K-Bar Ranch Resident & Local Debate Champion Makes Team USA!

Arpan Bagui

Arpan Bagui did not grow up arguing with his parents, trying to win them over in a quest for a new toy or a sweet snack, or trying to convince them that he might one day become a lawyer.

Instead, he was quiet, shy and measured.

But, middle school brought out Arpan’s gregarious side, and he grew comfortable with public speaking.

It wasn’t until he entered King High School, however, where he boasts a 4.0 grade-point-average in the International Baccalaureate (IB) program, that he realized he had a penchant for something he had always eschewed.

“I knew I liked speaking,” the 16-year-old K-Bar Ranch resident says, “but debate seemed a little intense. I didn’t expect it, but once I started doing it, I felt like this was my thing.”

After a number of impressive debate performances and tournament wins, including a second-place finish at an event at Yale University in New Haven, CT, last fall, Arpan, now a junior at King, was selected to the USA Debate Team, making him one of only two dozen students in the country to earn that designation.

After applying — along with 150,000 other high school students across the country — Arpan didn’t think much of it. “A crapshoot,” he called it. “I was just throwing it out there.”

But the National Speech & Debate Association picked him for the rigorous USA Debate Team process that included sending a video of Arpan giving a speech and writing a few essays.

After passing through each level successfully, Arpan made it onto the USA team with only 23 others.

“That was pretty awesome for me,” he says. “I really like representing Tampa, and usually the people chosen for this are from bigger states like Texas and California and the northeast. I was very surprised they took someone from Florida.”

Half of those chosen, with Arpan being one of them, will train on the USA developmental team, while the others will compete internationally on the primary team of 12. Arpan, the vice president of the Debate Club at King High, trains with the Team USA debate coaches via Skype and also will represent the team at some upcoming competitions.

Arpan, who also attended Clark Elementary in West Meadows, began honing his skills during what he calls a “transitional phase” while attending Williams Middle School on N. 47th St. in Tampa. He joined the school’s Model United Nations program, and gave his first public speeches, including one at a competition in New York.

“The experience was great,” says Arpan, who also is an accomplished chess player. He combined the two things — public speaking and the logic required to win at chess — into a love for debate when he entered high school.

He finished third in his first prep competition. “From then on I knew it would be something I would stick with through high school,” he says.

There are two forms of high school debates. One is “Congressional,” which Arpan says simulates more of a legislative setting, and the other is “Lincoln-Douglas,” a 1-on-1 competition mirroring The Great Debates of 1858 between then-U.S. Senate candidate Abraham Lincoln and Senator Stephen Douglas

Debaters are given the topic weeks in advance, and must argue both the negative and affirmative side of the topic in competition. Each round takes roughly 45 minutes, and if you advance to the finals, it could mean as many as 6-7 hours debating an issue.

Arpan says that when he competed at Yale, he was exhausted after arguing five rounds each day, on the topic of national service. “During the round, the adrenaline carries me through,” Arpan says. “But, right after the final speech, I close my eyes, and it feels so good.”

It was debate that led Arpan to his other passion — a 501 (c) (3) non-profit organization he founded called Best Fit Foundation. While at a debate camp the summer between his freshman and sophomore year, Apran realized how much money the weekend was costing his family. He wondered about other kids his age who might not be as fortunate to be able to afford the same experience.

“It dawned on me that there are kids who can’t pay this, but want to debate,” Arpan says. “It didn’t seem right that those who want to do extra curricular activities can’t because of financial barriers. If that’s the case, then those barriers need to be broken down.”

Best Fit Foundation started out providing clothes for those extra curricular activities, many of which, like FBLA and DECA, require suits and ties and nice shoes. Along with some of his friends who also are part of Best Fit Foundation, Arpan began collecting, buying and holding clothing drives and the group now has 500 articles to distribute to those who need it. One of his friend’s brothers moved out, and his room is now one big air-conditioned closet.

Best Fit Foundation also solicited donations from businesses, and raised $1,200 from a Kickstarter program, to help offset costs for those who can’t afford extracurricular activities at school. The nonprofit contributed $400 of the $600 per student needed to compete in a debate competition at Princeton University in Princeton, NJ. The group hopes to help others by paying their club dues.

“It’s something we really like doing,” Arpan says, adding that he wants to get the word out that any student at any school in Hillsborough County, can go to BestFitFoundation.org and apply for help.

