Dade City’s annual Kumquat Festival will be held on Saturday, January 28, 9 a.m. – 5 p.m. This year is the milestone 20th anniversary of the event, which celebrates the kumquat, “a unique and funky little fruit,” as described by John Moors, executive director of the event’s host, the Greater Dade City Chamber of Commerce.
Kumquats are small citrus fruits grown near Dade City, and the annual festival also is an opportunity to show off the city’s historic downtown district’s eclectic restaurants and new places to shop, such as Flint Creek Outfitters, a new, high-end sporting goods and camping gear store.
This year’s festival will include 440 vendors and 40 sponsors, with a car and truck show, farmers market, arts & crafts, children’s activities and all kinds of kumquat pies and other products.
“It’s an authentic, old-Florida style festival,” says Moors, “including down-home, local entertainment on the historic courthouse steps all day.”
He estimates about 35,000 people attend each year, but exact numbers are unknown because the event is not ticketed and there’s no gate.
“It’s certainly a milestone that this is our 20th year,” says Moors. “It’s marvelous that, for 20 years, the community has pulled together to put on this completely volunteer-run event. Again this year, our 200 volunteers are working extremely hard to make it a really enjoyable day.”
Admission and parking are free, and free transportation also is provided from multiple satellite parking lots.
This pic of Zammy went viral after it was posted on reddit, and Todd Pitner says it has been viewed more than a million times.
On the social media site reddit, there’s a “subreddit” called “aww” – as in, “things that make you go AWW! –like puppies, bunnies, babies, and so on…” And on that subreddit, you’ll find a picture of one local pup, named Zammy, hanging out at the Shops at Wiregrass mall. His photo, titled “Girls loving this huge fluffy sheepadoodle,” has gotten more than a million views and 11,000 “up-votes” on the site.
A “sheepadoodle” is a fairly new breed that is a mix between an Old English sheepdog and an extra large standard poodle. Zammy is just a year old and already weighs 100 pounds.
His owner is Todd Pitner, a resident of K-Bar Ranch off of Cross Creek Blvd. in New Tampa, where he lives with his wife, Yana, and youngest daughter Vlada, who is 13. His other three daughters are adults who live on their own.
Todd says that Zammy is so “visually unique” that he tends to attract a lot of attention. He says he often takes Zammy for walks around the Shops at Wiregrass.
“Everyone goes nuts over him, wanting to pet him,” says Todd. “It takes me a couple of hours to do a loop around Wiregrass.”
During a walk over the Thanksgiving weekend, he snapped the photo that would soon go viral. Two girls at one of the outdoor dining areas asked to pet Zammy. Todd snapped the photo, posted it to his Instagram account, and it took off. “
The photo is just pure joy,” Todd says.
While Zammy had about 600 followers before his photo hit reddit, he now has more than 12,500. “It went from 600 to 1,000 overnight, then 2,000 in a week, then 9,000.”
Todd says he set up the Instagram account @ZammyPup because all of his daughters use Instagram, so he thought it would be a fun and interactive way to share pictures.
In fact, it was because of one of his daughters that Todd has Zammy today. He first came across a sheepadoodle while walking through Manhattan on a trip with his daughter, Alix. He saw someone walking a sheepadoodle and was fascinated. “I asked for breeder information and contacted her,” says Todd. “Turns out Zammy is that dog’s brother, from the same parents.”
Todd says Zammy was born on Dec. 17, 2015, and delivered from that breeder in California on Valentine’s Day. “It seemed like every day he grew a pound.”
Todd wanted a new dog in his family because, at the time, his beloved German shepherd, Rio, was aging and in fact, has recently passed away. So, Zammy’s family now includes a new German shepherd puppy, Zeus, and a 12-year-old schnauzer, Jocko.
Zammy is actually short for “Kazaam,” a nod to Todd’s college years, when he performed as a magician, and eventually nicknamed his older girls “Abby Cadabra” and “Alix Kazaam.” Since it was on the trip with Alix that he was introduced to the sheepadoodle breed, it was her nickname that ended up inspiring the dog’s memorable name.
When asked if he considers himself something of an ambassador for sheepadoodles, he denies he’s trying to make any kind of statement.“I love the breed,” he says. “Zammy’s just a really special dog, with a special personality, and he brings joy to people.”
Your child will always see either Dr. Durga Chintakayala (left) or his wife, Dr. Lalitha Raguthu, at Tendercare Pediatrics in the Summergate Professional Park.
