The best high school football player in New Tampa history is about to become the highest-drafted National Football League (NFL) player in New Tampa history.
Former Paul R. Wharton High star defensive back Vernon Hargreaves III, who went on to a standout career at the University of Florida in Gainesville, is expected to be taken in the first round of the NFL Draft, which will pick the first round on Thursday, April 28, beginning at 8 p.m.
Hargreaves will attend the draft, which runs through April 30 and is being held at Roosevelt University’s Auditorium Theatre in Chicago.
While other Wildcats football grads have flirted with the NFL (linebacker Larry Edwards was signed as an undrafted free agent by the Buffalo Bills in 2007, and linebacker Josh Jones played in some preseason games for Jacksonville in 2012), none has had the impact Hargreaves is expected to.
According to NFL.com’s analysis, “With top-notch ball skills and exceptional instincts that drew praise from Alabama’s Nick Saban, Hargreaves possesses the football makeup to become a Pro Bowl corner.”
Hargreaves — whose sister Chanelle graduates this spring from Wharton after a sterling volleyball career and who also will attend Florida — grew up in Miami and Greenville, NC, where his dad Vernon II was an assistant football coach at the University of Miami Hurricanes and at East Carolina University, respectively.
In 2010, Hargreaves II took a job at the University of South Florida in Tampa, eventually enrolling his son at Wharton.
Hargreaves did not play football until high school, but was clearly a natural and excelled from the start.
According to various NFL draft experts and analysts, as well as most mock drafts, Hargreaves should be a top-10 pick as arguably the purest cornerback in the draft (although FSU safety Jalen Ramsey is rated a notch higher on most boards). ESPN draft guru Mel Kiper, in one of his most recent mock drafts, has Hargreaves going No. 14 overall to the Oakland Raiders.
“Hargreaves lacks some measurables, but the tape doesn’t lie,” Kiper wrote, alluding to the one knock on the former Wildcat — his 5-foot-11, 207-pound frame. That did not stop Hargreaves, though, from earning all-Southeastern Conference honors every year as a Gator, nor does the former Wildcat see that as a negative.
“Playing in the SEC, I’ve covered Amari Cooper (currently with the Oakland Raiders), I’ve covered Odell Beckham (New York Giants), Jarvis Landry (Miami Dolphins) and Kelvin Benjamin (Carolina Panthers),’’ Hargreaves said at the NFL Draft Combine last month. “You gotta compete. At the end of the day, it’s all about competing. Height, size, that doesn’t matter. At the end of the day, if you can play ball you can play ball.”
Hargreaves can certainly play ball. He was an All-State pick every season he played at Wharton, and excelled everywhere coach David Mitchell put him. On special teams, he returned kicks when called on and blocked a handful of field goals and extra point attempts. He also filled in at quarterback and wide receiver, rushing for 237 yards and seven touchdowns as a junior and adding 313 yards and three more touchdowns receiving that same year.
“He could do it all,’’ Mitchell said.
It was as a lockdown corner, however, that Hargreaves achieved fame, with nine career high school interceptions and more than 203 tackles while twice earning All-American honors, winning two national titles on Team Tampa in 7-on-7 and earning MVP honors as a senior at the prestigious Under-Armour All-America Game in St. Petersburg.
Hargreaves was a freshman starter at Florida, and a sensation his first two seasons. He proclaimed himself to be the best cornerback in the country prior to his junior season, and went out and totaled 33 tackles, 4 interceptions and 4 passes defended.
So, where will Hargreaves, who is lauded for his quick-twitch athleticism, aggressiveness and 39-inch vertical jump allowing him to get his hands on passes intended for taller wide receivers, be drafted?
While Kiper (and CBSSports.com) has him at No. 14 in mock drafts, Kiper also said on a national conference call that Hargreaves could be in the mix to go to the Baltimore Ravens at No. 6.
Drafttek.com says Hargreaves will be taken 8th by the Philadelphia Eagles, WalterFootball.com has him going No. 10 to the New York Giants, and SBNation.com has the Chicago Bears taking him at No. 11.
Chances are, however, that local fans of Hargreaves are hoping that NFL.com analyst Charles Davis and Sports Illustrated’s Don Banks are correct:
They both have Hargreaves lasting until the No. 9 pick, where the hometown Tampa Bay Buccaneers could address a glaring need and snatch up the local kid.
