‘The Good Cemeterian’ Restores The Final Resting Places Of U.S. Military Vets

It was as a budding photographer, and through a camera lens, that Andrew Lumish first noticed the mold and dirt covering the headstones he was taking pictures of in Oaklawn, Tampa’s oldest cemetery. He was particularly struck by the grime that obscured the memorials to fallen veterans, to the point where you could no longer make out their names. Lumish says he was moved by the thought that they had not only been forgotten, but that their marble and granite shrines had fallen into such disrepair.

So, with a handful of brushes, some water and D/2 Biological Solution — the only product approved for use in our national cemeteries — Lumish did something about it.

He started cleaning them, taking every Sunday to do so, and sharing his work on Facebook and Instagram. What began as the act of a good samaritan evolved into Lumish developing a cult-like social media following as “The Good Cemeterian.”

“It bothered me that many of the military markers were neglected for decades, if not for more than a century,’’ Lumish says. “I thought this would be a good way to honor our veterans, many who have just been forgotten.”

The 46-year-old Land O’Lakes resident, who owns his own cleaning business, Lumish tackled his newfound calling with vigor. He slowly perfected his trade, tombstone by tombstone, with some restorations taking 20 minutes, while others have taken months.

“It’s kind of an art form,’’ Lumish says. “It all depends on the complexity of the monument. Some have lots of nooks and crannies, and they require tooth brushes, Q-tips, whatever it takes.”

WFTS-TV, Ch. 28, the local ABC affiliate, did a small segment on Lumish in 2015 — he jokes that it was between a “Dirty Dining” segment and the weather — and it went viral, with more than 30 million online views.

Lumish shared his story with a raptured gathering at the New Tampa Rotary Club’s breakfast on Jan. 6. Club member Craig Miller had seen Lumish featured on “CBS Sunday Morning” last November — Miller says he and his wife Dee always tape the show and watch it after church — and reached out to him to be a featured speaker for the club..

“He had some really interesting stories,’’ Miller says. “He was great.”

Lumish, who says he has cleaned roughly 800 headstones and monuments of military veterans from the Civil, Spanish American, Korean, Vietnam and two World Wars, doesn’t just do restorations — he includes stories about the people buried beneath them to complement his before-and-after photos.

Rotarian Craig Miller (left) reached out to ‘The Good Cemeterian,’ Andrew Lumish, to speak at a New Tampa Rotary Club breakfast.

His most recent restorations were for World War I veteran Milton Payne Turner, who died in 1963 in a nursing home, and his son, Milton Owen Turner, who preceded his father in death when he was killed in WWII by the Nazis, just 23 days before Adolf Hitler committed suicide.

Lumish shares details of the men’s lives  on his Facebook page (search: TheGoodCemeterian), and his posts have been shared, liked and commented on tens of thousands of times. He estimates he reaches roughly 400,000 people a week (or more than 20 million a year) through social media.

Lumish started on his path to becoming the Good Cemeterian in the Lutz cemetery, where he returned the luster to a monument honoring a Civil War veteran.

“I never thought about it, I just wanted to give respect back,’’ he says. “Once I became better (at it), I took on bigger projects.”

One such bigger project involved a 10-foot-tall monument to two Tampa brothers, ages 16 and 14, who died in 1891. The story goes, the older brother goaded the other, who couldn’t swim, into removing his flotation device. But, once it was removed, and the older brother realized the mistake, they both drowned while he tried to save his younger brother.

“Some of the stories are sad,’’ says Lumish, who has been lauded by the Department of Veteran Affairs and other organizations for his efforts.

Lumish has an assistant, Jen Armbruster, who helps research the stories, and uses a number of online geneaology accounts to dig into fallen soldiers’ backgrounds in great detail. He often includes photos of his subjects when they are available, and even researches unmarked graves he has restored, to unlock the past.

“We try to tell their entire life stories,’’ says Lumish, who says he spent most of his adult life in corporate America before discovering a knack for photography. “I’ve always loved history, and this has allowed me to tell stories. It can be like finding a treasure.”

People from across the globe have shown their appreciation. Lumish says he gets thousands of messages from relatives and friends of those he features, and he says schools have contacted him about having their students do something similar for projects in their classes.

Lumish may be cleaning the surfaces of monuments, but he is only scratching the surface of what he hopes to accomplish. He has a number of projects in the pipeline as he continues to tackle lost history, one grimy tombstone at a time.

“I love doing it, I love telling stories,’’ he says. “In a world bombarded with negativity, this is something positive. It’s just a personal thing for me, but it has struck a nerve across the globe. There is no better feeling.”

You can follow The Good Cemeterian at Facebook.com/TheGoodCemeterian and on Instagram at instagram.com/thegoodcemeterian.

