Guardsmen who were called in to protect Pasco County and stationed at the vacant Target store near the Suncoast Pkwy.

As Hurricane Irma approached Florida, people across the state were posting on Facebook, looking to neighbors to answer their questions and calm their fears.

While the storm raged and when it was over, they kept posting.

They offered encouragement and prayer. They asked how they could help each other. They posted their needs, and others offered anything they had to help meet those needs. It happened among both friends and strangers.

On the Wesley Chapel Community Facebook page, which boasts more than 8,500 members, administrator Jennifer Ames says the posts were continual.

“It was nonstop,” Jennifer explains. “There was never a second that went by without a post — a constant influx from Thursday through Monday.”

She says neighbors were trying to connect to people around them, looking for water, gas, plywood, generators and more.

There were more than 1,700 posts the week of the storm, nearly 17,000 comments and an additional 558 people joined the group.

“It was the first time I ever had to shut the site down,” says Jennifer, although she didn’t actually close the site; she just stopped people from posting without admin approval.

“It lost its efficacy because there was so much posting going on,” she says. “We made it so, as admins, that we had to approve the posts. Then, it was more useful and all those posts truly helped people.”

Carolyn Daly, a member of the Facebook community who lives in Quail Hollow, agrees.

“Through the whole storm — before, during and after — everyone was so helpful with letting people know who had water, who had gas, where sandbags were and with anything anyone in the community needed,” says Carolyn. “It was really amazing to see people coming together to support each other and not just look out for themselves.”

She says she was especially impressed with Joel Provenzano and Ryan Mills, two local “weather geeks” who posted information and replied to comments throughout the storm, sharing their knowledge of what was happening outside to worried people throughout Wesley Chapel while using the same information professional meteorologists were using.

The two men didn’t even know each other before creating the weather thread that turned into the most popular one to follow during the storm. Provenzano, a transportation engineer with the Florida Department of Transportation (FDOT), said he has been through a number of hurricanes, including Andrew in 1992.

He caught the weather bug as a kid in Fort Myers, learning science in his father’s fifth grade class.

“Space and weather were the two big things he emphasized,’’ Joel said.

According to stats provided by Jennifer, Joel and Ryan’s weather thread generated 1,300 comments, 1,700 likes and was seen by more than 5,000 members, turning the duo into WC Community page rock stars.

“During the storm, Joel and Ryan updated every step of the way when the storm was really ramping up,” Carolyn says, “like how much longer there would be noise and high winds. It was more helpful than any of the news channels because it was so specific to Wesley Chapel.”

She adds, “It reminded me of what a neighborhood was when I was growing up. Only now, it’s a virtual neighborhood.”

That’s kind of what Jennifer Ames had in mind when she started the group.

“I grew up in a very small town in south Georgia, with a ‘neighbors helping neighbors’ spirit,” she says. “But, I never imagined a hurricane and a crisis. I didn’t know that it would work to this level.”

Bob Behrle’s wife, Kristie, is another WC Community administrator. Bob says the site was a great way to get resources and materials as people prepared for the storm. For example, Heather Robinson offered a few extra interior doors that had recently been replaced at her home to be used to board up windows.

“It helped us tremendously,” Bob said. “I never would have found that without Facebook.”

After the storm, the needs continued, and the Facebook posts continued, too.

Helen Bolton, who lives in Country Walk, heard from an out-of-state friend that her husband, a lineman, was in another Florida city helping to restore power and couldn’t get food. Helen wanted to make sure that wasn’t the case for linemen in Wesley Chapel.

“I would love to take them some food but I haven’t seen any,” she posted. “I’m looking for some sightings!”

Others responded when they saw linemen. Helen picked up a pizza and tried to catch up with where she heard the linemen were. She says she didn’t find them on the job, but did see a truck driving. By then, she was determined to get the pizza to the workers. She says she followed the truck for probably 30 minutes before she finally was able to flag them down and give them the pizza.

She posted her success, and more than 600 people “liked” her picture, encouraging her act of kindness.

Helen thinks the Wesley Chapel Community page helps people to be a better community to each other.