KAP Medical Group Offers A New Approach With Direct Primary Care

Medical assistant and office manager Michelle Diaz (left) and Dr. Karina Azank Parilo are the only two faces you’ll see when you visit KAP Medical Group off Bruce B. Downs Blvd.

Karina Azank Parilo, M.D., is proud to be Wesley Chapel’s only Direct Primary Care family physician.

After eight years in a local medical group, Dr. Parilo says she was frustrated with the ever-increasing number of patients she was expected to see, which was necessary in a medical group setting to cover the overhead costs associated with having to bill insurance companies.

Although Dr. Parilo says she already had 2,700 active patients, the group expected her to take on even more new patients.

“There were patients I’d had for six years who couldn’t get in to see me and couldn’t do their hospital follow-ups with me,” she says, explaining her schedule was too full to be able to work them in, “and I was becoming increasingly frustrated.”

So, in February of this year, she decided to leave the group she had been with and open her own practice, using a newer model known as Direct Primary Care.

That means her practice, which is located in the Windfair Professional Park behind the retail plaza on Bruce B. Downs (BBD) Blvd. that includes Dickey’s BBQ and The Hungry Greek restaurants, doesn’t bill insurance companies.

“Instead, there is a membership fee for the practice,” Dr. Parilo explains, “which is generally $50-$60 for an individual, or a family with two kids is $150 per month.”

The practice is open to all ages, from birth to death. The monthly fee covers unlimited office visits and virtual visits via phone or video, in-office tests, well checks, sick visits, weight management, and management of chronic medical conditions such as hypertension, diabetes, high cholesterol, asthma, arthritis and more.

For minor office procedures, such as cyst removal or laceration repair, a small supply fee is charged. A list of most membership costs is available at KAPMedicalGroup.com.

Dr. Parilo compares it to a gym membership, where you pay the same whether you visit once a year or once a month, or even once a week, which Dr. Parilo says some of her patients do to drop in for their regular weight checks.

She says her practice is an alternative to what’s becoming more common with primary care physicians, where the overhead costs to have staff available to constantly submit and follow up on insurance claims becomes one of the unfortunate driving forces of the practice.

“Dealing with insurance is a pain,” she says, “and a lot of administrative cost goes into billing insurance.”

To cover the costs, those doctors simply have to see more patients. “As a result,” she explains, “doctors just don’t have time.”

Dr. Parilo is originally from Tampa. She earned her Bachelor of Science (B.S.) degree in Biology from Duke University in Durham, NC, then came home and earned a Doctor of Medicine (M.D.) degree from the University of South Florida in 2005. While she started training in anesthesiology, she changed her focus to primary care because she found she missed building ongoing relationships with her patients.

“I like taking care of kids, women, men and the older population,” she says, “so I went into family medicine to be able to take care of everybody.”

In 2008, she moved to Massachusetts and completed a residency in family medicine at the University of Massachusetts in Worcester in 2010.

At the time, she says she was a single mom, so she was excited to be able to bring her daughter back home to the Tampa area where Dr. Parilo was raised.

Now, she and her husband, Dane, live in Seven Oaks and have a blended family of three children and two grandchildren. They met through the Rotary Club of Wesley Chapel in 2012 and both have remained active in the club.

“I enjoy the service aspect of Rotary and enjoy serving the community,” she says. For example, in addition to being involved with the club’s local service projects, both Dr. Parilo and her husband have been part of the Rotary Club’s trips to Honduras to provide clean drinking water and latrines for families and schools in the mountainous and impoverished city of Troyes.

More Time With Patients

With the Direct Primary Care model, Dr. Parilo says the main advantage is the amount of time she can spend with each patient when needed, and that the time she spends with each patient is flexible to meet their needs, as well.

“I have time to talk with my patients’ specialists or spend an hour catching up with them if they’ve had a lengthy hospital stay,” she explains. “I can take care of my patients however they need to be taken care of.”

While that might be in person, at times, she notes that it also could mean via phone, via video conference or even via text. Dr. Parilo uses an app that maintains patient privacy and connects directly with the patient’s electronic medical record.

“Patients love it,” she says, adding that many times, her patients don’t want to leave work to come in for an appointment. “They can just send us a picture and we can respond.”

Dr. Parilo has just one person on her staff. Michelle Diaz is Dr. Parilo’s medical assistant and office manager. The two have worked together since 2010.

“My old patients have known her and loved her as long as they’ve known me,” Dr. Parilo says.