The NFL Draft will air live on the NFL Network, with Round 1 on Apr. 28, 8 p.m. Rounds 2-3 will be held Apr. 29, and rounds 4-7 will be held Apr. 30.
Nick Wolf passed away last year at the age of 11, but his memory will live on in many forms, including through a butterfly garden planted at Hunter’s Green Elementary.
Nick Wolf loved butterflies. His parents, Christina and Jim, raised them in the family’s patio garden. He and his younger brother Scott learned almost everything about them, and loved to share little tidbits of information about butterflies whenever they had the chance.
Last year, as a brain tumor ravaged the fifth-grader’s body, but never his spirit, and the end was near, Christina told Nick that when his time came, to remember to send messages from heaven via butterflies.
Thanks to almost 70 former and current students, teachers, friends and family, some of those message-carrying butterflies may actually land in a perfectly manicured garden behind Hunter’s Green Elementary, where Nick attended school.
Teacher Cheryl Pahl led a contingent of earnest gardeners on April 9 in building and planting the Nick Wolf Memorial, a butterfly garden behind the school near its athletics track just off Cross Creek Blvd.
Christina planted the ceremonial first plant, a pentas, as Jim and Scott looked on.
“I know this is how he would want to be remembered,’’ she said.
Pahl has not only spent the past 15 years helping children to grow in her role as one of the gifted class teachers at HGE, she has done a pretty good job in school’s garden as well. Tomatoes, beans, and kale — lots of kale — have sprung forth from a dozen or so raised beds she and her students monitor (and steal a healthy treat or two from on occasion).
Pahl said she was honored to help plant some memories for those who knew Nick. Built with money left over from last year’s fifth-grade fund raiser, the garden was tilled and ready to go when friends and family showed up at HGE on Saturday morning.
“He just knew how to light up a room,’’ said Alexa Trafficante, a former math and science teacher at HGE who taught Nick in the fourth grade. “He always came in with a joke to tell you. He even had a smile if it was the day after a chemo treatment. That’s why I think a butterfly garden is the best way to show our love for him.”
Nick was experiencing headaches and nausea in May of 2011 when Christina took him to the doctor. In just a week after that first visit, as Nick continued suffering from unbearable pain, he was diagnosed with a primitive neuroectodermal tumor (PNET) on the right side of his brain and headed into surgery, followed by months of radiation and chemotherapy. He spent 89 straight days in the hospital.
“All he wanted to do was get back to school,’’ Christina recalled.
Although he suffered permanent hair loss after six rounds of chemotherapy and 31 radiation treatments, Nick appeared to be winning his battle. “Yes, he got some stares, but that didn’t bother him at all,” Christina said.
In September of 2014, an MRI showed no indication of cancer. However, a few months later, Christina said, the tumor had returned. Nick also was fighting hemolytic anemia, an abnormal breakdown of red blood cells in which they are destroyed and removed from the bloodstream, a condition likely caused by the amount of chemotherapy he received.
Maxed out on radiation treatments, there was sadly little left for Nick to do.
“Nick was a fighter,’’ Christina said. “After he found out it came back, he cried for a bit but he said, ‘I’m not giving up.’”
Nick continued to talk about the future. He wanted to buy his own laptop when he got older. He wanted to know what kind of car he was going to get. The fact that he continued to press on with such a devastating tumor amazed doctors.
Christina took him to school to exchange valentines at HGE in 2015. She says Nick was able to complete many of the items on his bucket list — he swam with dolphins, rode on a motorcycle, served as an honorary team captain for the USF baseball team and got to go on a Disney Cruise with his family.
He was still fighting and defying the odds, until on April 12 of last year, following a seven-hour seizure, he slipped into an unconscious state. He survived another month before finally passing away at age 11 on Mother’s Day.
“Aside from that last month, even knowing what his condition was, he always had a smile on his face,’’ Christina says. “He just had an amazing attitude.”
That is what many who helped plant the butterfly garden will remember about Nick, and why so many showed up to help.
To attract monarch butterflies, the gaggle of gardeners planted plenty of milkweed, which is the only thing monarch butterflies eat, Paul said.