Dr. Lalitha Raguthu is the new owner of Tendercare Pediatrics in the Summergate Professional Park, located behind Sam’s Club off S.R. 56.
Dr. Raguthu bought the practice with her husband, Dr. Durga Chintakayala, or “Dr. Chinta” for short. The pair already own Blossom Pediatric Care on E. Martin Luther King Blvd. in Tampa, where Dr. Chinta has been in solo practice for the last three years, with Dr. Raguthu occasionally covering for him. Now, she is the primary doctor at Tendercare, and he covers for her as needed.
“One of us is always here,” Dr. Chinta says. “When Dr. Raguthu is away at conferences, I see the patients.”
Dr. Chinta and Dr. Raguthu have been married for 22 years and have two children. Their son, Sahas, is 15, and their daughter Sveta, is 12. The New Tampa residents are happy to have a practice closer to home. Tendercare Pediatrics previously was owned by Dr. Radhika Ranganathan.
“The opportunity arose for us to buy this practice, and it was a quick transition,” says Dr. Chinta.
The couple bought their home in Cory Lake Isles in 2013, when Dr. Chinta accepted a position in the spinal cord unit at the James A. Haley Veterans Hospital in Tampa. At the same time, they opened Blossom Pediatric Care, and Dr. Raguthu began working at Night Owl Pediatrics on Cross Creek Blvd.
Prior to that, the couple lived in New York City, where Dr. Raguthu spent three years working in the emergency room at the Lutheran Medical Center in Brooklyn and one year in Urgent Care at Montefiore Medical Center in the Bronx.
She had previously earned her MBBS degree (Bachelor of Medicine, Bachelor of Surgery; equivalent to the M.D. degree in the U.S.) from the Mahadevappa Rampure Medical College in Gulbarga, India. She did her residency at Brookdale University Hospital & Medical Center in Brooklyn and served a one-year fellowship in Neurology at New York University in Manhattan, NY.
During their time in New York, Dr. Chinta worked at the VA New York Harbor Health Care System and also worked as an emergency physician and urgent care doctor at Montefiore Medical Center.
Dr. Chinta earned his MBBS degree from Guntur Medical College in Guntur, India. He then did a one-year post-doctoral fellowship in nuclear medicine at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine in Baltimore, MD. He completed his residency in family medicine at St. Vincent’s Catholic Medical Center in New York, NY.
Check Out The Changes
Dr. Raguthu is proud to show off the new play area she created in the waiting room, so little ones don’t get antsy if they have to wait a few minutes to see the doctor. Even more than that, she says she gets a great response from patients when they visit her new room for nursing mothers.
“A lot of mothers are breastfeeding, and that’s very important,” says Dr. Raguthu. “We want to give them privacy and encourage breastfeeding, so we created a nursing room just for them.”
She says parents can feel comfortable bringing their kids to her, especially when they are sick or injured.
“I have a lot of experience in urgent and acute care,” says Dr. Raguthu, explaining that she is well trained in handling emergency issues if they arise, such as acute asthma or lacerations.
“We are accepting new patients, and we especially want to welcome back any patients who were with the practice before we came here,” says Dr. Raguthu, explaining that insurance companies have told former Tendercare patients that they needed to find a new doctor because Dr. Ranganathan no longer took their insurance.
Dr. Raguthu wants those patients to know that while Dr. Ranganathan is no longer at the practice, Tendercare Pediatrics can accept their insurance. They can continue coming to the practice where they are already established, and she is there waiting to see them.
Dr. Raguthu says that the new office offers an improved experience for anyone who has been to Tendercare Pediatrics in the past.
Sowmya Ayyala, a mom who lives in Arbor Greene and has taken her two daughters, ages 4 and 1, to Tendercare Pediatrics since they were born, says that the claim is true.
“It was a very smooth transition,” says Sowmya. “Dr. Raguthu spends good, quality time for each visit, and the wait is usually only 10-15 minutes from the front desk until the time I see the doctor. On all my visits, she spends a lot of time explaining everything, and medically, what she recommends works for my daughters.”
Sowmya also admits that she was, “concerned about having a new pediatrician because I was used to the other one, but I had met Dr. Raguthu at an urgent care and I liked her then. I thought I would try a couple of visits, and I’ve had a fantastic experience.”
Dr. Raguthu believes that her own personal journey has helped her to be a more empathetic practitioner.
“I love kids,” she says. “My husband and I were in medical school when we lost our infant baby, who was three months old. That’s where my interest in pediatrics really started.”
