New River Elementary students and members of the schoolâs 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 Floridaâs 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 Floridaâs 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 todayâs 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 competitionâs inception. The schoolâs team won the first year it competed, and this yearâs 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 â cheesy chicken and bacon quesadilla with Greek yogurt veggie dip, for the eventâs judges.
âThe kids got together to create this recipe,â says Kathy Gillooly, one of the teamâs coaches, along with Holly Mitchell and Ryan Ketterer (all three are physical education teachers at New River). âThey wanted it to be fun and creative, and kid-friendly.â 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 Elementaryâs nutrition team, which goes on the schoolâs 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.
âItâs pretty exciting,â Gillooly says of the competition. âThey go all out to make it a big deal for the kids.â
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.
Incoming WC Rotary Club president Dr. Pablo Rivera (right) and current president Erin Meyer, at the club’s meeting at Quail Hollow Country Club in Wesley Chapel on May 11.
The Rotary Club of Wesley Chapel Noon has been forced to cancel the 2016 Freedom Fest, which had been scheduled for July 2, after the host site pulled out.
‘The Grove (at WC shopping plaza) just pulled out on us,” said Dr. Pablo Rivera, the club’s incoming president for the 2016-17 Rotary year & the event co-chair. “I literally have major sponsor checks inbound to us as we speak that I now have to return.” The club was hoping to have those sponsors instead sponsor the upcoming Duck Derby.
Rivera said the club tried to quickly relocate the event to a few other locations (including near the Tampa Premium Outlet Mall), “but we can’t pull off a (venue) change by July 2 (the scheduled date for the 2016 Freedom Fest).”
The event had previously been held at the Shops of Wiregrass mall, last year drawing an estimated 50,000 people to the July 3 event and raising more than $25,000 for the club’s selected charitable causes.
The club’s first-ever Duck Derby will be held on Saturday, May 21, 11 a.m.-3 p.m., lakeside at Hungry Harry’s BBQ on U.S.41 in Land O’Lakes. The top prize for the Duck Derby will be $2,500, with more than two dozen other prizes available.
“We’re now focused on making the first Duck Derby another major fund-raising event for our club’s selected charities,” Rivera said.
Current club president Erin Meyer added, “We still plan to host a fifth annual Freedom Fest next year.”
John and Alissa Holcomb with their children (l.-r.) Isaac, Annlee, Jacob and Aliah.
Alissa Holcomb sat in church on Motherâs Day in 2011, when Pastor James Dodzweit asked for all the mothers in attendance to stand and be acknowledged.
That morning, Alissa had suffered her third miscarriage.
She stayed in her seat.
Her story, and journey, started right there.
That summer, Alissa and her husband John had all but given up on having children. Married in 2004, they started trying to make a family in 2006. Alissa had already been through two miscarriages, but the third one, on that Motherâs Day in 2011, was the cruelest of them all.
âLord, what do you have in store?,ââ she prayed.
They agreed to stop trying for a baby. The pressure, and heartbreaking failures, had become too much.
So, they turned to adoption, which Alissa says they had always planned to do, in addition to having their own babies anyway. Alissa had her heart set on adopting a baby, but twice, when they thought they were close, a pair of matches fell through.
They came to a halting revelation: âMaybe weâre not going to be parents,â she recalls.
But, Alissa continued to attend adoption classes. She learned that older sets of biological siblings were the hardest kids to find homes for, and also the most plentiful in the adoption system. So, while she desired a baby, she came home one night from class and told John she might be open to adopting somewhat older siblings.
She didnât share this with anyone. And yet, strangely, the adoption agency, which knew she was only looking for a baby, called soon after her conversation with John to ask if she would be interested in a five-year-old African-American boy and his four-year-old sister.
In October 2011, she met Isaac and Aliah, and on Dec. 3, the children moved into their home. She had her kids. She was a mother.
A week later, Alissa found out she was pregnant.
***
With a Dollar Store pregnancy test in the bathroom of a Cracker Barrel, Alissa confirmed the suspicion she had an hour earlier by the sickness she says she felt after catching a whiff of a soiled diaper.
Her previous pregnancy tests had taken longer to reveal a thin double line. This one was instant and âdarker than dark.â
She was dumbfounded. She went to the doctor for a quick blood test to confirm, and then met her husband at Walmart, where he was shopping. She surprised him with a baby Christmas stocking.
When he looked inside, he saw the pregnancy test.
âIt was crazy, just crazy,ââ she said. âI mean, thatâs not a plan. Thatâs not how this is supposed to happen. But, because of our faith, we felt this was totally God, they way he had orchestrated the whole thing.â
On March 7, 2012, the Holcombsâ adoption of Isaac and Aliah was made official. She spent her first-ever Motherâs Day pregnant with Jacob, eating breakfast in bed, compliments of Isaac and Aliah.
***
Alissa works as the New Tampa and Wesley Chapel area director for Young Life, a national, non-denominational Christian ministry dedicated to introducing teenagers to Jesus and helping them grow in their faith.