The group also planted plumbago and cassia, a flowering tree that attracts caterpillars. “If the caterpillars eat the tree, and it has yellow flowers, the caterpillars will be yellow,’’ Pahl said.
Parsley, dill and penstemon were also planted, all of which are feeding plants for caterpillars, as well as butterfly weed.
Pahl hopes to add a citrus tree, since butterflies like to lay eggs on citrus trees.
A brief ceremony followed the planting. A plaque with Nick’s name on it was placed in the garden, and butterflies were released by Christina into the sky. Most of them headed right for the fresh plants. Others landed on giggling children who had helped plant the garden.
Some, Christina likes to think, may have even been carrying messages.
Anand Vihar is already transitioning in preparation for construction in Meadow Pointe, which will include a 17,000-sq.-ft. clubhouse
When good friends and Tampa Bay-area doctors Krishna Nallamshetty M.D., and Seenu Sanka, M.D., envisioned a place their parents could live their later years in, they imagined a calm and peaceful setting. People in a 55-plus community with shared interests, an active and vibrant community with trails to walk.
Fitness rooms to exercise in, places where they could worship and meditate and partake in the vegetarian lifestyle they have enjoyed their entire lives.
Beginning in June, that’s exactly what the two physicians plan to build in Wesley Chapel’s Meadow Pointe community.
Anand Vihar, which means “Blissful Living” (according to its website), promises to be the premier 55-plus community in Tampa Bay. It will be one of the only 55-plus adult communities in Wesley Chapel.
It will be built on a 50-acre site on Mansfield Blvd., less than 100 yards north of where the road currently dead ends (as we reported about again last issue) and is surrounded by large conservation and ponds.
55-Plus Community Coming Together
Drs. Nallamshetty and Sanka, who searched for the right place for two years before enlisting the help of another friend, Santosh Govindaraju, the CEO of Convergent Capital Partners (CCP), hope to break ground on Anand Vihar this summer.
Eric Isenbergh, the CEO of Oxford Homes, has joined the team as the property’s builder.
“I think it’s a phenomenal area to be in,’’ said Govindaraju, whose company focuses on development and repositioning of commercial real estate. He said CCP has put more than half a billion dollars into redeveloping places like Carrollwood Golf Club (previously Emerald Green Golf & Country Club) and a number of hotels and commercial properties. This is the company’s first foray into Wesley Chapel.
Govindaraju said he was able to secure a great price for the property. The deed, he says, will show the partners paid $25,000 for the land itself, but because the previous owners chose not to pay taxes on it — the recession stalled a previous project on the property — the new owners had to pay off liens on 87 lots, at a cost of $11,000 per lot.
According to Govindaraju, multiple banks owned parts of the parcel, but none had any interest in developing it and allowed it go delinquent.
“It was a very fragmented ownership,’’ he said. “We diligently put it back together.”
The roads, parking areas, utilities and detention ponds were all constructed in 2006, after the previous owners had received approval for 330 townhomes and condos.
Three of the buildings in the southeast portion of the project were constructed, with 24 apartments that currently have residents and eight townhomes that don’t, but any further development came to a halt.
The existing buildings and roads will remain, with a new one planned near Anand Vihar’s soon-to-be-built, 17,000-sq-ft clubhouse. CCP plans to invest $5 million into the 55-plus community, building 280 units and incorporating more green space.
“We are very excited,’’ Govindaraju said. “There’s so many great things happening in this area. We want to contribute to the success at Meadow Pointe by creating more upscale opportunities, and increase the value of them by investing more in these properties.”
Although the project appears to be targeting the existing Indian community in our area, Govindaraju says it’s more about a lifestyle than people of any particular origin.
“We will be targeting more of a healthy living lifestyle,’’ Govindaraju says, noting that the Anand Vihar clubhouse will have an exclusively vegetarian kitchen (non-vegetarian meals will be catered on a weekly basis), a yoga room, a multi-faith prayer and meditation room and a theater room to watch the latest Bollywood (and other) movies.
“We will also have a full-time activities director, and I think that will also set us apart,’’ Govindaraju says.
Anand Vihar already has 30 reservations, he added.
For more information, visit AnandViharTampa.com, or call 534-4127.