She adds that she also has experienced recovering from a stroke that she suffered right after medical school. “I look at life differently because of my experiences,” she says. “I appreciate things that are often taken for granted, like walking, talking, even picking up the phone with my right hand,” all things she could not do at one point.
“I can feel the pain of every mother who calls with a concern,” she says. “I never brush them off.”
Always Available For Patients
As a primarily solo practitioner, Dr. Raguthu makes herself available in a way you might not find in a larger practice.
“I am accessible via phone 24/7,” she says. “After hours, the business phones roll over directly to my cell phone.”
She says she generally adds her patients to her contacts so she can text them to follow up. “I want them to have a personal touch,” she says. “My patients appreciate the fact that I can help them on weekends by providing triage care and calling in prescriptions. I do as much as I can to help them after hours.”
Tendercare Pediatrics is accepting new patients from birth to age 21, and accepts self-pay patients, as well as those with Medicaid or private insurance.
“We welcome walk-ins, so feel free to just come by,” she says. “When patients call, we are happy to give them a same-day appointment if we can, and most of the time we’re able to.”
Tendercare Pediatrics is located at 27432 Cashford Cir., Suite 102. The office is open Monday-Friday, 8:30 a.m.-5 p.m. For more information about the practice, call 973-9900.
Samantha Taylor (third from left in front row) focuses on helping women lose — and keep off — those unwanted pounds with her Pure Health Personal Training & Fit Body Boot Camp programs.
As women age, personal trainer Samantha Taylor says they gain weight and lose muscle if they don’t do something to stop it. While many women in their 60s think they have to accept their bodies’ decline because they’re getting older, Samantha says that’s just not true.
“Sixty is truly the new 40,” she says. “We’re teaching women a way to eat that they love. It’s not a diet, not a pill, not shots; just understanding how to eat, how to work out their muscles for tone, and develop a healthy lifestyle they can keep for life.”
All this happens at Samantha Taylor Fitness, located across the street from Florida Hospital Wesley Chapel (FHWC) in the Shoppes of Wesley Chapel plaza on Bruce B. Downs (BBD) Blvd. Samantha’s first location is nearby in Land O’Lakes, off of S.R. 54 on Knight Rd., and she just opened her third location, in Carrollwood, on Dec. 15.
At all three locations, Samantha offers her Pure Health Personal Training and Fit Body Boot Camp programs. Both include fitness training and nutritional counseling for women only, helping them to “age backwards,” as Samantha says.
Both programs start with a completely free, no-obligation consultation called a “Body Transformation Analysis” to determine goals and plan a fitness program.
The most customized, personal and private option available is Pure Health Personal Training. This can be done in one-on-one, semi-private, or small group sessions. In addition to personal training sessions, each client also meets with an assigned results coach monthly, to be sure they’re progressing.
Clients who choose Samantha’s Fit Body Boot Camp attend regular or beginner Fit Body Boot Camp sessions, which vary in cardiovascular intensity levels. Several classes are offered every day, and women choose three or more times each week to attend.
“We are getting women in amazing shape,” Samantha says. She is a Certified Personal Trainer who began her career 24 years ago and launched her own business 17 years ago. During that time, she estimates that she has trained 5,000 local women. Samantha uses her experience as a personal trainer, seeing what works and what doesn’t with her many clients, and her years of intensely studying the human body to coach women in fitness and healthy eating.
“Most of the people who come to us have done all the diets,” says Samantha. “The shakes, pills, protein diets and calorie depravation diets. They’re shocked they can eat the way I show them, they love the food, and they lose weight.”
She says many of her clients see more than just weight loss – they’re getting healthier as well. “They are preventing diseases such as heart disease and diabetes,” she says. “Some women no longer have to take cholesterol or blood pressure medication, and no longer suffer from muscle pains and aches.”
Cathy’s Story
One of those women is Cathy Moreland, who joined Pure Health Personal Training more than a year ago. She says the small group personal training has completely transformed her life.
“I had done every diet under the sun,” says Cathy. “I was taking blood pressure medication, cholesterol medication, and was seeing a chiropractor on a regular basis for my hips, back, and knees. I was worried about heart problems because I’m 64 and both my parents had bypass surgery in their 70s.”
Samantha Taylor (left) and Cathy Moreland, who has lost 40 pounds and six inches in 15 months.
She says that on other programs, she would often hit her goal weight, then gain it all back. With Samantha, she says the focus is on education, plus both eating and getting physically fit.
