Tampa’s Nick Ryan lunges to try and stop a shot at the Goalies Inc. Performance Camp at AdventHealth Center Ice on Aug. 6. (Photos: Mike Camunas)
Nothing was going to stop these goalies from stopping pucks.
Despite the fact it had to be pushed back due to Covid-19, more than 40 youth ice hockey goalies recently were able to get in a training camp’s worth of goaltending work in two days (Aug. 5-6) at the Goalies, Inc., Performance Camp at AdventHealth Center Ice (AHCI) in Wesley Chapel.
Originally scheduled for March, Bernie Desrosiers, the executive director of Sunbelt Hockey Scouting and a long-time New Tampa-area hockey coach, says the camp was sold out well before the coronavirus shut down youth sports programs.
“We’ll have it again next year,” Desrosiers said. “This has been a great turnout and, so far, all the feedback we’ve gotten has been that everyone was happy to finally be able to come to this camp. “It’s been a great two days.”
Desrosiers added that of the 42 young goalies who participated, only one had to be sent home sick — not Covid-19 related — and that there were no injuries sustained. “Pretty remarkable, I’d say,” Desrosiers said.
Head instructor Jim Stanaway provides instruction to some of the 42 goalies in attendance.
Led by Goalies, Inc. head instructor Jim Stanaway, boys and girls, teenagers and “tweens” went through various drills to hone their goaltending skills in the hopes of being the next Andrei Vasilevskiy (the Tampa Bay Lightning goalie) or Madeline Rooney (the starting goalie for the Olympic gold medal-winning 2018 USA women’s hockey team). The young goalies worked on glove and stick saves, rebound shots, skating backwards, diving for pucks and even how to hug the pipes to block shots.
Stanaway also preached a lot, not only about teamwork, sportsmanship and respect for the game, but also for the goalies’ fans (their families).
As he watched netminders of all sizes and ages scramble to grab pucks, the goalie instructor of nearly two decades was impressed by his first trip to the Tampa Bay area and its local talent.
“With an NHL team, and them doing very well, it’s nice to see (the high interest in hockey in a southern city or state),” he said. “A lot of these southern NHL teams invest in their communities a lot, but the enthusiasm (here) is quite amazing.”
For more info about Goalies, Inc., camps, visit GoaliesInc.com.
(L.-r.) Girl Scouts Amelia Beanland and Isabela DuBois present the “snuffle mats” they and their Troop 32801 made to Pasco County Animal Services, as part of their Silver Award project.
We’ve all had to do some adjusting since the Covid-19 pandemic started in the spring.
For a pair of eighth grade (now ninth grade) Girl Scouts, the pandemic meant that they faced obstacle after obstacle while trying to earn their Silver Awards, which is the highest award given by Girl Scouts to its Cadettes, who are girls in sixth through eighth grade.
Fortunately for Isabela DuBois, who lives in Cory Lake Isles, and her project partner, Amelia Beanland, who lives in Cross Creek, they learned how to be flexible, adapt and persevere when things don’t go as planned.
The girls earned their Silver Awards before bridging to Seniors at the end of July.
Isabela has been a member of Girl Scout Troop 32801, which typically meets at Benito Middle School, since Daisies, when she was just six years old. Amelia joined the troop when she was in sixth grade. Currently, Troop 32801 has been meeting through Skype.
That’s just one of the changes the girls faced in trying to complete their project.
“Our project is called ‘Don’t shop, adopt,’” Isabela says. “We came up with it because we both have a passion for dogs.”
She says they researched puppy mills and worked to educate people about what they learned. They made a flier and created Instagram and Facebook accounts to educate people about the importance of adopting a pet, rather than shopping for one.
Then, they put their research into action by partnering with Pasco County Animal Services to support its efforts to rescue and find homes for dogs in need.
The girls made “snuffle mats”, which are used to hide food or treats for dogs. “We raised the money, bought the supplies, made them, and donated them,” Isabela says.
However, that wasn’t their original plan.
Isabela’s mom, Crystal, who is the assistant leader for the troop, says she was impressed with the girls’ ability to adapt.
Crystal explains that the project originally included three girls and was going to focus on awareness of pre-teen and teen anxiety. When one of the girls was diagnosed with anxiety, they thought it was too sensitive and came up with the new idea, focusing on helping dogs. Then, the third girl chose to do a different project, and Isabela and Amelia moved forward without her.
They started by organizing a volunteer day at the Pasco County Animal Services shelter in Land O’Lakes when Covid-19 caused the shelter to close its doors to volunteers. The girls had to figure out what to do next.