(L.-r.) Sam Harris, Lisa Missana, Marla Zick, Shane Mitchell and Maurice Rolle got together at Stonewood Grill & Tavern a week after the quartet of rescuers pulled Marla out of her car as it sank in a retention pond just east of the Gateway Bridge in West Meadows.
Rarely does a day go by that four strangers — Sam Harris, Maurice Rolle, Lisa Missana and Shane Mitchell — don’t think about the harrowing rescue, that one Thursday morning, around 7:45 a.m. on March 31, when they came together at the intersection of New Tampa Blvd. and Meadow Pine Dr. in West Meadows.
Each played a pivotal role. In just a few minutes time, they managed to cobble together the smarts, verve and guts to act selflessly and swiftly, to enter dark waters, to pull someone from a gray Ford Mustang that had sunk to the bottom of a retention pond. On May 4, they will be honored by the Hillsborough County Board of Commissioners.
“I don’t know about your religious beliefs or what you believe in,’’ says Sam, “but there was something happening that day.”
Four Strangers, One Goal: Rescue
Maurice was driving his 7-year-old daughter to school, over the Gateway Bridge just past Freedom High, when the gray Mustang heading in the same direction just in front of him swerved to the left and into a white brick retainer wall.
The driver of the car, Marla Zick, 26, had suffered a seizure and was no longer in control of her vehicle.
“I saw her lose control right at the top of the bridge,’’ Maurice says. “She was swerving, and when she didn’t swerve back to correct herself, I knew she was in trouble.”
The car rolled down the bridge, “scraping and grinding” against the wall the whole way, Maurice said.
“I knew it was going wrong,’’ he added. “I was just screaming, ‘No, no, no, no.’”
Sam, a New Tampa Realtor who lives in Heritage Isles, was driving west on New Tampa Blvd., a road he says he had rarely driven on before. But, that morning, he had to pick up a cake at the Publix in the New Tampa Center for a wedding party at his wife’s office at USAA, and decided to take the back way to the insurance office over the bridge.
There was nothing between his car and the one careening down the bridge towards him in the same lane.
He pulled over. The wall finally turned the Mustang loose, and it turned left. It just missed a cement light post, and a tree, before rolling between two bushes and into the retention pond at the corner of Meadow Pine Dr.
Maurice pulled over, told his daughter not to move, and tossed all of his belongings out of his pocket. Sam did the same.
After dropping his daughter off, Maurice had planned on heading into work at the 30/30 Barber Shop & Salon he owns on Busch Blvd. But, his plans changed.
“Dammit, I gotta get wet, I gotta get freaking wet,’’ he said to himself.
After a few steps into the pond, Sam decided they needed something to pull the car out with. It was 7:55 a.m. He picked up his cell phone, called 911 and ran back to his vehicle for a rope.
Deeper Waters Than Expected
Shane was taking his 7-year-old son to school, and as he drove slowly down Meadow Pine Dr. they noticed the car coming through the bushes and rolling gently into the water, where it appeared to float and drift.
A 32-year-old carpenter, Shane pulled his Nissan over and hopped out. He saw Maurice near the water. While Sam was retrieving a rope from the trunk of his car, Shane had a wincher — a motor-driven or hand-powered drum around which rope or a chain is wrapped and used to move heavy loads — on the front of his.
“I just thought we would pull the car out,’’ Shane said. “I didn’t think anyone would be going underwater.”
Maurice grabbed the hook at the end of the wincher chain and walked into the water. He was roughly 20 yards from the car, but the water was getting deeper with every step. After a few steps it was up to chest, and Maurice couldn’t see the car well enough to have an idea where he would be attaching the hook.
All Hands On Deck
Lisa was just a few minutes behind Shane on Meadow Pine Dr., on her way to drop her 14-year-old son A.J. at Family of Christ School in Tampa Palms, when she saw the car in the pond.
At first, she grabbed her phone and started taking pictures. “Oh gosh,’’ she says she told her son, “that person better get out of that car. Then, I realized Shane and Maurice were yelling at somebody in the car.”
Maurice had returned to shore, and he, Sam and Shane were coming up with another plan. But, there wasn’t time — the car began to sink.
“I could see her face, I was screaming to her that someone was coming,’’ Sam recalls. “All of the sudden, the car went to the bottom of the pond.”
