WCNT-TV, a new multimedia project from Neighborhood News and Full Throttle Intermedia, in conjunction with the Greater Wesley Chapel Chamber of Commerce, will debut next month from the Florida Hospital Wesley Chapel Studios.
The bi-weekly show will feature news and events in and around New Tampa and Wesley Chapel, a feature on a WCCC member business and editor Gary Nager’s Neighborhood Dining News. Look for more updates soon.
Here’s a sample of what you can expect:
Tom Mulligan has the training and experience to help cure a lot of things.
But, when it comes to Tampa Bay Lightning fever â which is running rampant in the area these days â the teamâs head trainer and Arbor Greene resident can only suggest one solution:
Watch more Lightning hockey.
âThis is great,ââ Tom says. âIâm not playing, but the next best thing is to be a part of it and help contribute, and I love just watching the excitement of people in the area. Last year, the run we had was fantastic. To do it again would be great.â
Tom, his wife Kellie and children Tyler, 13, Zachary, 10, and Abby, 8, have been fixtures in New Tampa since 2002, when they moved into an apartment at Richmond Place before finding their first of two homes in Arbor Greene.
Kellie is an occupational therapist at Florida Hospital Wesley Chapel, and the Mulligan kids all currently attend or have attended Richard F. Pride Elementary and Louis Benito Middle schools.
âFor my kids, they get to go to the rink and talk with the players, and Tyler even got to help at rookie camp,ââ Kellie says. âHe was literally filling bags of ice, but still, he was there.â
The Mulligans are among the holdovers from a time when roughly 75 percent of the Tampa Bay Lightning team lived in New Tampa. Although retired former stars (and local media personalities) like 2004 Stanley Cup-winning captain Dave Andreychuk and Chris Dingman still live here, the current crop of players tends to settle elsewhere. But, Tom said the Mulligans love the area and the schools too much to follow suit. There may not be any hockey wives for Kellie to lean on, but they say there is a bustling community in Arbor Greene that rallies together.
âTom travels so much that I wouldnât be able to do what I do without our friends and our community, even if itâs just friends helping meet my kids at the bus if Iâm running late from work,â says Kellie.
The Arbor Greene community might be Tomâs biggest fans. While many would most likely gather for Lightning playoff games anyway, a good many do so knowing their neighbor is a part of this yearâs championship-contending team.
âOne of the cool things from last year my wife and I talked about was a few families in the neighborhood getting together and renting a 15-foot blow up projection TV,ââ Tom says. âEveryone was so into it and excited. My wife sent me a few pictures when they did it and I shared them with the team. That was pretty cool.â
At our press time, the Lightning had advanced all the way to the NHLâs Eastern Conference finals, where a best-of-7 series against the Pittsburgh Penguins is all that stands between the team and a second straight appearance in the Stanley Cup finals.
Tom, a Quinnipiac College (now University) in Hamden, CT, graduate with a B.S. in Physical Therapy and a minor in Biology, has played a big role in helping the team get here, helping all of those injured Lightning players get healthy and ready. Heck, even the most fervent Bolts fan might make the case that Tom holds the key to the teamâs Stanley Cup chances, considering the questions the New Bedford, MA, native has been asked this postseason.
âIs Steven Stamkos going to make it back from a blood clot in time?â
âIs Anton Stralman ready to return from his broken leg?â
âHow are the âupper bodyâ injuries that have been keeping JT Brown and Erik Condra sidelined coming along? Oh, and by the way, just between usâŠ.what exactly are those upper body injuries?â
The return of each of the aforementioned players would certainly bolster Tampa Bayâs championship hopes, and Tom, the longtime Lightning trainer, would love to see it happen.
But, heâs not saying.
âYou get the questions, but the people that we are close to and friends that we have in the area and in the neighborhood, they understand that I canât talk much about that,ââ Tom says. âYou hear the questions. I wish I could give them the answers.â
This yearâs Lightning team has already surpassed the expectations that were tempered when the injuries piled up near the end of the regular season. Tom and his staff are working hard to get the Lightningâs key players back on the ice.