“It is unbelievable to watch, and because of social media, you do get to see it,” Helen says. “At the end of the day, it is amazing to see that people want be good and help others.”

Jennifer agrees. “We did a great job looking out for each other,’’ she says. “It was exemplary, the way individuals checked on each other. One lady who was blind and home alone wanted plywood over her windows. She was so upset, so I put a message out and within an hour, a neighbor was putting wood over her windows. It’s heartwarming and touching to know we have that in our community.”

She says now, the focus of the Facebook community is on helping small businesses. Local owners are telling Jennifer that this hurricane has been catastrophic for them

So, Jennifer says this month’s “Chappy Hour,” where people from the site meet in real life, is a special “Irma Edition,” where Wesley Chapel can come together and support small businesses. It will be held Friday, September 22 (tonight), 5 p.m.-9p.m., at The Brass Tap at the Shops at Wiregrass mall.

Anyone who is a member of the group is invited to bring a receipt showing they supported a locally owned small business dated September 12 or later, and she and other site administrators and sponsors will buy you a drink (courtesy of Coast 2 Coast Realty, Ellie and Associates Realty, 900 Degree Woodfire Pizza and The Brass Tap).

For Helen, the experience of feeling like part of a community during the storm makes her want to come out to her first-ever “Chappy Hour.” “I’ve never gone before because I always thought I wouldn’t know anyone,” Helen says. “This time I’m going because now I feel like I know people.”

There also is another community Facebook page for Wesley Chapel called the Wesley Chapel Network, which boasts more than 18,000 members and also was extremely busy during Irma, although we were not able to reach administrator Heather Stamp in time to be included in this story.

Anyone in Wesley Chapel can join either page. Just search “Wesley Chapel Community” or “Wesley Chapel Network” on Facebook.

NJROTC Cadet’s Charismatic, Fun-Loving Character Touched Many

Connor Hale (left) and David Elder at the American Cancer Society’s New Tampa Relay For Life in May. “He was just such a good guy to be around,” Connor says.

Last October, when David Elder was a freshman at Wharton High and a member of the school’s National Junior Reserve Officers Training Corp (NJROTC) program, he was participating in one of his first drill meets at Central High School in Brooksville, called the Iron Bear Challenge.

It was early and still wet outside, and Elder, as his friends in Wharton’s NJROTC call him, was participating in the tire flip event. David was a little too close to another team’s tire and when he slipped, the huge tractor tire struck his leg just below the knee and slid down to the ankle, breaking both bones in his leg.

“It was loud,” recalls Senior Chief Petty Officer (Ret.) David Ingalls, who is retired from the U.S. Navy and one of David’s instructors. “We knew it was a pretty bad break.”

With his leg broken in two places, he should have been in a lot of pain. But, Elder somehow was making everyone else laugh, acting like a hero being carried off on the stretcher. As they closed the doors to the ambulance, he was waving to everyone and “dabbing.”

“That’s when we really saw his personality,” says Ingalls. “David just had a lot of charisma.”

When students arrived at Wharton for the first day of school this year, Elder’s friends were told that he had passed away.

Just the day before, Elder, Connor Hale and a bunch of their friends helped lead freshman orientation at Wharton High for new students entering NJROTC.

After, the cadets went to the movies. The theater was empty, except for them, so whenever a song played between dialogue, David and Connor would put on sunglasses, jump up, and “dance like spazzes,” says Connor. That was typical of the kid he calls Elder, who “could make anyone laugh or smile.”

David Elder’s dad says those kids were part of what David loved best, the NJROTC program. As a freshman last school year, he jumped into every activity offered.

“He excelled above and beyond anything I expected,” says Jim Elder. “He was on the rifle team, drill team, color guard, everything. He did great at everything he tried.”

David even enjoyed uniform inspections, something many cadets dread. “He’d have me come out and inspect his uniform for lint and check his brass. I showed him how to shine his shoes. He was very methodical about proper appearance with his uniform.”

A week later, more than three dozen cadets from Wharton and other area schools, who had met Elder at NJROTC events, attended his memorial service.

