The New Tampa Family YMCA in Tampa Palms is well known for its impact on the community. On April 29, it expanded this impact to benefit the Wounded Warrior Project.
The Wounded Warrior Project provides free programs and services focused on the physical, mental, and long-term financial well being of injured veterans, their families and caregivers.
As of April 1, 2016, this 501 (c)(3) nonprofit organization has served 87,264 veterans as well as 17,872 family members.
The New Tampa Y hosted 40 warriors from all over the southeastern U.S. — as far away as North Carolina — for the project.
The warriors participated in games like “Capture the Flag,” rock climbing, basketball and baseball, and completed a water fitness & therapy class conducted by a YMCA personal trainer.
The warriors and their families also took classes regarding healthy eating habits and diabetes prevention. New Tampa YMCA executive director Tony Kimbrough, who also ran the Wounded Warrior Project event, says that the goal is to make this an annual event for the Warriors.
“We are definitely looking to expand this program in the future,” Kimbrough says.
For more information about the Wounded Warrior Project, volunteer information, or to make a donation, please visit WoundedWarriorProject.org. For more information about the New Tampa Family YMCA (16221 Compton Dr.), please visit TampaYMCA.org/locations/new-tampa.
New River Elementary students and members of the school’s nutrition team (l.-r.) Cameron Keehn, Payton Furman, Payton Leidy & Charyn Maldonado will make their recipe, cheesy chicken and bacon quesadillas with Greek yogurt veggie dip, for the Dairy Council of Florida’s third annual Gridiron Cooking Challenge.
A team of students from New River Elementary was chosen as a finalist to compete in the Dairy Council of Florida’s third annual Gridiron Cooking Challenge this Saturday.
The Tampa Bay Buccaneers will host the event, which is part of Fuel Up to Play 60, an in-school nutrition and physical activity program launched by the National Dairy Council and the National Football League to help encourage today’s youth across the U.S. to lead healthier lives.
New River Elementary is a recipient of a Fuel Up to Play 60 grant and has participated in the event for the past three years, since the competition’s inception. The school’s team won the first year it competed, and this year’s team members want to put their school back on top.
New River fourth grade students Cameron Keehn, Payton Furman, Payton Leidy and Charyn Maldonado will make their recipe — cheesy chicken and bacon quesadilla with Greek yogurt veggie dip, for the event’s judges.
“The kids got together to create this recipe,” says Kathy Gillooly, one of the team’s coaches, along with Holly Mitchell and Ryan Ketterer (all three are physical education teachers at New River). “They wanted it to be fun and creative, and kid-friendly.” She says the students made their quesadillas in the shape of footballs, and that they were surprised at how much they liked the veggie dip, which includes spinach, peppers and onions.
Gillooly explains that the students are part of New River Elementary’s nutrition team, which goes on the school’s morning show to give tips on healthy eating and sets up a table at school events to hand out free samples of nutritious snacks and smoothies. There are nine kids on the nutrition team, so Gillooly explains that they drew names out of a hat to choose which four students would be able to participate in the cooking challenge.
“It’s pretty exciting,” Gillooly says of the competition. “They go all out to make it a big deal for the kids.”
The competition will be held at One Buc Place on Saturday, May 14. For more information about the Gridiron Cooking Challenge, please visit FloridaMilk.com/FuelUpToPlay60.
(l.-r.) Astrid Coffey, Nick Diorio and Jolene Baldwin today run First in Tampa Bay Real Estate, which has a nearby office on N. 56th St. in Temple Terrace.
Mary Ann Diorio was one of the first advertisers in the New Tampa Neighborhood News. For two decades, she advertised her property management business on these pages. After a battle with non-Hodgkin lymphoma, Mary Ann passed away in September 2015.
Her husband, Nick Diorio, and daughter, Jolene Baldwin, are continuing Mary Ann’s legacy through their business, which is called First in Tampa Bay Real Estate and uses the website MaryAnnRents.com, finding tenants for property owners in New Tampa and the surrounding areas, and managing properties for those owners.