They called the shelter, which recommended they make the snuffle mats. The girls then raised the money to get supplies by hosting a “virtual bake sale,” where they delivered goodies to people who bought them online.
Isabela and Amelia then bought the supplies for the snuffle mats, including fabric and rubber mats with holes in them, and a representative of the shelter taught the troop how to make the mats via a Zoom meeting.
“They kind of got hit up against a wall and figured out a different way around it,” says Crystal. “They learned some strategy skills.”
The girls were each required to contribute 50 hours to the project, and both Isabela and Amelia exceeded that requirement.
“This took a lot of work,” says Isabela. “We had to change our project from our original plan, then we also had Covid, and we had to change it again. It got harder at the end because we couldn’t meet to do stuff. It was very difficult and stressful.”
Isabela says she is happy to have received the award, given by the Girl Scouts of West Central Florida, but she is more proud of her efforts and says she learned a lot during the process. “I want people to know how to find a proper breeder, kind of like a background check, and how to adopt properly and make sure the pet they adopt is healthy,” she says. “And, if you don’t want a dog, you can still help. You can donate to shelters or volunteer at a shelter.”
Isabela says she and Amelia had money left over from their fund-raising efforts after they made the snuffle mats, so they asked the shelter what kind of food was used, then ordered it and had it delivered.
“People can do that, too,” Isabela says, “and it’s not super expensive.” She says her journey in Girl Scouts is far from over, as she plans to earn her Gold Award, too.
“We’ve done archery, camping, gone canoeing, paddleboarding, ziplining and horseback riding,” she says. “They teach you First-Aid and life skills you won’t learn anywhere else. And, you make friends. I’ve learned so many things that I never would have if it wasn’t for Girl Scouts.”
Search “Florida Girl Scouts against Puppy Mills” on Facebook and on Instagram at “Dont.Shop.Adopt.”
Kiran Indian Grocery, located on Cross Creek Blvd. in the Cross Creek Center plaza, has been a mainstay at this constantly-changing plaza since 2014. Before that, owner Kiran Vanthenapalli owned a store (from 2003-06; and an Indian restaurant, too) on E. Fowler Ave. and, from 2006-2010, her store was in the Pebble Creek Collection on Bruce B. Downs (BBD) Blvd.
That means that some of her beloved customers have known and trusted Kiran and her family and staff to provide their (predominantly) Indian and Pakistani spices, frozen foods, meats, snacks, sweets and even hair care and other cosmetic products (and so much more) for almost 18 years.
And of course, Kiran is perhaps best known for her amazing selection of fresh produce, with some Indian specialty items I’ve never tasted (or even seen) before at prices that she says she knows, “no one can beat. I do my research — and no one beats my prices on produce.”
But actually, saying that Kiran is best known for her produce isn’t 100-percent accurate. Kiran Indian Grocery is actually best-known for Kiran herself, something that no other store of any kind can boast.
(Top middle) Owner Kiran Vanthenapalli of Kiran Indian Grocery in the Cross Creek Center plaza describes a number of the different produce items that many Americans have never heard of, including imported-from-India garlic, Indian min-eggplants and super-spicy Thai chili peppers. “No one beats my produce prices,” she says. (Photos: Charmaine George)
Not only can Kiran tell you where each and every one of her thousands of available items are located, she also can tell you the prices for each — all off the top of her head. That’s kind of amazing because she has so many different items and many different brands of the same types of products — e.g., she has as many different “masala” seasonings and brands as most grocery stores have beers — crammed into a store that somehow seems both much bigger and much smaller than it actually is because it offers such an amazing variety of products.
That’s not to say that Kiran’s staffers aren’t also knowledgeable. It just has to be impossible for anyone else to have memorized the price, size and exact location within the store of so many different items — many of which aren’t even marked with prices.
But, if Kiran tells you what the price is on any item, rest assured that when that item is rung up at the check-out counter, the exact price she quoted will pop up.
So Many Ways To Serve!
Serving her customers and their needs was of paramount importance to Kiran long before the Covid-19 pandemic hit. She always knows her army of regular customers not only by name (that’s too easy), but also by what they usually are looking for to stock their grocery carts.
In fact, if she’s ever running low on an item she knows you always get, she’ll hold enough of that item for you, so you can stay stocked until she gets her next shipment of it. “If I only have three left, and I don’t know how soon I’ll get more, I’ll tell you to buy two of them,” she laughs.