“He was enthusiastic about being a young leader and had a lot of potential,” says Major Michael Beale, who is retired from the U.S. Marine Corps, and was another of David’s instructors. “For a young kid to impact so many people, you know he has unique character traits. People wanted to be around him, and he touched so many lives.”

“He was a model cadet,” adds Ingalls.

Jim says his son had aspirations to join the military. He was interested in aviation, but since he wore glasses, he knew that was a long shot. He also loved the water, and really loved sailing. NJROTC gave him the opportunity to attend Sail Academy, a training academy hosted by Eckerd College in St. Petersburg.

“He’s named after my dad, who is a retired U.S. Army paratrooper,” says Jim, who also served in the military. “David just thought his grandpa was the greatest thing walking on two feet. He always liked to hear Grandpa Dave stories.”

David grew up in Pinellas County, where his mom still lives. He had been living with his dad and last summer, after outgrowing the Civil Air Patrol program for middle school students, the pair decided to move to Tampa to find a high school with a good NJROTC program.

“I wanted him to be exposed to more things and set him up for success in the future.”

Jim says Wharton, “just kind of worked out at the time,” and that he couldn’t have been any happier with their choice.

“I’m thrilled because the instructors there do amazing things for the kids,” he says. “They are top notch and I can’t say enough good things. They are solid, good people there.”

While NJROTC was David’s “main thing,” says Jim, “he was a really well-rounded kid.”

David was a huge history buff who was particularly into World War II. He collected vintage firearms and military uniforms, and even taught himself some German, using Google Translate.

“We’d be at the gun shop and he’d give the guy behind the counter a quick history lesson,” Jim recalls. They enjoyed shooting together, too, he says. “We would go shooting all the time. He shot better than I did, which drove me crazy.”

Connor says he already misses the kid he considered one of his best friends. “This is my first time experiencing something like this,” he says. “It’s tough. I already miss his good nature. He was just such a good guy to be around.”

When he recalls his many fun times with David, he calls those times “shenanigans. He was a goofball and we would just laugh at everything dumb,” Connor says, like watching YouTube videos or repeating a phrase endlessly to drive other people crazy. “There’s a lot of stuff I thought we’d (still) do together, like going back to Sail Academy and doing (the American Cancer Society’s New Tampa) Relay for Life” again.

Jim says he and his son had a special relationship, especially since just the two of them lived together. “We called each other ‘bro,’ and I would tell him, ‘You’re my best bro.’”

Jim has met with Hailey Acierno’s parents, who started the foundation called Hailey’s Voice of Hope. “We’re going to try to collaborate and work together so that for her daughter and my son, neither of their names are forgotten,” he says. “We want to get the word out about suicide prevention so no other kid or parent has to go through this.”

Tampa Palms Resident Is FBLA’s New National President!

You’d probably expect the president of an international organization with more than 250,000 members to be professional, articulate and passionate about his role and vision for his organization.

What you might not expect is that he would be just 17 years old, and still in high school.

Max Michel is all of the above, having recently been elected as president of the national Future Business Leaders of America (FBLA) organization.

“I serve our 250,000 members and work with other officers to create programs for our members,” Max explains. “I also work with the national board of directors, comprised of educators, CEOs, industry representatives and other professionals, to help steer the long-term strategies for the organization as a whole.”

Max has lived with his family in Tampa Palms since 2005, before he entered kindergarten at Chiles Elementary. He then attended Liberty Middle School. When it was time for high school, he chose the magnet program at Middleton High, located on N. 22nd St. in Tampa.

It was through his FBLA chapter at Middleton that Max pursued the chance to lead the national organization. He was elected president during the group’s National Leadership Conference in Anaheim, CA, on July 2, and immediately began his one-year term.

The National Leadership Conference comes after the District and State conferences. “FBLA gives students the opportunity to compete on District, State and National levels in 65 different events that cover everything from public speaking to healthcare,” Max says. “It allows students to find their niche.”

He adds that every year, the national competition is “awe-inspiring. There are about 13,000 people there, and you see diverse faces and cultures and backgrounds and how hard they all work to have made it that far.”