She doesnât share the same birthing story most moms do. There are no straight lines from moment to moment, just roadblocks and obstacles and twisting paths headed seemingly nowhere, until they all headed somewhere.
âThe moment I laid eyes on Isaac and Aliah, and other adoptive parents can speak to this too, it was like a unique birthing experience,ââ Alissa says. âWe were overcome by emotion. We knew. These are our kids.â
Jacob, who was born in July of 2012, made Alissa a mom again. And, after giving up on having a fourth child, the Holcombs found out â surprise â in 2015 that she was pregnant with Annlee, who is now 9 months old.
âItâs been a crazy journey,ââ Alissa said, âand Iâm really grateful. As hard as itâs been, Iâm really grateful for the (now four) children I have.â
Alissa works hard at making her family work. Despite her biological attachments to two of her children, she has worked hard at ensuring that she has that same feeling of attachment with Isaac and Aliah. They come from hard places. They have questions. The Holcombs attend family counseling to help seek those answers out.
âBeing parents is the hardest thing weâve ever done,ââ Alissa says. âBut, we are committed to the overall health of the family. Itâs a work in progress.â
***
For Alissa, Motherâs Day brings on a wave of emotions. It it is a reminder of pain and suffering, but mostly of hope and salvation. She thinks there were reasons for everything, from the miscarriages to failed adoptions to her change of heart that brought Isaac and Ali
ah into her heart, to her first and second successful pregnancies.
Since that lowest point in 2011 when Motherâs Day was only a reminder of failure, it now brings her joy.
Just a year after that, when Pastor James asked all the mothers to stand, she jumped to her feet, smiling, with one thought:
âOh my gosh,ââ she thought, âIâm here, and Iâm a mom.â
West Palm Beach-based commercial developer John Dowd played a pivotal role in the development of the Wesley Chapel and Wiregrass Ranch area near S.R. 56 when, with the stalwart help of JCPenney as the lead anchor, he helped spearhead the birth of The Shops at Wiregrass mall.
Dowd admitted that it wasnât easy. Right before the mall finished, the economy started to slow. Had it been six months later, Dowd doesnât think the mall would have ever been built. âWe had tenants come to us who had literally just signed leases and wanted out,ââ he said. âEverybody was so afraid of what was going to happen to the world.â
But, thankfully, the world did survive. And, so did the mall.
John Dowd shows a map of the Wiregrass Ranch DRI and where some of the planned construction will take place.
Dowd is back in the area, and is again teaming up with local landowner/developer JD Porter to help give the Wiregrass Ranch Development of Regional Impact (DRI) another economic shot in the arm.
At the Wesley Chapel Economic Development meeting at Mulligans (inside New Tampaâs Pebble Creek Golf Club) on April 28, Dowd and Porter regaled a crowd of more than 100 local business leaders with tales from the past, but mostly of a future they see as bright and bustling.
The Wiregrass mall, which Dowd said didnât have the start everyone had hoped when it opened in 2008, is now enjoying the kind of success that was expected. That is triggering further development in the area, as the Porter family carefully and judiciously parcels out its land to businesses and developers who fit into their long-range plans.
Dowd said he was attracted to working with the Porter family because of the familyâs deliberate style. Unlike many landowners, JD Porter said he is no rush to sell to the highest bidder and turn an instant profit. Instead, the Wiregrass Ranch DRI continues to only greenlight projects the Porter feel add value to the entire area.
Wiregrass Ranch Set To Expand
Hereâs some of those plans Porter and Dowd shared at the Economic Development meeting:
1. On S.R. 54, just down the road from Walmart, the first project between Dowd and Porter will be a 12,600-sq.-ft. strip center, with two nicely designed buildings. Two restaurants are already signed up, with two more close to coming aboard as well. The project will feature a typical mix, including a cell phone store, nail and hair salons, restaurants and âgood neighborhood useâ businesses.
âWe already have more interested tenants than we have space for,ââ Dowd said.
2. On S.R. 56, east of the Wiregrass Mall expansion (which will include restaurants, a movie theater and a grocery store), Porter and Dowd are doing is having site work done at another shopping center, to be called Wiregrass Commons at 56, which will include a âgreenâ or specialty grocery store.
Nothing has been signed yet, Dowd said, and âweâre not doing any of the small stuff until we get an anchor signed up. Once that happens, that will be a 50,000-60,000-sq.-ft. project in total and a nice addition to the area.
3. Porter also said a hotel would be finalizing a deal within 30 days, and that is expected to also immediately east of the Wiregrass Commons at 56 project. He did not say which hotel, but we have heard rumors it will be a Marriott Fairfield Inn.
4. Even further east on S.R. 56, the long-awaited Raymond James Financial campus is close to officially announcing its arrival.
No, seriously.
JD Porter (left) says big things are coming to Wiregrass Ranch, including Raymond James.
Porter joked that he was sick and tired of talking about the long-rumored project, which some had begun to doubt. But doubt no more.