“Never in a million years did I think that pond would have drank that car like that,” Maurice says.
The nose of the Mustang went first, thrusting the back end into the air, where it then slowly disappeared from sight. “Three bubbles came up, and it was gone,’’ Lisa says.
“It was total chaos.’’ Maurice says. “The electricity at the point was crazy. Everybody was just in shock. Lisa was saying something, people were screaming, stuff just went by so quick…I looked over at Shane, and he was going into the water.”
Lisa was not far behind. She ran around the pond on the other side, slipped off her flip flops and in her jeans and a black Chicago Blackhawks shirt, jumped into the pond.
For a brief minute before she jumped in, all she could think about was all the photos her friends had sent her by text over the years of the two alligators that lived in the pond.
Once in the water, Lisa swam to the car and tried to get her bearings. She placed her feet on the roof of the car to determine where she was.
The rest, she says, is kind of a blur. She remembers focusing on the driver’s side of the car. Luckily, Marla had been driving with her window down. “I always drive with my window down,’’ she later told Lisa. “Drives my mom crazy.”
This time, it saved her life.
A Few Frantic But Freeing Moments
Shane and Lisa took a few turns unsuccessfully trying to get Marla’s seat belt unclasped. Four, maybe five times each. Neither can remember exactly.
Had Shane not been getting over a cold, he says he may have been able to save Marla in one trip. He had dived for lobster and been spearfishing, free-diving 20 feet and staying under with no problem. On this day, however, maybe from the combination of his cold and adrenaline, he couldn’t seem to get a deep enough breath.
The water was green and murky, Shane says. And the car was not visible. “Shapes and shadows,’’ he says. “I was just feeling around for door handles and everything.”
Lisa came up from the water and screamed to the onlookers to find a knife or scissors, to cut the seat belt. She doesn’t remember who brought her scissors, she just remembers sticking them in her back pocket.
But before she could make another trip below, Shane emerged from the water and told her he had freed Marla from the seat belt. It was time to go pull her out.
“Let’s do this,’’ Shane said.
Marla was frothing at the mouth, but was still alive. Tampa Police Department (TPD officers helped pull them to shore, and medics tended to Marla before taking her to Florida Hospital Tampa.
Together, they sank back into the water, but when they reached for Marla, she wasn’t there. Unhindered by the seat belt, she had floated to the roof of the car and towards the passenger side. Once they figured out what had happened, “Shane grabbed her by the waist, I grabbed something, and we pulled her out through the window,’’ Lisa says.
Shane and Lisa may not remember how many times they dove under, but they knew why — “I saw somebody dying,’’ Shane says.
In real time, the rescue lasted no more than two minutes, Sam says, maybe even only 90 seconds.
But, “It felt like an eternity,’’ Shane says. “I remember when I stopped to catch my breath, I was just thinking, ‘Oh my God, if I don’t get her out she is going to die. I can’t stop.’ It felt like such a long time, and I dove so many times.”
Maurice was in shock, waiting for Shane and Lisa to emerge with a body. He was ready to jump back in if he was needed, but he worried that his failed attempt to hook the wincher to the car was Marla’s best shot.
“The deal was, I was like, ‘God, please don’t let this girl die,’” Maurice says, “because I couldn’t get to her.’’
When they got her to the surface, Lisa and Shane turned Marla on her back. “She looked dead,’’ he says. “She was purple and blue and pale.”
Marla was frothing at the mouth, but was still alive. Tampa Police Department (TPD officers helped pull them to shore, and medics tended to Marla before taking her to Florida Hospital Tampa.
“We have the best police department in the nation,’’ Sam says, a sentiment shared by the others, thanks to TPD’s quick response.
Lisa and Shane slumped to the ground.
“I remember my thighs hurt so bad,’’ Lisa says.
“Absolutely spent and exhausted,’’ Shane says.
Lisa and Shane had the same thought as they looked out to the pond, to where the car had settled. Was there anybody else in there? Was a child strapped into a seat in the back? Had they done enough?
Lisa waited until the car was pulled out, to see with her own eyes. She was overwhelmed with relief when police told her the Mustang was empty.
Afterwards, Lisa would shower until there was no more hot water, drive up to school and give her son a big hug.