Nick has been a licensed Realtor since 1987. When he retired from a 20-year career at Verizon in 2008, he got his real estate Broker’s license and opened First in Tampa Bay Real Estate. Mary Ann had been working at other area companies, and Nick says they “joined forces” at First In Tampa Bay Real Estate in 2013. Astrid Coffey, a Pebble Creek resident and licensed Realtor since 1998, has been with the company since 2014.
When her mom passed away, Jolene also became licensed as a Realtor and joined the company.
“If you’re a landlord and we manage your property,” Nick explains, “we act as your representative.”
So, for example, the tenant pays rent to First In Tampa Bay Real Estate, and calls the company to schedule necessary repairs. “It takes the emotion out of being an owner and having to deal with tenants.”
For example, he says landlords often give tenants the benefit of the doubt, so if tenants say they’ll be a “little late” on rent, they grant them extra time to pay.
“But then, all of a sudden,” Nick says, “it’s the middle of the month, then it’s the end of that month and that ‘slow pay’ turns into a ‘no pay.’”
He works with tenants whenever possible, but will start a 45-day eviction process if the tenant doesn’t pay as agreed. “We don’t want to evict,” he says, “and I would say less than three percent of our properties ever get evicted.” But, he adds, there’s a process in place to ensure that all rent is paid on time.
The Diorios’ friend (and former New Tampa resident) Linda Crenshaw, with Nick & Mary Ann Diorio.
A Pebble Creek resident named Joan says she started working with Mary Ann 18 years ago, when Joan became responsible for a property a family member owns in Tampa Palms.
“I had a camaraderie with Mary Ann for so many years,” Joan says, “but the company hasn’t changed. They’re very helpful and friendly, the rent is always on time, and they take care of business.”
Ernie Angelilli owns a townhome in Tampa Palms and had worked with Mary Ann for the past eight years.
“Mary Ann was always there, but over the past couple of years, Nick became more integrated with the business,” Ernie says. “The transition was seamless and you couldn’t even tell Mary Ann was getting sicker.”
Ernie also says that First In Tampa Bay Real Estate is “fabulous” and lists many reasons why he recommends the company. “They’re pleasant, easy to work with, and very responsive,” he says. “They properly screen tenants and I’ve never had any problems with payments. They always let me know in advance if there’s a problem and give me options to resolve it. Then, they give very detailed statements on anything they do.”
Nick says, “This business has always been Mary Ann’s business,” and explains that his role was always more behind the scenes. “For the two years she was sick, we began building trust with her clients, and our clients have stayed with us since she passed away.”
Mary Ann’s way of handling her clients set the standard for how Nick, Jolene and Astrid now continue running the business.
“Our tagline has been, ‘We manage your property properly,’ and that’s what we do,” Nick says. “Mary Ann was always honest and straightforward. For example, she’d rather give you her honest opinion, even if she risked losing the business when a client didn’t hear what they wanted to hear [about what their property is worth on the rental market].”
‘Priced Right & Shows Well’
“If a property is priced right and shows well, it’s going to rent right away,” Nick says, warning that asking for too much rent can backfire on a property owner. “If you let it sit for a month, you’ve lost that rent (for that month).”
First In Tampa Bay Real Estate recently listed a 4-bedroom, 3-bathroom home in Hunter’s Green for $2,950 per month. It was rented in 6 days for a monthly rent of $2,850.
“We’re coming into the busy season because people are starting to look now so they can move when school gets out,” says Nick. “But, even in the middle of winter, a house will still rent if the price is right.”
As for showing well, when the Realtors at First In Tampa Bay Real Estate take on a new client, they give their professional opinion as to what needs to be done, usually easy fixes such as painting or removing wallpaper.
“Making a small investment often makes a big difference,” Nick explains. “We give you advice to get the price you want. If you don’t want to do these things, you might get less, and your home might be the last one rented.”
When a renter moves in, a member of the First In Tampa Bay Real Estate team does a walk-through via video to record what the property looks like. When that tenant moves out, another walk-through is conducted to determine what needs to be corrected before the property goes back on the market. “This provides proof to both the owner and tenant of the condition of when they moved in and when they move out,” says Nick.