And, if Kiran does somehow run out of one of your favorites, she’ll suggest an alternative that you can try that you might end up liking better. “I never want my customers going home unhappy,” she says.
In fact, even though a new, much larger Indian grocery store recently opened in New Tampa during the pandemic, Kiran says that while her customers may have checked out the new store to see what it has that she might not, “My customers are all still coming back because they say the new store (which also stocks a lot of Mediterranean items that she doesn’t carry) can’t match my prices or the service they receive here.”
Kiran and I first met when we were both members of the Rotary Club of New Tampa Noon (which now meets Wednesdays at noon at Bayscape Bistro in Heritage Isles), and although neither of us currently belongs to that club (see page 34 for more info), we both are firm believers in Rotary International’s “Service Above Self” motto.
But, while service to the community is something I believe in and try to promote in these pages, Kiran and her husband Sudeer have always also served not only their community, but people — and even animals — in need around the world.
Many of the service projects Kiran was involved in — some of which she spearheaded — when she was in Rotary helped people in need in not only her native India, but also in other countries in Asia and Africa.
She also has been involved — at least since opening her store in Cross Creek — with the Tampa Bay chapter of the SPCA — the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals — and she has donated fresh produce, rice and really anything the local chapter has needed because she is such a strong believer that people need pets and that so many of the pets in shelters can and do help individuals and families who need the kind of companionship and love that only a dog or cat can provide.
“I love the SPCA,” Kiran says. “It feels good to help them because they help so many people…and animals.”
And, even though she says doing grocery packing for her customers who physically can’t or aren’t comfortable walking into any store right now, “Is very time-consuming and difficult, because of all the different items we have, I just feel like I have to do it for some of these customers. We all wear masks and keep everyone socially distant, especially at the checkout line, but some people still need that help and I am proud to do that for them.”
Service To Other Businesses, Too?
When Covid-19 hit back in March and I started going through the issues I did with my printer, Kiran was probably the first (but thankfully, not the only) advertiser to call me and say, “What do you need? How can I help?”
When I interviewed Kiran for this story, she told me that, “I thought you said in the paper that you were going out of business, Gary. I started crying. I told Sudeer, ‘We have to help our brother.’”
Even though I thankfully never got to that point and have no Indian heritage whatsoever, Kiran has called me her brother for years now. And, even though she seems to treat everyone who stops into the store like a member of her family, I refer to her as my sister, too. You just can’t fake her kind of genuine goodness and compassion for others.
But, it’s a big compliment to me because she does also have an amazing family of which she is equally proud. Husband Sudeer is a software engineer and their older son Satvik just graduated from medical school at USF and is focusing on Psychiatry, while younger son Sahit recently graduated from USF undergrad and is applying to med schools, too.
Another case in point about how Kiran treats everyone is that, in part also because of Covid-19, when people check out at her store, she or her cashier will put coupons from other local businesses in the customers’ shopping bags. She has helped most of the Indian restaurants and other businesses owned by people from India and Pakistan in our area this way and she says that she would be happy to do it for other businesses, too. “We’re all in this thing together,” she says.
And of course, whether you like or want to cook Indian food or not, if you’re a fan of delicious chocolate cookies or other sweet and/or salty treats, or you want the best prices in town on fresh produce, you owe it to yourself to visit my sister Kiran.
Kiran Indian Grocery is located at 10042 Cross Creek Blvd. and its recently updated open hours are Monday-Sunday, 10 a.m.-8 p.m. For more info, call (813) 994-6202 or search “Kiran Indian Grocery” on Facebook!
With the world having gone completely crazy over Covid-19, the Rotary Club of New Tampa Noon rightfully decided to postpone this year’s New Tampa BrewFest (which was seriously packed last year; photo, top right).
Recognizing that the original August date was too soon to host even a socially-distanced event, BrewFest chair Jeff Ulbrich said the Rotary Club decided to postpone the 2020 BrewFest until Saturday, November 7, beginning at 6 p.m., again at the Venetian Events Center on Cross Creek Blvd.
Attendees can again expect a huge variety (90 or more!) of craft, micro and other brews (from 30 top local breweries), including ciders and “hard” seltzers, plus top-notch wines and deliciously “legit” food trucks.
Look for additional updates in these pages and go ahead and pre-buy your tickets now at NewTampaNoonRotaryClub.eventbrite.com.