“I didn’t realize that I’d learn so much about my physical, internal health,” Cathy says, or that she would be able to stop taking the medications she was on. “Now I know how to eat, and I enjoy it. I’ve done it for 15 months, and I’m not worried about ever putting the weight back on again.”
Cathy has lost 40 pounds, as well as six inches around her waist. And, Cathy just passed the ultimate test — a three-week vacation in Italy, the land of bread, pasta, and wine. So, how much weight did she gain on her vacation?
“Actually, I lost a pound,” she says. “We walked so much, and I was never sore, sick, or tired.” She explains she was with a group of 43 people, and she would watch other people eat, then complain of being stuffed and bloated. Many also complained of sore feet or back pain.
“I wanted to tell them, ‘I know why you feel like you feel, and I know why I feel like I feel,’” adding that she enjoyed all the foods she knew she could eat, such as filling up in the morning on the hotel breakfast buffet of eggs, bacon, cheese, and fruit, and taking a piece of fruit from the buffet for a snack later on.
“I wasn’t hungry, I just didn’t overeat,” she says. “I didn’t crave pasta and bread. It sounds unbelievable, but it was amazing.”
The Six-Week Challenge
Samantha offers six-week “Body Transformation Challenges,” where she gives away thousands of dollars in prizes, including a Grand Prize cruise for two. Her last six-week challenge recently wrapped up, with participants losing a combined 1,000 pounds.
The next challenge will begin on January 23. To register, or for more information, go to 6weekBTC.com. Just like in previous challenges, the woman who loses the most weight will win a cruise.
Expanding Into New Tampa
Samantha says her business continues to grow and expand, and she’s excited about her future plans in New Tampa. She recently bought 13 acres of property on County Line Rd. near Grand Hampton and is planning to build a 9,000-square-foot building.
“We will offer personal training and boot camp, plus have a kitchen with a full-time chef,” Samantha says. “We’ll offer cooking classes and healthy prepared meals, along with a spa for massage and maybe facials.”
She anticipates opening the new location in early 2018.
Samantha says something else new that she’s been doing recently is a segment on “Tampa Bay’s Morning Blend,” which airs on WFTS-TV, the local ABC affiliate. She brings guests on the show, sometimes clients, and shares what she calls, “ridiculous, delicious recipes.”
For recipes and to view segments of the show, including Cathy’s story in her own words from when she was Samantha’s guest on “Tampa Bay’s Morning Blend,” visit SamanthaTaylorFitness.com.
On her website, you can also get more information about her programs and her upcoming seminar, “5 Simple Keys to Get Results in 2017,” which will be held on Saturday, January 7, 12:30 p.m.
The Wesley Chapel Samantha Taylor Fitness studio is located is at 2653 BBD Blvd., Suite 205 (second floor). For more info, see her website, the ad on page 38 or call 377-3739.
Frank Skoviera and his dog Max drove more than 12,000 miles in 53 days together to raise awareness of — and more than $13,000 for — the Facial Pain Research Foundation in Gainesville.
On October 10, Tampa Palms resident Frank Skoviera had an idea. As a two-year volunteer communications director for the Facial Pain Research Foundation (located in Gainesville, FL), he had heard from thousands of people across the country suffering from a condition called trigeminal neuralgia, a debilitating pain that is caused by irritation of the trigeminal nerve, which carries sensation from the face to the brain. People struggling with trigeminal neuralgia can experience severe pain while chewing, speaking, or brushing their teeth.
Frank’s idea was to visit as many people as possible across the country to hear their stories in person, while also educating people about the condition and raising financial support for the foundation.
Ten days later, on October 20, Frank and his dog, Max, set off on their journey in Frank’s SUV, which he had wrapped with marketing messages to support the cause.
Over the next 53 days, Frank and Max trekked across the country, meeting with people, driving through a total of 37 states on a journey of 12,400 miles.
Frank’s role with the Facial Pain Research Foundation is not only one of service. He is a passionate advocate for people who suffer from trigeminal neuralgia because he also is a patient.
Frank’s Pain
“I’ve had chronic pain for the past 15 years,” Frank says. “At first, I spent months going to different types of doctors and dentists and an array of professionals, while the pain was getting worse, more frequent and spreading.”
Meanwhile, he was also trying to balance his career as a project manager at IBM with taking care of his family, and says the only word he can think of to describe that first year was “hellacious.”