Apartments, Learning Experience Under Construction

A new luxury apartment community has broken ground on Highwoods Preserve Pkwy. across from the Muvico Starlight 20 movie theaters, and could be a boon for those seeking corporate lodging in the future.

The Oasis at Highwoods Preserve will offer 1-, 2- and 3-bedroom apartment homes, and “the amenities are incredible,’’ says Anna Hoang, a spokesperson for Picerne Real Estate Group, which is one of the largest diversified real estate management and development firms in the country.

Some of those amenities include a clubhouse with computers with free WiFi, faux wood flooring, a dog park, a theater room, cabanas and outdoor grills and a beach entry, saltwater pool.

Hoang says special added touches, like soft-closing drawers, granite countertops, crown molding and distinct archways will “make it feel more like a home than an apartment.”

The Oasis at Highwoods Preserve will have 302 units, and will be four stories tall, with elevators.

Construction began earlier this month, and the first building is expected to be completed by September, with a grand opening of the entire community in spring of 2018.

For more info, visit Picerne.com.

A New Learning Experience

New Tampa and Wesley Chapel continue to be fertile ground for companies offering a mixture of childcare and early education, and the latest entry into the local market is The Learning Experience.

Work has begun on the physical structure of the new facility, which will be  located at 20780 Trout Creek Rd. The Learning Experience will be almost directly across from the Wesley Chapel Super Target, but on the New Tampa side of County Line Rd.

The facility will be large. According to site plans on the City of Tampa website, The Learning Experience is being built on 1.39 acres and will be a 10,000-sq.-ft. facility, with a 9,310-sq.-ft. playground.

A similar venture, the Goddard School in Wesley Chapel, is opening a mile or so to the north off Bruce B. Downs (BBD) Blvd., across from Florida Hospital Wesley Chapel.

The Learning Experience offers childcare and early education for kids ages six months to six years old.

According to the company’s website, the curriculum includes sign language for infants and toddlers, a phonics program, foreign language programs (like Chinese), manners and etiquette, physical fitness and a philanthropy program that teaches children the value of selflessness and giving.

Boca Raton-based The Learning Experience was founded in 1979 by Michael and Lina Weissman, and is currently run by their son Richard. It began franchising in 2003. Forbes.com picked it as one of the top franchises to own in 2015, with $42.6-million in revenue that year from its 200-plus locations, as well a 73-percent growth rate over the three preceding years.

The Learning Experience uses its proprietary L.E.A.P.Âź (Learning Experience Academic Program) that is guarantees will provide children with exceptional core academic skills. For more info, visit TheLearningExperience.com.

Weekend Note: Detour at Tampa Palms Blvd.

Yes, Bruce B. Downs Blvd. (BBD) is still being widened.

As a result, the portion of Tampa Palms Blvd. across the street from the City Plaza at Tampa Palms (where travelers would take a right to head north on BBD) will be closed beginning at 6 p.m. Friday, Feb. 3 through 6 a.m. Monday, Feb. 6. The contractor will be removing the wastewater force main, according to the City of Tampa public affairs director Ashley Bauman.

This won’t affect traffic on BBD, as its thru lanes will remain open during construction. Pedestrian access will be available at the intersection of Tampa Palms Blvd. and BBD at all times.

College Football Championship Game Fans Helped Fill New Tampa’s Hotels

Clemson fans were in the majority in our area for the National Championship game, which helped fill our local hotels, including the Holiday Inn Express in New Tampa.

The total economic impact of the recent College Football Playoff National Championship game between Clemson and Alabama at Raymond James Stadium is debatable, but there is no disputing that even though the game was held nearly 20 miles away, New Tampa felt some of the effect.

While certainly no Super Bowl, whose impact is larger and usually stretches more than a week in areas where it is held, Holiday Inn Express & Suites general manager George Sandona said the Tigers’ thrilling victory over the defending national champion Crimson Tide on Jan. 9 helped fill all of the rooms the day before and night of the game at his hotel, located on Galbraith Rd. off Highwoods Preserve Pkwy. in New Tampa.

“It was particularly good that it was a Sunday and Monday night, because, in the world of hotels, those do not typically sell out,’’ he said.

Sandona said that all 100 rooms at his Holiday Inn Express & Suites were booked Sunday and Monday, and he estimates that at least 60-70 of those rooms were occupied by Clemson and Alabama football fans.

And, at the Spring Hill Suites on Primrose Lake Cir. in Tampa Palms, rooms also were packed with football fans, but not the ones general manager Barbara Scott says she initially anticipated.

According to Scott, as many as 25 rooms had been booked months in advance by Ohio State supporters. But, when the Buckeyes were beaten by Clemson 31-0 on New Year’s Eve, those rooms were cancelled.

Most of them, she says, were filled by Clemson fans, the rest by Alabama fans.