Daelyn Fortney is a Seven Oaks resident who began seeing Dr. Parilo shortly after KAP Medical Group opened. In the few months since then, Daelyn has brought her entire family to the practice. Now, Daelyn’s husband, three children, son-in-law and granddaughter are all Dr. Parilo’s patients.

“Dr. Parilo is a good doctor and a great person,” Daelyn says. “It’s almost like a partnership with her. Plus, you walk into the office and they actually know you. That (kind of service) has been lost in recent years.”

Daelyn adds that she had been frustrated trying to find the right primary care physician, and the time she saves with KAP Medical Group is worth every penny.

“We run our own business,” Daelyn says, “so our time is actually money, when we have to take time away from our business.”

$aving Money?

Dr. Parilo says in some cases, Direct Primary Care may save her patients money.

“People don’t realize how much they’re spending before they get anything,” she explains. “You pay premiums whether you ever see a doctor or not.”

She says most people don’t have an old, traditional insurance plan where they can see any doctor they choose and pay a simple co-pay. Most patients have a high deductible they have to pay before the insurance company even begins to pick up the tab.

“At the end of the year,” she asks, “how much did you actually pay out of pocket?”

KAP Medical Group Direct Primary Care & Family Medicine is located at 2615 Windguard Cir., Suite 101, across Bruce B. Downs (BBD) Blvd. from Florida Hospital Wesley Chapel. The practice is open Monday-Friday, 8:30 a.m.–4:30 p.m. For more information, to set an appointment, or RSVP for the insurance Q&A session, visit KAPMedicalGroup.com, or call (813) 536-0050.

Penguin Project Offers Special Opportunity For Aspiring Special Needs Performers

One of the goals of the New Tampa Players (NTP) performance troupe has always been to introduce people to the theatre, and make it accessible for everyone.

The Penguin Project will help NTP meet its vision.

The project, a national effort to involve special needs actors in stage productions, is coming to Tampa, as NTP will adopt the Penguin Project for a production of a “Junior” version of “Aladdin” which is scheduled to run April 4-6, 2019.

Informational meetings about the production will be held on Monday, November 5, 7 p.m., and on Sunday, November 11, 5:30 p.m., at Family of Christ Lutheran Church on Bruce B. Downs (BBD) Blvd. in Tampa Palms.

As a parent of special needs children, NTP president Nora Paine says she can’t wait to get started, adding that the response already has been greater than she expected, with interest from Bradenton to Brandon to Town N Country.

“We are well on our way,” says Paine.

The Penguin Project was founded by Dr. Andrew Morgan in Peoria, IL, in 2004. Dr. Morgan not only had a passion for helping disabled children, which he did as a pediatrician, but also for local community theatre. He saw no reason why he couldn’t combine the two, starting the Penguin Project, which pairs disabled children and adults ages 8-21 with mentors who aren’t disabled.

Dr. Morgan has described the experience of Penguin Project productions as life-changing for the special needs actors who take part.

Paine had been brainstorming ways to incorporate special needs actors into productions, but it was at a theater management conference in Venice, FL, earlier this summer that convinced her to reach out to Dr. Morgan.

“There were several theaters all around the country there (at the conference) talking about it,” Paine says. “After I heard everyone talk about it, I thought it would be a perfect fit for the New Tampa Players. There’s nothing like this in New Tampa.”

In Penguin Project productions, actors are paired with a same-age peer mentor, who will help the special needs participant learn his or her role.

The mentor, who also has to learn all of the lines and choreography, will perform on the stage with their special needs counterpart, usually in the background of a scene, offering encouragement and whispering lines that may be forgotten. The mentors also help with stage footwork.

“But, the special needs kids still get to be the stars of the show,” Paine says, “and they get to have that great theatre experience.”

The special needs of Penguin Project participants range from Down syndrome and cerebral palsy to learning and intellectual disabilities and other neurological disorders.

“I know there are organizations devoted to specific disabilities that do great things,” Paine says. “(With the) Penguin Project, however, it doesn’t matter what the disability is. They take the child where they are and supply the support that they need.”

The NTP troupe has already done productions with children involved that have some learning disabilities, but Paine thinks expanding that effort will be a good thing for the entire Tampa Bay area.

“I know the need for something like this is great,” she says.

During the four months of preparation for “Aladdin,” Paine says Dr. Morgan and his team will visit Tampa six times — including at the informational meetings at Family of Christ — to provide assistance with the production.

Already, Paine says she has more than 30 interested performers and production workers, and almost as many peer volunteers.

It will be a rewarding experience for both, she says. “It’s a two-way street,” Paine says. “Mentors are going to get a lot out of it. They can teach a lot of skills to the kids with special needs, and also get the reward of being able to help a child.”