âI mean, a lot of the credit goes to the whole training staff and itâs led by Tom and they are the best around,ââ says Stralman, a defenseman who broke his left leg on March 25 before finally returning for the Pittsburgh series. âItâs a long season and they keep our bodies in the best condition they can be. This time of the year, everyone is hurting but the training staff keeps us close to 100 percent. We all owe a lot to the trainers here.â
Tom, a former varsity defenseman in high school back in New Bedford, landed the job as the Lightningâs trainer by chance. In the summer of 2002, when Tom was the head trainer of the Providence Bruins (Bostonâs American Hockey League affiliate), he happened to call an old friend who told him that the Lightning trainer at the time was taking a job with the Florida Panthers.
Tom decided to apply and ended up getting the Lightning job.
A Dream Come True
It didnât take long for him to experience the goal of anybody working in hockey â being part of Tampa Bayâs Stanley Cup-winning celebration in 2004.
âThat was my second year with the team when we won the Cup, and everything just happened so fast,ââ Tom said. âHopefully you think youâll get another chance, then 12 years go by and you start to wonder if it will ever happen again.â
In the grand tradition of the Stanley Cup, each member of the organization gets to spend a day with the most famous trophy in sports. Tom took the Cup over to his parentsâ house in New Bedford for a small celebration. A picture with Tyler, who was then 16 months old, actually sitting in the Cup made the cover of the local newspaper.
âI wasnât necessarily the coolest (kid on the block), but the Cup was,ââ Tom says.
Since the Lightningâs only Cup win, Tom has traveled to Halifax, Nova Scotia, and Helsinki, Finland, as a trainer for the USAâs World Championship teams in 2008 and 2012, and was a trainer on the USA team which lost in the Bronze medal game (to Finland) at the 2014 Sochi Olympics.
However, heâd love another Cup so his kids could enjoy it, even though it extends his time away from his family.
âWith playoffs, it can be so unpredictable that itâs hard,ââ Kellie said. âAnd for Tom, even on off days, heâs going in for treatments. The cool thing is, itâs so exciting to be part of the playoffs. As a family, we get to share in that and the kids are part of it. It makes all the sacrifices worth it.â
Mary Seaman is a believer.
When she was in the throes of a disastrous divorce in the mid-1980s, she says a brief interaction with Pope John Paul II helped pull her through it.
So when she read the 2014 book Six Months to Live: Three Guys on the Ultimate Quest for a Miracle, about Artie Boyleâs pilgrimage to Medjugorje, Herzegovina, and how it cured him of cancer, it didnât defy Maryâs logic. It actually made perfect sense to her.
Seaman, an Arbor Greene resident the past 14 years, was so moved by Artie Boyleâs book that she is organizing her own pilgrimage to Medjugorje in August. The 15-day trip, which costs $4,490 and is scheduled for Oct. 9-24, also will include time in Italy at other holy sites.
âItâs been pulling at me,ââ Seaman says. âI think the stars are aligned.â
Boyle, who is the father of Tampa Bay Lightning (see pg. 1) center Brian Boyle, helped connect Seaman with the right people for her trip.
Seaman, 65, said she needs to sign up 40 people for the trip, and is roughly halfway there. Father Ed Lamp of St. Mark the Evangelist Catholic Church on Cross Creek Blvd., where Seaman is a member, is accompanying the group on the trip as the spiritual advisor. Seaman met Father Ed at Tampaâs James A. Haley Veteranâs Hospital, where she was once a nurse and he was a chaplain.
She also is a member of the Monsignor Kevin S. Mullen Columbiettes at St. Markâs, a group which does charity work through the church.
Seaman herself doesnât have cancer. In fact, she says, her life is pretty good. She says, however, that she is always eager to grow spiritually, and wants others to experience the same joy she has.
âIâm so awe-inspired by the opportunity to go and lead a group and bring other people to that holy place, Seaman says. âI think itâs just exciting and profound.â
Medjugorje is in eastern Europe, in the Herzegovina region of Bosnia & Herzegovina, near the border of Croatia.