The Reunion…And Some Peace
A week later, the entire group — Marla, Shane, Lisa, Maurice and Sam — met for the first time since the incident, for dinner at Stonewood Grill & Tavern, located a mile or two from the scene of the accident.
It was a therapy session, of sorts. Lisa brought booklets for each person, with all the pictures she could find taken at the pond. Together, they pieced the story back together. The rush of adrenaline and the power of impulse and instinct had left many holes for all four of the rescuers.
“Dinner definitely helped everybody,’’ Sam says.
Marla did not remember anything. She told them that one minute she was driving to get a cup of coffee at the Dunkin’ Donuts on Highwoods Preserve Pkwy., and the next minute, she woke up in a hospital.
For Maurice, dinner was closure. He had been troubled since that morning, and meeting Marla and talking with his fellow good samaritans helped clear his mind and his conscience.
“Thinking that somebody could have possibly died and you didn’t get to them that first go around,’’ he says. “That’s tough.”
The attention he received afterwards had overwhelmed Shane, an otherwise private person. But, in the darkened, comfortable confines of Stonewood, he found some peace reliving the moment. It also helped him piece together the story.
“It’s a lot to come to terms with,’’ Maurice admits.
Lisa, who still gets recognized in public, and even thanked by strangers, learns something new every day about the event. She says she is haunted by what could have been. Re-telling her story, she cries at certain parts.
“There’s a lot of ‘what-ifs,’” she says. “What if we didn’t get her out? What if she died? What if something went terribly wrong and my husband was planning a funeral and my kids didn’t have a mother? There’s just so many things.”
Lisa spent many of her summers growing up in Chicago working as a lifeguard, but never imagined she would use those skills years later. “It’s just all surreal,’’ she says. “This is something that is going to stay with me for a lifetime.”
Maurice, Shane and Lisa still drive by the pond daily, taking their kids to school, going to the grocery store, heading to and from work. In the past, Lisa might look over and see if any alligators were sunning themselves, but otherwise, no one paid it much attention.
Now it’s hard not to look and stare…and remember.
Something special happened that day.
“A spear fisherman, a former lifeguard, a barber and a real estate agent, all coming together, (each) with a role and a purpose,’’ Sam says.
Busy traffic roars past on Bruce B. Downs (BBD) Blvd. in New Tampa and customers coming to shop or dine at the The Walk at Highwoods Preserve shopping center just off Highwoods Preserve Dr. pull in and out of parking spots. Step inside la Pink Boutique, however, and you’re transported to another world.
Frank Sinatra croons “New York, New York” softly, and aromatic candles scent the air. Beside a fashion book opened to photos of Audrey Hepburn is a framed Oscar Wilde quote: “One should either be a work of art or wear a work of art.”
Visiting la Pink is nothing like shopping in a mall store — it’s more like browsing through the eclectic and whimsical home of a friend with exquisite taste.
Welcome to Amy Crumpton’s little kingdom, the fashionista destination that pays homage to Crumpton’s favorite color — every hue of rose, blush, fuchsia and magenta imaginable (as well as other colors, too).
“It’s my little happy place,” says Crumpton from her office, with its vintage desk and full set of the popular children’s book series, Pinkalicious. “I’m still a little girl.”
While she’s perfectly turned out and looks ready for a brisk day at work, Crumpton also exudes the companionable air of one who’s up for a cozy chat. Her personality may say a lot about the long-standing success of this boutique, which mixes exclusive merchandise with affordability and manages to draw customers despite the continual growth of nearby chain store and mall destinations.
la Pink Boutique will be 11 years old in May, and has been in the same location (in the outparcel building that also is home to Men’s Wearhouse) all these years, although it has doubled in size since its opening.
The boutique’s origins lie in a shoe shop for children that a friend of Crumpton’s invited her to join in running in Tampa Palms. At the time, Crumpton was a young mom who was working in accounts receivable for Crumpton Welding Supply, owned by her husband’s family, since graduating in 1990 with a Bachelor of Science (B.S.) degree in management from the University of Tampa.
The two ran the shoe shop for a year, and then they decided to open a boutique (la Pink) instead. They worked together for five years, before Crumpton became the sole owner in 2010.