âWe got good news (April 27) and I truly believe within the next 2-3 weeks weâll have a permit,ââ Porter said. âHaving that permit triggers the closing. Having that closing means the other two or three office users, which we are we are talking to right now — anywhere from 600,000 square feet to another 1.2-million-sq.-ft., Fortune 50 companies — they close, and I would suspect weâre going to see movement within the next 4-6 months after that.â
Porter said Raymond James will add between 4,000-6,000 jobs, and that you can double that total to 8,000-12,000 jobs with the other unnamed businesses set to follow.
That will also begin to create some of the day traffic that Dowd says is necessary if the area is going to attract more quality restaurants, as well.
5. Porter said they will be closing on an assisted living facility, âin the next 45-60 daysâ. Porter didnât disclose any other information, but the facility will be called Beach House at Wiregrass Ranch Assisted Living & Memory Care, which is owned by the Prevarian Companies.
The facility will be multiple stories when completed next to North Tampa Behavorial Health, which also is expanding and will be adding 48 rooms by the end of the year.
6. As part of trying to force vertical integration into the development plan, Porter said that in 30-45 days construction also should begin on a condo project, called Altis at Wiregrass, which will be located directly north of Wiregrass Commons at 56.
âIf I wouldâve said condos in Pasco County 3-4 years ago, you probably would have told me to get the hell out of here,ââ Porter said. âWell, it happened.â
Porter hinted at four-story structures, with rooftop pools and verandas. âSomething typical of Hyde Park and South Tampa,ââ he said. âBut not typical Pasco County.â
The condos, which according to site plans will include 394 multi-family dwellings in 15 separate buildings, are part of Porterâs plan to build new and different projects in the area. âIf you wanna play in the sandbox, you have to step it up,ââ he said. âWe are very fortunate to be in the right area. If people want to be here, bring something new to the table.â
Just The Beginning Of New Phase For Wiregrass Ranch
Porter promised other major announcements concerning major retailers still to come. But for now, he is pleased with the areaâs progress, citing the proximity of an expanding hospital, a state college with room to grow into a full-fledged university and more retail in the area. He also expects an increase in new homes as well, and once the residential areas mature a mixed-use town center can be developed.
Members of the Wesley Chapel Chamber of Commerce Board, including past President Jeff Novotny (holding plaque) were honored to present the plaque that will adorn the boardroom at the WCCC office in The Grove named for the late Don Porter to Donâs son JD and daughter Quinn (center), during the Chamberâs Economic Development briefing at which JD and commercial developer John Dowd spoke about Wiregrass Ranch.
Porter also said his family is rethinking its commitment of donating 120-acres to the county to build a park in the area. A tennis center fell through more than a decade ago, as did a proposed baseball complex on the site last year. In November the county announced it would be seeking partners in a public-private relationship to build an indoor facility on land that also would include outdoor fields.
But Porter, frustrated with the countyâs inability to move forward on donated land, says he may take back some of it back by the end of the year and build the park privately, as part of his long-range plan to provide the area with âsynergyâ.
âWe are looking to create something we can be proud of out here not just tomorrow, but 10-50 years down the road,ââ he said.
Three hooded and gloved suspects knocked a hole in the Grey Wolf Armory wall and made off with more than 30 weapons early Sunday morning, the Pasco County Sheriff’s Office said.
The PSCO says that between 2:53 and 2:57am, the suspects entered through the east side of the Wesley Chapel gun shop, located at32733 Eiland Blvd., after smashing the exterior lighting and taking advantage of the fact that that side of the building is obscured by hedges.
The suspects made off with 30 hand guns, two long guns and one sniper rifle, leaving in an unknown direction. Other more expensive guns were left untouched.
The business has an alarm, but it was never activated, and the suspects crawled around to avoid surveillance camera and motion detectors, the PCSO said.
This is the second time in two months the Grey Wolf Armory has been broken into. According to a post on the business Facebook page from March 14, someone broke in and damaged a half-dozen guns while smashing a glass display unit, but was only able to make off with a single hand gun thanks to the PCSO’s quick response.
“If I was a conspiracy theorist, I would wonder if someone had it in for us,” a post reads on the Facebook page of the Grey Wolf Armory. The new post suggests that the Sunday break-in was orchestrated by the same people from March, because they tried to break in at the same point as March but found the walls had been reinforced and moved to a more vulnerable spot. They also, the post says, took several guns Sunday that they tried but failed to take the first time.
Anyone with information is asked to call investigators at (800) 706-2488.
âThe kids got together to create this recipe,â says Kathy Gillooly, one of the teamâs coaches, along with Holly Mitchell and Ryan Ketterer (all three are physical education teachers at New River). âThey wanted it to be fun and creative, and kid-friendly.â 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.
She was dumbfounded. She went to the doctor for a quick blood test to confirm, and then met her husband at Walmart, where he was shopping. She surprised him with a baby Christmas stocking.