Someone from First In Tampa Bay Real Estate also checks on each property in person at least once every six months, to check on the property’s condition. Checklist items include being sure sprinklers are on, air filters have been changed, and there are no bugs, since pest control is normally the responsibility of the tenant.
First in Tampa Bay Real Estate currently manages about 90 properties.
“We’re not a large company,” says Nick, “so we’re able to offer personalized services, but we have the benefits of a larger company because of technology.” He says this includes a 24-hour emergency phone number that is always answered.
“It’s not about the number of accounts we have,” Nick says, “but about having accounts that are happy with us.”
First In Tampa Bay Real Estate is located at 9385 N. 56th St., #312. Hours are Mon.–Fri., 9 a.m.-5 p.m., with other hours available by appointment. For more information, go to MaryAnnRents.com, call Nick at 417-9575 or email nick@nickdiorio.com.
On any given afternoon, the emergency department at Florida Hospital Wesley Chapel (FHWC) can get pretty busy. With all of the people living in and near Wesley Chapel and choosing FHWC for their care, sometimes every emergency room (ER) bed is full and the staff has to get creative to accommodate all of the patients who need to be seen.
So, it’s a good thing that the hospital’s expansion is already well underway. In December, FHWC’s emergency department will expand from 18 rooms to 35, which is, perhaps, the most vital part of a $78-million expansion that is adding three floors and 111,993 square feet of new space to the hospital, which already is 200,000 square feet.
“This expansion is important, so that we can continue to provide excellent care for folks in our community,” says FHWC director of marketing Tracy Clouser. “We are blessed that the community continues to choose us and we are adding space to better serve those patients.”
FHWC originally opened in 2012 with a plan to expand in five years or more, but due to the need in the community, the expansion began much sooner than initially anticipated. Because the hospital was designed to be expanded, construction of the new space – which started last August – has moved quickly.
The hospital includes three wings, referred to as the North, Center, and South wings. The current expansion adds three stories to the Center Wing and adds a three-story “connector wing,” called the “Southeast Connector,” between the Center and South wings.
In the Center Wing, patient rooms are being constructed on the fifth and sixth floors, while the fourth floor will remain a “shell” for future expansion. Clouser explains that the plan was to open two floors and keep one for future expansion, so the decision was made to leave the fourth floor shelled to minimize the disturbance to hospital patients on Floors 1-3 during construction.
In addition to new emergency and patient rooms, the expansion allows FHWC to add more doctors, especially in orthopaedics, providing more physician choices and more procedures available to people in the community. Also, when the expansion is complete, the hospital will have a new gym for in-patient rehab, so patients will no longer have to do rehab in their rooms or in the hospital’s hallways. Additional observation rooms will be opened for both pre- and post-op patients. Other changes include the operating room for women who have to undergo a C-section being moved up one floor, so that patients no longer need to be transferred by elevator to the mother/ baby unit.
The hospital’s central energy plant also is being expanded to accommodate FHWC’s new footprint. Clouser explains that if there is a power outage, all medical essentials plugged into the hospital’s red plugs will come back online immediately. Non-essentials, such as computers, will come back on within seven minutes.
A Work In Progress
Every day, about 200 people are working on FHWC’s expansion. On the day the Neighborhood News toured the construction areas, crews were putting in HVAC ductwork and starting drywall in the three-story addition to the Center Wing. Pre-cast concrete panels were being raised by a crane – weighing anywhere from 12,000-30,000 pounds (or 6-15 tons!; right photo on previous pg.) – and were put in place to form the new outside walls of the building.
The expansion construction will be completed in October or November of this year. The building will open in December, once inspections by Pasco County and hospital authorities have been completed.
Renovations, Too
As part of the construction, more than 10,000 square feet of the hospital’s existing space is being renovated. One renovation that’s already complete is the new heart catheterization lab (photo, right), which includes accommodations requested by cardiologists who specialize in electrophysiology, which is the study of the heart’s electrical system.