Today, la Pink consists of two large rooms artfully arranged with a carefully curated collection of clothes, accessories, shoes and jewelry. The range of styles and looks in the store mean that everyone from Crumpton’s college-age daughter to her own mother can find something they like.
While the items are carefully sourced, well-structured and well-made, Crumpton also is proud of the reasonable and generous selection of items throughout her showroom.
Brand Names For Boutique Shoppers
Clothes lines at la Pink include KUT from the Kloth Denim, Jude Connally, Allen, Escapada, Isle and Tyler Boe.
la Pink has a wide array of chic items, such as dazzling bracelets from Bourbon and Boweties.
One brand that la Pink was the first boutique to feature is Lutz-based Tees by Tina, a line of super comfy and flattering tees, leggings, camis and other casual fashions.
A charm bar by Moon & Lola is one popular jewelry line, as is Bourbon and Boweties, a line of bracelets from a Brandon designer who fashions dazzling stones picked up from worldwide travels into unique, handmade “arm candy.”
Shoe lines include the playful Oka B as well as Lindsay Phillips, a Clearwater-based line of shoes featuring interchangeable snaps to change the look of the shoe to match an outfit — or a mood.
Stylish collections from KUT from the Kloth Denim are also featured at la Pink Boutique.
Those looking for a thoughtful gift might find something pleasant from the line of carefully selected fragrances and body luxuries, such as Tyler candles, Lollia bath products, Tokyomilk fragrances and cosmetics and Pure factory natural lotions and skin repair products.
There’s even the tongue-in-cheek “Poo Pourri,” a line of deodorant bathroom spritzes.
“It takes a while to learn your customers,” says Crumpton. “You have to understand that you can’t have everything for everyone. But I try my hardest! You have to stay true to who stays true to you.”
Boutique Product Lines That Give Back
Giving back also is a priority for Crumpton, and she tries to stock products that do more than make a profit. 31 bits, for example, is a company that sells beautiful necklaces and bracelets made by women in Uganda to help them make a living. Other brands have helped send Thai children to school and set up water purification systems in Haiti. And, that philosophy permeates more than just the products.
“There’s a lot of therapy that happens here,” says Crumpton. “I always tell people, ‘You don’t have to come in and buy something. You can just come in and talk.’ Conversations I’ve had with people in here have gotten me through situations in life.”
Her employees too are not simply hires; they are people Crumpton invited into the business because of a personal connection she felt with them. Judi Kusha is a neighbor; Lori Hairston was actually a customer with whom Crumpton got along so well that she asked for her number and told her she’d call when she had an opening. That was nine years ago.
The newest hire is Emily Wingate, a 23-year-old University of South Florida student who walked in a year ago to buy a present for a friend and so moved Crumpton by her personal story and dedication to her family that Crumpton felt compelled to hire her, even though there was no clear position available at the time.
Crumpton says Wingate has since been an indispensable part of the team, setting up not only la Pink’s website, but also the boutique’s Instagram, twitter, Facebook and Pinterest sites.
“This is a team,” says Crumpton. “We get each other. There’s no drama.”
Customer Anjali Gandhi agrees, saying, “la Pink is my favorite place to shop!! Love the clothes. Judi, Lori, and Amy are awesome!
la Pink Boutique is located at 18035 Highwoods Preserve Pkwy. and is open Mon.-Fri., 10 a.m.-6 p.m. and 10 a.m.-5 p.m. on Sat. For info, visit laPinkonline.com, visit the store on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter or Pinterest, call 972-2862 or see the ad on pg. 16 of this issue.
“He just knew how to light up a room,’’ said Alexa Trafficante, a former math and science teacher at HGE who taught Nick in the fourth grade. “He always came in with a joke to tell you. He even had a smile if it was the day after a chemo treatment. That’s why I think a butterfly garden is the best way to show our love for him.”
Maxed out on radiation treatments, there was sadly little left for Nick to do.
That is what many who helped plant the butterfly garden will remember about Nick, and why so many showed up to help.
“It was a very fragmented ownership,’’ he said. “We diligently put it back together.”
The nose of the Mustang went first, thrusting the back end into the air, where it then slowly disappeared from sight. “Three bubbles came up, and it was gone,’’ Lisa says.