In 2016, Max placed second in FBLA’s national computer problem solving competition. This year, he didn’t compete so that he could focus on campaigning for national president.

First, he had to qualify on the state level, where he was chosen to be the candidate for president from the state of Florida. He went up against candidates from Oregon and Arizona for the national honor.

While Max only campaigned during the conference itself, he did a lot to prepare, including writing the speech he would give at a general session in front of all of the attendees.

As a freshman, Max had run for District office and, when it was time to give his speech in front of a much smaller crowd, he says he completely forgot it. “I blanked out,” he says. “It was so embarrassing.”

But, that was one of the things that spurred him to work on his public speaking and other skills.

“I grew a lot because of the leadership skills I’ve learned through FBLA,” says Max. So much so, that he says his school’s FBLA chapter adviser, Tayo Akinrefon, recommended that Max run for national president going into his senior year. “I thought he was joking, but he was super serious,” Max says. “That inspired me.”

“I worked on my public speaking a lot,” he adds. “Despite me not being the best speaker, I can connect with people on a genuine and authentic level, and I definitely have that desire to connect, regardless of culture or race or background.”

So, Max worked to make those connections with people at the conference, and this time, he was able to give the speech he had prepared without freezing or forgetting it.

When the voting was over, Max had won.

He says that has a specific goal for his time in office.

“I want to reach out to urban communities, which are currently underserved by FBLA,” he says. “Our end goal is to reach as many students as possible. We partner with other leadership programs and we want to offer resources for schools that are harder hit by issues such as poverty.” In the long-term, he says, that would mean allocating funds to charter chapters in those currently underserved areas.

He says that across the nation, there are some large cities that only have one or two FBLA chapters. Even his own school has room to grow in that area. “Most of our membership comes from the magnet program, and we want to diversify,” he says.

A Born Leader

Max comes from a large family, one of seven siblings, and he and his older brother are close enough in age that they both will graduate from high school this year. Alejandro, whom Max calls Alex, is currently a senior at Freedom High. Max says he and Alex are hoping to both attend Florida State University in Tallahassee next year. The two high school boys have two older sisters and an older brother, as well as two younger brothers, ages three and five.

He says being one of seven siblings has helped his leadership skills, whether it’s dividing up chores for the week or taking turns babysitting. “Being part of a big family, I’ve learned things like how to speak up for myself and being ready to help when needed,” he adds.

While he doesn’t yet know what career he’ll pursue after college, he’s sure of one thing. “Whatever job I have,” he says. “I want to make a lasting influence on people’s lives and do whatever I can to help others.”

Fast Track Urgent Care Center — Doctor-Owned, Patient-Driven Urgent Care

Fast Track Urgent Care Center opened 18 months ago in Wesley Chapel on S.R. 54, west of I-75, but has since expanded to include a location in Riverview.

Fast Track Urgent Care Center, located just off of S.R. 54 west of I-75, is part of a growing company that added one new location in the Tampa Bay area in the past year.

Paul Nanda, M.D., is the medical director for the company, whose newest location is in Riverview. In addition to its center in Wesley Chapel, which opened about 18 months ago, Fast Track also is in South Tampa, Westchase and Carrollwood, with a new location coming soon to Tampa Heights.

“We started in 2005 with one location and a couple of patients a day,” says Dr. Nanda. “Now, with five centers and more than 60,000 patient visits this year, we are really starting to impact the health and well being of the (Tampa Bay) community.”

Dr. Nanda says that matters to Fast Track, which is owned by Tampa native Daron G. Diecidue, M.D.

“Being locally owned and operated, we truly care about our patients, because they are our friends and neighbors,” says Dr. Nanda. “And, because doctors run the facility, not business people, we are focused on patients, not dollar signs.”

Dr. Nanda also explains that Fast Track Urgent Care Center operates in the space between a primary care doctor and the emergency room. So, if you’re sick or injured, you should know that a visit to an urgent care facility is much less expensive than a visit to the emergency room, and with expanded hours when compared with a typical primary care doctor’s office.