Some of the innovations in the heart “cath” lab include a “tilt and cradle table,” allowing doctors to move the patient for scans or procedures without having to prop them up with towels, as they would on a table that doesn’t tilt. Everything in the lab is on booms, so that all of the equipment can be moved easily, in whatever configuration the doctors need it. And, a 55-inch flat screen TV allows doctors to see any of six views, including a patient’s CT scans.
A Healing Place
“The original hospital design was very intentionally created to be a healing environment,” says Clouser. “We have lots of natural light and open space, with inviting colors, artwork that depicts scenes of nature, and lots of plants and trees visible from both patient rooms and waiting rooms.”
Some of the plants and trees are growing in FHWC’s two healing gardens, located in the hospital’s courtyards, although one is currently used for construction and will re-open when the renovations have been completed.
Clouser explains that FHWC’s healing environment will be continued throughout the new construction, too. Just like in the current hospital, many details that may not be apparent to visitors have been intentionally done to protect patients.
“For example, the building’s sprinkler heads are built into the ceiling so they don’t collect dust,” says Clouser. “In our intensive care unit and emergency department, the blinds are inside the glass so they don’t collect dust.”
She also says that the hospital has two elevator systems so that visitors don’t share elevators with patients. “This is both for patient privacy and to protect patients from germs.”
FHWC is located at 2600 Bruce B. Downs Blvd. in Wesley Chapel. To learn more about the hospital, visit FloridaHospital.com/Wesley-Chapel or call 929-5000.
Tampa Palms resident Craig DiCecco is the New Tampa Family YMCA’s Volunteer of the Year.
Thanks to the efforts of volunteers like Tampa Palms resident Craig DiCecco, the New Tampa Family YMCA continues to help people in need in and around our community.
DiCecco was named the facility’s “Volunteer of the Year” at the annual Tampa Metropolitan Area YMCA’s annual Community Impact Awards dinner on Feb. 25.
DiCecco, whose three kids have all participated in sports at the New Tampa YMCA over the past 10 years or so, is a real estate appraiser who is also a member of the New Tampa Rotary Club. He first became involved with the YMCA through the Wiregrass Wobble Turkey Trot, which is an event put on jointly each year by both organizations.
“Craig has really stepped up in many ways, especially with the Turkey Trot, ” says Tony Kimbrough, New Tampa Family YMCA executive director. “The event helps us raise funds to provide programs that impact our members and the community.”
Some of these programs include drowning prevention, teen leadership, the YMCA’s partnership with LIVESTRONG, adaptive programs for people with special needs, and providing financial assistance to kids who need it to attend summer camp.
“There are a lot of families in need,” says Kimbrough, “and we serve them. Summer camp can really help kids close the achievement gap. We see that there’s a lot less of a ‘summer learning loss’ for kids who come to our summer camps, versus those who don’t get that opportunity.”
Honored To Be Recognized
DiCecco says he is honored to have received the award. “The Y is a great organization with a lot of fantastic volunteers,” he says. “It’s tough for me to understand why I deserve this more than others whose faces I see at the Y every day.”
But, Kimbrough says DiCecco absolutely deserves to be recognized for his efforts.
“Craig also serves as vice chair of the New Tampa Family YMCA advisory board, and he’s been instrumental in helping us to raise both money and awareness,” says Kimbrough. “He’s always the first to raise his hand to volunteer when something needs to be done.”
By Christen Caporali
The warriors participated in games like “Capture the Flag,” rock climbing, basketball and baseball, and completed a water fitness & therapy class conducted by a YMCA personal trainer.
“The kids got together to create this recipe,” says Kathy Gillooly, one of the team’s coaches, along with Holly Mitchell and Ryan Ketterer (all three are physical education teachers at New River). “They wanted it to be fun and creative, and kid-friendly.” She says the students made their quesadillas in the shape of footballs, and that they were surprised at how much they liked the veggie dip, which includes spinach, peppers and onions.
On any given afternoon, the emergency department at Florida Hospital Wesley Chapel (FHWC) can get pretty busy. With all of the people living in and near Wesley Chapel and choosing FHWC for their care, sometimes every emergency room (ER) bed is full and the staff has to get creative to accommodate all of the patients who need to be seen.