For more information about the New Tampa Players and the troupe’s upcoming productions, visit NewTampaPlayers.org.

Cypress Creek Taking Shape

Now that the “Restaurant Row” on the north side of S.R. 56 has been completed, developers have moved into the retail phase in Cypress Creek.

When Dilip Kanji, the president of Impact Development and developer of the new Hyatt Place Hotel on S.R. 56, told a crowd of local business leaders back in February about a dozen or more retail and restaurant offerings coming to the area known as Cypress Creek Town Center North, there were audible gasps.

Nowadays, those gasps have been replaced by leering eyes, as those stores and eateries begin going vertical.

Located across S.R. 56 from the Tampa Premium Outlets and to the west of the north side of 56’s “Restaurant Row,” trendy eateries like the Walk-On’s Bar & Bistreaux and Blaze Pizza, hip green grocers like EarthFare and mega-stores like Burlington and Home Goods are now taking shape.

“What is going there” is now being replaced by “What is that building going to be.”

More than a decade ago, this advanced transformation of the State Rd. 56 corridor hardly seemed possible, as Sierra Properties’ development of the Cypress Creek Town Center Development of Regional Impact was mired in delays, most caused by environmental concerns, that caused some of the plans — including, at one time, a 1.4-million-sq.-ft. regional mall and movie theater — to be scrapped and modified. When that happened, the Shops at Wiregrass was almost immediately developed a few miles to the east on S.R. 56.

But once the hurdles were cleared, the transformation of S.R. 56 west of I-75 began, with the Tampa Premium Outlets and restaurants like Ford’s Garage and Chuy’s lining the road that has become the what some might call the main artery running through Wesley Chapel, which definitely has a strong pulse.

 

Pasco County To Take Bids To Build Indoor Sports Facility At WC District Park

The new and massive Wiregrass Sports Complex behind Florida Hospital Wesley Chapel, which boasts more than 100,000-sq.-ft. of playing area and a new Marriott-branded Residence Inn hotel, has grabbed all the headlines the past few years.

Meanwhile, Pasco County is getting ready to seek bids to build a smaller indoor facility at the Wesley Chapel District Park (WCDP), which is located at 7727 Boyette Rd. near Overpass Rd.

According to Pasco County District 2 commissioner Mike Moore, bids will be sought to design and construct a facility to host indoor basketball and volleyball and other gym events, as well as additional activity rooms for the public to host meetings or even card games and crafts.

The approximately 13,000-sq.-ft. indoor recreation facility will be similar to the Land O’Lakes recreation center on Collier Pkwy., which is built on 79 acres of land and offers not only indoor sports, but outside offerings like tennis, soccer and even swimming.

The county has allocated $2.5-million towards the Wesley Chapel project, although Moore said he is unsure it will even cost that match. The money, he says, comes from developer impact fees, and “will not be a tax burden on everyday citizens.”

The funding was approved in Pasco County’s Fiscal Year 2017-18 budget.

The WCDP is much larger than the Land O’Lakes complex, with 143 acres and several lighted athletic fields for soccer, football and baseball. WCDP also has lacrosse fields, which have hosted the national DICK’s Lacrosse Championships for years, as well as three tennis courts, four basketball courts and grass fields for a variety of sports.

The Wesley Chapel Athletic Association (WCAA) runs leagues for most sports at the WCDP, including basketball, which plays on the outdoor courts.

But, Florida’s funky summer weather can wreak havoc on youth sports schedules.

“Having the ability to play basketball or any sport inside will be a big deal, especially during the summer when it gets so hot,” Comm. Moore says.

An indoor facility will allow the WCAA to add other sports, like volleyball, which is difficult to play outdoors, and other sports that require indoor accommodations, like gymnastics.

Moore also says the indoor facility will give local residents a place to gather, for weekly meetings, exercise classes or even parties. He says he has heard from a number of residents who think there is a need for such a facility.

Moore said there has been talk of a Wesley Chapel recreation center for years, but it “just kind of went away.”

He said he decided to pick it back up because he continues to hear requests for it.

A new Pasco County recreation center at the park may end up being more useful to local sports enthusiasts than the Wiregrass Sports Complex being built by RADD Sports.

The Wiregrass complex is expected to be booked for basketball, volleyball, pickleball and gymnastics tournaments most weekends, although there will be Monday-Thursday access for locals, according to RADD Sports, which is developing that facility.