Saying Goodbye To Pier 1
I have never been the biggest fan of Pier 1 Imports in either of its New Tampa locations — I felt it was always just a little too pricey for the quality of the merchandise — but I am never happy to see another major anchor store close, and the Pier 1 located at 18047 Highwoods Preserve Pkwy. in The Walk at Highwoods Preserve plaza on BBD was clearing out its inventory in preparation for the local store’s closing, as part of the Ft. Worth, TX-based chain’s shuttering of between 400-450 of its 1,000 or so locations nationwide.
But, this store appears to be in no hurry to close. The 20%-50%-off promise on every sign inside (photo, far right) still only brings Pier 1’s prices down to almost as low as the regular prices at Target or even At Home. I’m guessing that until the discounts hit 50%-70% off, there will still be plenty of inventory to keep it open.
Coming To The Grove In WC!
Here are some of the new eateries and businesses that are either open now, are opening soon or are under construction in The Village at The Grove at Wesley Chapel:
• Double Branch Artisanal Ales (now open, but currently to-go only)
• F45 Training (open)
• Jillian Joseph Photography (open)
• Roman Group Realty
• Treble Makers Dueling Piano Bar
• Lagoon Realty
• The Dessert Box
• Brooklyn Bagel Co. (frontage on S.R. 54)
• King of the Coop (fried chicken; located next to Brooklyn Bagel on 54)
• Falabella Family Bistro
• The Kilted Axe
• Pizza Worx NY pizza
• Pasco EDC Business Incubator
• Japanese Restaurant (unnamed; replaces Casa Cubana, which will open a different eatery in the under-construction Krate container park at The Grove).
For The Grove leasing info, email Keren@mgoldgroup.com; for event info, email matheus@mgoldgroup.com! — GN
It was not quite 20 years ago when optometrist David Scamard, O.D., who had only recently opened his first office on Bruce B. Downs (BBD) Blvd., first asked me my age and then said, “Yes, that makes sense. You’re going to need to start wearing reading glasses soon.”
I was flabbergasted.
“But Doctor Dave, I’ve been nearsighted since I was eight years old. You’re going to tell me that now, I’m going to be farsighted, too? How can that even be?”
As it turned out, he was right. I started needing either bifocal contact lenses or correcting one eye for close-up reading and the other eye for activities like watching TV and driving — by the following year.
So, even though Dr. Dave has had other offices in Lutz since then, his “Excellence in Eye Care, LLC” office has been located in his new home — he has been the Independent Optometrist inside the Costco off S.R. 56 — for about two years.
And, even though I briefly changed optometrists after Dr. Dave closed his most recent office on S.R. 54 in Lutz, when I was told late last year by that other optometrist that I had a cataract in my left eye that might need to be surgically corrected in the future, I got a second opinion months later from Dr. Dave, whose new office in Costco is across the street from where Jannah and I live.
Fortunately for me, not only did Dr. Dave confirm that I had a cataract in my left eye, he said, “You also have just the beginning of one in your right eye, too.”
I wasn’t really considering surgery before I visited Dr. Dave, because I hadn’t yet really noticed any change in my vision.
That is, until Jannah and I were driving home one evening in January of this year, after visiting my mom in Sarasota. As the skies turned from dusk into dark, I noticed that whenever there was a vehicle driving southbound as we were headed northbound on I-75, the glare from the headlights of those oncoming vehicles would temporarily prevent me from seeing the tail lights of the vehicles in front of me.
Everytime this happened, I would tap my brakes, to make sure I wasn’t getting too close, which isn’t a particularly safe thing to do when you’re going 70 mph on an interstate highway. I immediately stopped driving at night after that incident and asked my old friend to recommend a good cataract surgeon.
Cataracts are like a film over the lens of your eye, so even I could understand that when they replace the “foggy” lens surgically, it definitely will make your vision clearer.
Thank You, St. Luke’s!
Dr. Dave recommended two or three different ophthalmic surgeons that he felt comfortable with, but I ultimately chose to go with Dr. Jeffrey Wipfli of the St. Luke’s Cataract & Laser Institute, who had amazing reviews online and an office nearby (on N. Dale Mabry Hwy. in Carrollwood), but who performs his surgeries at the main St. Luke’s location on U.S. Hwy. 19 in Tarpon Springs.
Not only that, but St. Luke’s has been a some-time advertiser with us and we actually did a story about Dr. Wipfli in a Wesley Chapel issue last October, so I felt even better about entrusting him with something as precious as my eyesight.