Top-Notch Medical Providers

The staff at Fast Track includes more than a dozen Board-certified physicians, nurse practitioners and physician assistants. This team of experienced medical professionals rotates among the company’s five locations.

Fast Track Urgent Care Center is owned by Dr. Daron G. Diecidue, M.D.

Fast Track Urgent Care Center’s founder and owner, Dr. Diecidue, is Board-certified in Family Medicine. He holds Bachelor of Science (B.S.) degrees in both Biology and Psychology from Florida State University in Tallahassee, and a degree in Chemistry from the University of South Florida (USF) in Tampa. He received his M.D. degree from the USF School of Medicine and performed his residency in family medicine at Bayfront Medical Center in St. Petersburg. He is an active member of the American Academy of Family Practice, the Florida Medical Association and the Urgent Care Association of America.

Meanwhile, Dr. Nanda has served as medical director of Fast Track Urgent Care since 2013. He also is Board-certified in Family Medicine and earned a B.S. degree in Biology from Indiana University in Bloomington in 1996, and a Master of Science (M.S.) degree in Immunology from Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis in 1999. He received his M.D. degree from the American University of the Caribbean School of Medicine in St. Maarten in 2003 and completed his residency at Ohio State University in Columbus in 2007.

Dr. Nanda was hired by Fast Track in 2013 and was quickly promoted to medical director. He says he is, “responsible for ensuring the practice consistently offers patient-oriented, evidence-based, cost-effective care” at Fast Track’s five locations, including the Wesley Chapel center.

“I was always taught that patients come first,” explains Dr. Nanda. “As providers, we are advocates who do what’s best for the patient. Sometimes that means we have to fight with insurance companies. Sometimes that means we don’t randomly prescribe antibiotics. Sometimes that means we help people navigate the healthcare system, which has become more and more confusing. We hire providers who agree with our patient-first philosophy, and we ask them to treat every patient like they would treat their own mom or child.”

For a complete list of the medical providers at the Wesley Chapel office, go to FastTrackUrgentCare.com.

Available Services

Fast Track Urgent Care Center calls itself a “boutique” urgent care facility, because it offers not only a personal touch, but also expanded services that can make it a little easier to deal with the inconvenience of a sudden illness or an unexpected injury.

Dr. Nanda

For example, the center offers what it calls “Fast Pass,” an online check-in system. Although appointments are not required at Fast Track, patients can fill out their paperwork in advance and skip the line when they arrive at the urgent care facility.

“Our goal is to get you in and out within 30-60 minutes,” says Dr. Nanda. “We know you didn’t wake up that morning with plans to go to urgent care, so we want to make you better and get you back to your life as soon as possible.”

Dr. Nanda emphasizes that you can go to Fast Track Urgent Care Center anytime you need treatment, including for injuries related to workers’ compensation and motor vehicle injuries.

“With the changing landscape of insurance and healthcare,” says Dr. Nanda, “we want to try to make it easier for patients to access good, consistent, quality healthcare.”

This time of year, the practitioners provide many school physicals, which cost just $25, and Dr. Nanda explains that the company gives back to local schools through a program that distributes coupons that provide $5 back to a student’s school when they get a physical.

On the center’s website, dozens of five-star reviews highlight what people love about Fast Track Urgent Care Center.

“The doctor had a wonderful bedside manner when addressing my eight-year-old son, whom she quickly diagnosed with swimmer’s ear,” wrote a reviewer. “We’re visiting from out of state, so it was really a welcome surprise to have such a great experience in an unfamiliar medical facility.”

Another patient wrote, “I went in and saw the nurse practitioner. She was very thorough and professional, and I would definitely go again. Far better than sitting in a doctor’s office with an appointment and still having to wait! I was in and out in far less time.”

Fast Track Urgent Care Center of Wesley Chapel is located at 5504 Gateway Blvd. and is open seven days a week, 8 a.m.–8 p.m. To make a reservation with Fast Pass or for more information (including the addresses of all five locations), go to FastTrackUrgentCare.com, call (813) 925-1903 or see the ad on page 24.