In June of 1981, six local children claimed they had seen an apparition, or vision, of the Blessed Virgin Mary, and ever since, the town of roughly 2,500 residents has become a popular spot for Catholic pilgrimages, with millions of believers estimated to have visited.
Of the six children from 1981, Seaman says, three no longer receive apparitions as adults. One of those that still does, Ivan Dragicevic, will be accompanying Seamanâs group on the pilgrimage.
Although the apparitions and their authenticity are a point of contention among Catholics and other scholars, for many itâs matter of faith.
Artie Boyle was suffering from stage 4 metastatic renal cell carcinoma (kidney cancer) and was not expected to survive. He was diagnosed in 1999 and had his kidney removed, but eight months later, doctors found three tumors in his right lung. He was given a 5-percent chance of survival.
Boyle had all but surrendered to the disease when his neighbor and best friend Rob Griffin, a former youth league coach of Brian Boyleâs, and his brother-in-law Kevin Gill, bought him a ticket to Medjugorje for Labor Day weekend in 2000.
Boyle, who was 44, admits in his book to not being an overly spiritual person at the time, but he writes that something happened to him on Cross Mountain as he and his friends prayed and confessed their sins together.
He came back convinced he had been cured. He was scheduled to have his right lung removed four days after his return to the U.S., but new CAT scans, and numerous doctors, revealed that the cancer had all but disappeared.
The story made headlines, and Boyle appeared on a host of talk shows while writing his book. On the back cover blurb, his urologist, Dr. Francis McGovern, wrote: âWith the severity and progression of Artieâs disease, metastatic renal cell carcinoma, it is difficult for medical science to explain why he is alive today. But, every time I see him, I am sure there is a God.â
Boyle has been back 14 times since. He says he has seen âextreme atheistsâ converted on the spot as well as hardliners who hate God and donât worship Mary. He said the feeling of peace there is âpalpable, and you donât get that everywhere else. Iâm sorry, you just donât.â
While Boyleâs story evokes skepticism in many, it called to Seaman. She was given Boyleâs book by her sister-in-law while visiting in Boston, and it turned out that Boyle was from Hingham, just outside of Boston, where Seaman once lived.
That compelled Seaman to call Boyle, hoping to speak with him. She left a message, and was surprised when he did finally return her phone call about two months later. She has recently talked with Boyle again, this time about possibly speaking in New Tampa about his experiences.
Seamanâs desire to embark on a pilgrimage may seem frivolous to some, but she has a strong faith and some of her desire is derived from personal experiences.
In 1985, she and her husband had purchased tickets through her church to visit Rome to see Pope John Paul II speak during Lent. But, when her marriage fell apart abruptly, she told the priest at her church she had to give up her seat; that he should give it to someone who couldnât afford to go.
Seaman reverted to making rosary beads, something she did in her spare time. She decided, after some reflection, that she wanted to go on the trip after all, but was told her seat had already been taken. Desperate, she offered to pay her own way and follow the group on her own. She received permission, but before she bought the ticket, another person backed out.
In Rome, she was among the thousands jockeying for position to see the Pontiff.
âAs we were standing there, someone came up to me and tapped me on the shoulder and said, âIf you want to see the Pope, get to the rail,â Seaman said. âI didnât know what that meant. But then, the doors opened, and I saw the rail.â
Seaman got to the rail. And sure enough, after the Pope finished speaking, he exited right past where Seaman was standing. She handed him a set of her rosary beads, and he put his hands on her head and blessed her.
âI canât tell you how powerful that was,ââ Seaman said. âIt was as if Jesus wrapped his arms around me. I was so high. I had experienced the birth of my children, I ran the Boston Marathon, but when John Paul touched me, it was like heaven opened up.â
That feeling is what Seaman hopes others can experience at Medjugorje, where some have claimed to have witnessed rosary beads changing colors and the sun appearing to pulsate like a heart.