Scott said her hotel (which will be undergoing a transformation this summer) was nearly sold out on Sunday, the day before the game, but all 127 suites were filled Monday night, with 50 percent of those bookings by football visitors.

“Was it lucrative? Yes,’’ Scott says. “Was it as lucrative as we thought, with people booking six months out? No.”

The Clemson fans, Scott said, were a delight. She said the big group took it easy on the breakfast tables of Alabama fans, who had, “their heads in their plates” the morning after the Tigers’ 35-31 victory.

“They (Clemson) are a lovely travel team,’’ Scott says.

The college football championship game was a pleasant economic boost during what can be a slow time for area hotels. This year’s DICK’s Lacrosse Tournament in nearby Wesley Chapel (see pg. 54) had 20 fewer teams than last year, so the usual infusion of visitors for that event didn’t materialize in New Tampa.

But, the Tiger and Tide faithful made up for it.

“2017 is starting out well,’’ said Sandona, who anticipates the success to continue as the Florida Hospital Center Ice hockey facility opens, even though there is another Holiday Inn Express opening directly adjacent to the hotel off S.R. 56. FHCI already has booked almost half of its year with events that are sure to fill more local hotel rooms.

Jackie Ramos, who has been the general manager at the 84-room La Quinta Inn on Doña Michelle Dr. for three years, said that hotel didn’t sell out for the championship game, but hit definitely received a large increase in bookings due to the game.

“We certainly did,’’ she said. “Mostly Clemson fans.”

The Tampa Bay Business Journal said the number of out-of-town visitors for the game was estimated at 75,000-100,000, with more than half of those booking hotel rooms. Southern Hillsborough and Pinellas County, which are closer to the beaches, were expected to receive the lion’s share of that total.

Tampa Bay Sports Commission executive director Rob Higgins estimated that the economic impact to the Tampa Bay area was roughly $300 million.

Last year’s championship game — also played between Alabama and Clemson — was played at the University of Phoenix Stadium and, according to Arizona State University’s W.P. Carey School of Business, generated $273.6-million from out-of-state visitors. That was the highest total ever reported for a national championship game.

Scott says Tampa came off great on television and seemed to be a hit with visitors, adding that measuring the success of the event by that standard reaps more benefits than the final financial figures. “The success can not be tethered to dollars,’’ said Scott, who has been with the SpringHill Suites since 2013. “We got some great press, and these things help put (Tampa) on the road to being the next great city.”

While final economic impact figures for Tampa Bay aren’t yet available, Sandona says these events definitely provide a boost to local businesses, and not just his own.

He said his staff fielded dozens of inquiries from fans looking for things to do locally, with the most common question being — where are the best restaurants?

“It was great for local restaurants, and it probably had a positive impact on Busch Gardens attendance,” Sandona said. “Most people had already done a lot of research about the events at the (downtown Tampa) RiverWalk near the stadium. And, everyone tries to include a beach day in their trip.”

Sandona has been the general manager at the Holiday Inn Express since 2010 (and before that, also held the position from 2003-07), and has worked through a few Super Bowls, which booked his hotel full for 4-5 days at a time.

Sandona only wishes the event had more staying power. Clemson and Alabama didn’t win their semifinal games until Dec. 31, so fans couldn’t plan too far ahead, creating some special booking process requirements.

And, because the game was held on a Monday night, that meant, at most, only a likely weekend stay.

However, Sandona said it was a friendly, festive crowd that filled his rooms over the weekend. He said even the Alabama fans remained upbeat after the loss, confident their team would return to the championship game next year.

But they don’t win the award for most faithful fan at the hotel.

“One of my favorite interactions was with a Clemson fan who booked his rooms on June 1, 2016,’’ Sandona says. “I spoke to him a week before the game and told him he gets my ‘Boatload of Faith’ award. He told me he just figured the best thing to do was stay positive.”

The FHCI Iceman Cometh

For those of us who have previously toured the new Florida Hospital Center Ice (FCHI) off S.R. 56 in Wesley Chapel, there were only two things missing — people skating and the ice itself.

Well, as of Jan. 19, the largest ice skating and hockey facility south of New York state began the process of creating the ice, so that it can be painted, finished and open for skaters.

The facility and the Greater Wesley Chapel Chamber of Commerce (WCCC) hosted a ceremonial puck drop on Jan. 25. We’ll have extensive coverage in our next edition, which hits mailboxes Feb. 10.

Learn to Skate will hold its first lessons in Saturday morning.

And there are open skate sessions all weekend, starting today from noon-2 p.m. and tonight from 8-10 p.m., Saturday (noon-2 p.m., 4:30-6:30 p.m., 8-10 p.m.) and Sunday (1-3 p.m., 6-8 p.m.).