Frank says the medical community has categorized this disease as a “suicide disease” and as, “the worst pain known to mankind.” It is often misdiagnosed and mistreated by professionals in both the medical and dental fields, who often mistake trigeminal neuralgia as a toothache. Frank says many patients have had root canals and teeth pulled, only to find the pain had worsened afterwards.
“I know how difficult it is and how it affects patients and their families,” Frank says. “I know how lonely it can be.”
He explains he is often in too much pain to even speak to his wife. At the end of the day, when she comes home from work, his pain is often at its peak. It can be frustrating for him and many families like his.
“There isn’t an area of your life that goes untouched,” Frank says. “Everything that you formerly knew as normal is now changed. It’s truly horrific.”
Supporting The Foundation
Frank took a medical leave from his career at IBM, then subsequently retired. About two years ago, he began volunteering as the communications director of the Facial Pain Research Foundation, which is funding research across the country to find a cure for trigeminal neuralgia.
Trigeminal neuralgia is rare, estimated to affect just over 100,000 people in the U.S. It is caused by a blood vessel pressing on the trigeminal nerve as it exits the brain stem, which wears away the protective coating around the nerve. This can happen as a result of injury or a variety of factors.
On his nationwide trip, Frank met with some of the researchers who are working on the five projects currently being funded by the foundation, which include work being done at the University of Florida in Gainesville; Duke University in Durham, NC; Rutgers University in New Brunswick, NJ; and at the University of California at San Francisco.
“We’re making great progress,” says Frank. “The scientific team and consortium of researchers we have working on this is staggering. They are world-renowned pain research specialists, and they are hugely committed to finding a cure.”
Frank says his trip was completely self-funded and that, in addition to raising awareness, he also set a goal of raising $10,000 for the Facial Pain Research Foundation. He reports that he expects to exceed that amount by at least 30 percent, once all of the pledges have been received and the final tally is made.
“Every dollar that we raise comes from the private community,” Frank says. “All of our staff — from the people who write the thank you letters to our trustees — everyone is a volunteer. So, 98.2% of the money we raise goes to research. We only pay for stamps and for our post office box in Gainesville.”
The money that was raised on this trip will go directly to supporting the research. Frank says the foundation fully expects the research to lead to a cure for trigeminal neuralgia by 2020.
The hope of a cure is one of the things that inspired Frank to get out and talk to people across the nation, especially those who are suffering from this disease. “I know how much pain you’re in,” he says he told them. “Hang in there. Research is in play and we hope to have something to help you (soon).”
53 Days of Driving?
When Frank returned home on December 11, he had held 75 meetings spread out over 37 states. In addition to meeting trigeminal neuralgia researchers and patients, Frank’s son Aaron was instrumental in setting up meetings with statewide golf associations, where he could share his message of awareness with staff members, who then passed information on to their hundreds of thousands of members through newsletter articles.
In the short 10 days he planned his trip, Frank had his car wrapped with bright teal decals inviting people to learn more about his “Drive Away the Pain” campaign. Frank says his car caught the attention of passers-by in major cities, such as Chicago, Los Angeles, Atlanta, Philadelphia, and even New York City, where he says thousands of people noticed his car at the corner of 5th Avenue and 15th Street, with many stopping to see the car’s messages.
As Frank traveled, he invited the people he met with to write a message on a four-inch circular teal decal that he then applied to the car, in a sense carrying that person with him the rest of the journey.
Frank says he spent all day driving, often with two or three meetings throughout the day, then ended at a hotel room, where he mapped where he was going next, and arranging meetings with the people in those locations who had requested he visit them.
“The skills I had cultivated in my career as (an IBM) project manager were very useful in organizing this trip,” he says.
Frank says he was in pain throughout the trip, but that he’s, “too hard headed” to let that stop him. “I take a small amount of medication, which helps a bit,” he says. “I use massage therapy, breathing exercises, tai chi, soft music, anything that relaxes the central nervous system. I also use distraction therapy. I’m fortunate that my mind is busy and I stay busy with the foundation.”
He adds, “Reaching out to others with the condition is helpful, too, because it takes some of the focus off myself.”
To learn more about the Facial Pain Research Foundation, visit FacingFacialPain.org. To see pictures of Frank’s journey or learn more about his nationwide campaign, look for “Drive Away the Pain” on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter.
Dade City’s annual Kumquat Festival will be held on Saturday, January 28, 9 a.m. – 5 p.m. This year is the milestone 20th anniversary of the event, which celebrates the kumquat, “a unique and funky little fruit,” as described by John Moors, executive director of the event’s host, the Greater Dade City Chamber of Commerce.