âIâm so excited,ââ Seaman said. âI just canât tell you how excited I am.â
For more information about the pilgrimage, please contact Mary at (707) 799-5163, or email her at nursingsuccess@icloud.com.
Looking for a good book? Barnes & Nobleâs annual local author book signing event on Saturday, May 21, 2 p.m.- 4 p.m., has you covered.
With the most diverse group of local authors the bookstore (located at the Shops at Wiregrass mall) has had to date, youâre sure to find something to satisfy your craving for the written word.
Book lovers are invited to meet and chat with the authors, as well as get their copies of each authorâs books signed.
âItâs a great way to get multiple authors in the store,â says Wiregrass Barnes & Noble assistant manager Lisa Kuehner, who is coordinating the event. âA lot of these authors are self-published, so itâs a good way for them to promote and sell their books.â
This year, there are 27 authors scheduled to attend, more than Barnes & Noble has had in the past.
âWeâre expecting a bigger turn-out this year, too,â says Kuehner.
The authors have been reaching out to their own audiences, and the store also has been using social media networks like Instagram and Facebook to get the word out about this yearâs event.
Some authors are returning veterans, like Kimberly Karalius, who is the author of Love Fortunes and Other Disasters and its sequel, Love Charms and Other Catastrophies.
Kimberly graduated from Paul R. Wharton High in New Tampa and holds a Master of Fine Arts (MFA) degree in Creative Writing from the University of South Florida in Tampa. She recently completed a national book tour for her first book, published in 2015, and did her first book signing at the Barnes & Noble local author book signing.
Jamie Elizabeth Tingen (below), the author of Butterfly Messages, a love story about people reconnecting with former sweethearts, and Betrayal of the Butterfly, a mystery about the bonds between a mother and her child, will also be at the fair.
Retired educator Madonna Jervis-Wise, who has made a number of recent appearances in these pages and is in in the midst of a book tour after publishing her most recent, Images of America: Wesley Chapel, will be attending as well.
Jervis-Wise also is the author of several other books, including Images of America: Zephryhills, Images of America: Dade City, Tapestry-Zephryhills, and Wildcat Creek Kids.
Other Wesley Chapel and New Tampa authors who will be featured at the bookstoreâs event include Jenice Armstead, Barbara Post-Askin, Sarina Babb, John Chaplick, Jonathan Chateau, Sharron K. Cosby, Marilyn De La Cruz, Jeanette Lynn Dundas, Ben Gold, Jwan Israil, C. Johnson, Jason Leclerc, Debbie Lum, Josh McMorrow-Hernandez, Stephen Morrill, Susan Noe Harmon, Lorelie Dionne Orat, Lucille Rose DâArmi-Riggio, Elizabeth L. Rivera, Ria Prestia (Maria Rooney), Dee Segarra, Evelyn Johnson-Taylor, Vincent Vinas, and Paul Wartenburg.
The Barnes & Noble bookstore at The Shops at Wiregrass Mall, located at 28152 Paseo Dr. in Wesley Chapel, is hosting its annual local author event & signing on Tuesday, May 21, 2 p.m.-4 p.m. For additional information, visit TheShopsatWiregrass.com.
Traffic was shutdown for hours on I-75 southbound (north of Bruce B. Downs (BBD) Blvd) at the I-275 and I-75 apex Thursday morning after an accident left a St. Petersburg man dead.
According to the Florida Highway Patrol (FHP), Paul Duarte Braga, 43, was driving his 2006 Isuzu truck southbound on I-75 in the center lane when, for unknown reasons, he veered off the road and into the center median before colliding with the guard rail around 3:30 a.m.
Braga, who was not wearing a seatbelt, was ejected from the vehicle, sustaining fatal injuries. After impact, the vehicle rotated clockwise and came to a final rest on the inside shoulder, partially blocking the left inside lane.
Passenger Sonia Michele Braga, 21, was wearing her seatbelt and suffered minor injuries. She was taken to Florida Hospital Wesley Chapel.