The truly amazing thing is that I got the cataract in my left eye fixed in late January and the right eye in mid-February, so my eyes were all fixed prior to the shutdown of elective surgeries in Florida due to Covid-19. I even got to do both follow-up appointments with Dr. Dave before he had to temporarily close his office in Costco.
Easiest Surgery Ever!
I have no idea how it’s been for surgery patients at St. Luke’s since March, but I did notice this on the company’s website as I was writing this story:
“This has been a challenging time for all of us. Many of you know that St. Luke’s has remained open on a much restricted schedule to do our best to serve our patients through the last several weeks. We have been able to serve many of our patients who have had urgent needs by keeping our doors open in our main office in Tarpon Springs….We have resumed surgery and all clinic locations are now open. Safety of our patients and employees is the priority for us as we continue to practice social distance and adhere to all CDC and governmental guidelines.”
But, here’s how both cataract surgeries went for me at St. Luke’s:
The office staff tells you to expect your total time there to be between 3-4 hours, of which waiting and taking care of all of your pre-surgical paperwork takes up about two of those hours. Jannah drove me and waited for me to drive me home both times, since your vision can be a little blurry at first and because you are mildly sedated during the surgery. All the amazing St. Luke’s surgical assistants tell you to do is to focus on the light being shined in that eye and the surgeries seemed to be over in a few seconds, rather than the few minutes it actually does take.
I could see pretty well out of the surgical eye both times right away, but it takes some getting used to because none of your old glasses will properly correct your vision in the surgical eye and wearing one of your existing contact lenses on the other eye really only works after the first surgery.
The cool thing was that Dr. Wipfli let me pick beforehand what I wanted my vision to be after the surgery. And, because I spend so much time at the computer writing and editing, I chose to be able to see up close with no correction whatsoever and to only have to wear glasses to watch TV and drive. Most patients can choose to have uncorrected vision for both far and near, but it was more expensive to do so and Dr. Wipfli said that, for a variety of reasons specific to me, I might still need some correction for either near or far, even if I did pay more.
And I’m glad, because since Covid-19, I’ve been able to wear my glasses anytime I go anywhere (some eye protection is better than none) and I really only have to take them off to read a menu at a restaurant (which we didn’t do for a long while).
Best Post-Surgical Care, Too!
So now, here’s the scoop on doing business with Dr. Dave, whose Excellence in Eye Care, LLC, is an A-Rated business, according to the Better Business Bureau (BBB), and still has a 5-Star rating on Google Reviews with more than 160 reviews. The practice even has a 5-Star rating on its Facebook page.
Excellence in Eye Care also features some amazingly high-tech equipment. For eye exams, Dr. Dave uses an Optos retinal camera (photo on this page) in his office. This high-tech machine is a retinal imager that gives the optometrist a view of the internal structures of your eyes, so that, for many patients, it means they don’t have to have their eyes dilated at their annual exam.
“When your pupils are dilated,” Dr. Dave explains, “you are very sensitive to bright light and your nearsightedness is fuzzy, sometimes for up to five hours after dilation. It’s something that compels a lot of people to pass up their eye exams.”
One of the other high-tech devices Dr. Dave uses is a RT-5100 Refractor, a digital refractor with electric motors that change the lenses. He operates the digital refractor from a console on his desk.
“The digital refractor is faster, more accurate and more efficient than the old-style analog devices,” Dr. Dave says. “Our patients appreciate that we have the latest technology available to them.”
But, perhaps the most important thing going for Dr. Dave as an optometrist is his people skills — which are awesome — and his entire office staff is always friendly, professional and happy to serve their patients.
And, you do not have to be a Costco member to see Dr. Dave. Tell the membership checkers at the entrance that you’re there to see him and they’ll let you go back.
He notes, however, that you do have to be a Costco member to purchase your glasses or contact lenses in the store, but Dr. Dave will provide you with both prescriptions so you can buy your glasses/lenses anywhere else you choose.
And, it’s nice to be able to pick up a bottle (or case) of wine or a 3-lb. bag of coffee when you get your eyes checked, too.
Excellence in Eye Care is located at 2225 Grand Cypress Dr. The office is open Tues. & Thur., 1 p.m.-7 p.m.; 10 a.m.-5 p.m. on Wed. & Fri. & 10 a.m.-2 p.m. on Sat. Optical insurance is not accepted, although itemized receipts are provided that patients can use to get reimbursed by their providers. I]Eye insurance can, however, be applied to lenses and frames you buy at Costco. For appointments (although walk-ins are welcome) and more info, call (813) 279-7038 or visit ExcellenceinEyeCare.net.
