AdventHealth Wesley Chapel, along with AdventHealth physicians, nurses and other team members across West Floridaย โ spanning Hardee, Highlands, Hillsborough, Marion, Pasco, and Pinellas counties โtook a bended knee today in silent reflection as part of the White Coats for Black Lives campaign.
The show of solidarity with medical professionals all over the world took place from 1-1:09 p.m. this afternoon, the 8 minutes and 46 seconds in remembrance of 46-year-old George Floyd, who died in police custody on May 25, and countless others.
Those who participated maintained social distance, wore masks and were encouraged to share photos as an expression of support online with #WhiteCoatsForBlackLives.
The #WhiteCoatsForBlackLives movement is centered on combatting :
higher rates of disease among Black communities,
higher barriers of entry to the health care industry for Black individuals,
lower rates of Black medical students, and
the fear among Black individuals to seek medical care.
Here at the Neighborhood News, we get an inordinate number of phone calls asking โIs this Aldi?โ and โAre you open yet?โ
Weโre not sure why, other than Google must be taking many a curious reader to our website, where at least a handful of stories about the Germany-based discount-grocer reside.
Finally, however, we can give the next caller an answer: Wednesday, July 1.
So, why the question mark in the leadline?
In our next issue, which will be hitting your mailboxes any day now, we say the Aldi, located at 2215 Sun Vista Dr. (on the southeast corner of S.R. 56 and Wesley Chapel Blvd.) is opening June 17 because that’s what the Aldi website had posted the day we sent the issue to the printers. Oops!
Official plans for the Grand Opening should be coming soon.ย
ALDI says it has nearly 2,000 stores across 36 states, and is on track to become the third-largest grocery retailer by store count by the end of 2022. It carries mostly lesser known brands, and many products can be had at deep discounts compared with other stores.
The Aldi store has been a long time coming for the Wesley Chapel area. The company first approached Pasco County planners about a site near The Grove on S.R. 54 back in 2015. Those plans were scrapped for a different location on the north side of S.R. 56, before being altered again for its current location on the south side of 56, in front of Costco.
Wesley Chapel seniors celebrated their graduation on June 1 at The Grove.
As the Covid-19 pandemic took hold, the 2019-20 school year was forced to come to a premature end.
Senior year, which can be the best and sometimes most eventful year of a teenagerโs life, ended with a whimper, instead of a bang.
High school sports, proms and Grad Bashes were canceled. Yearbooks were passed out through open car windows by folks wearing masks. Graduations were postponed until August. Final goodbyes among classmates would have to wait.
As the mother of a Wiregrass Ranch High senior, and the president of the Pasco County Council PTA, Denise Nicholas found it all to be a shame. So, she decided to do something.
With the help of all the PTAs across the county, a host of volunteers and the determination to give all of Pascoโ seniors a sendoff, Nicholas and a team of helpers organized a car parade for the outgoing seniors for every school in the county.
โI brought the idea to my (PTA) board and they were very excited about it,โ Nicholas says. โAnd, we found people to help at each of the schools that do not have PTAs. The schools that do not have PTAs, we found people to help at each of those schools. We really wanted to give the same experience to every senior in the county.โ
Here in Wesley Chapel, The Grove shopping center enthusiastically stepped up and offered a parade route in front of its shopping plaza after a few other sites declined.
Cypress Creek and Wiregrass Ranch high schools had their parades โ which featured decorated cars and large groups of friends and family cheering along the parade route โ on May 19 and 20, respectively, while Wesley Chapel Highโs parade, which was delayed by rain, was held June 1.
โObviously with the pandemic, the (way school ended) was very saddening for our students and their families,โ said Monica Ilse, Ed.D., assistant superintendent for Pasco Schools. โBut, Denise reached out and wanted to do something to provide some community support for the seniors, which we appreciate beyond words.โ
Nicholas had no shortage of volunteers to pull off the project. Pasco County Commissioners Mike Moore and Ron Oakley agreed to introduce the seniors and serve as the parade emcees, local professional photographers Jess Montgomery and Paul Gigante took pictures, Makayla Gulash (aka DJ Night Mixer) provided the music, Troy Stevenson (of Acme On The Go multimedia) also contributed video trucks at each event, and former Tampa Bay Bucs tight end (and father to a Wiregrass Ranch sophomore) Anthony Becht also donated time and services.
Ilse said the county hopes to be able to hold traditional graduations in August at the Yuengling Center on the campus of the University of South Florida, but that will depend upon the CDC and the status of the pandemic. If they canโt be held, she thinks the car parades made a nice send off.
โI took my niece to the Wiregrass Ranch one, and she had a great time,โ Ilse said. โIt was a lot of fun.โ
Nicholas said the smiling senior faces across the county helped end their final years on a happy note, which was her primary goal. โBryce (her son) thought it was a great idea, but he had no idea how much he would enjoy it,โ Nicholas says. โSeeing how his face lit up, to be able to drive in the parade and hear the horns and the cheering and see the signsโฆ.it was worth every second.โ
Sprouts Farmers Market is preparing to open its latest location on Aug. 12.
Sprouts Farmers Market, the healthy green grocer anchoring the new Village at Hunter’s Lake development off Bruce B. Downs Blvd. in New Tampa, has announced the store’s grand opening for Wednesday, Aug. 12 at 7 a.m.
The Phoenix-based grocer says it will announce details about the grand opening at a later date.
The 30,000-sq.-ft. store, located at 8620 Hunters Village Rd. across from the entrance to Hunter’s Green, specializes in natural and organic foods. Sprouts opened its first store in 2002, and now has more than 300 stores in 20 states.
The market for a large organic grocer in the New Tampa and Wesley Chapel area is wide open after the last green grocer to open, Earth Fare, opened on S.R. 56 across from Tampa Premium Outlets and closed within a year.
The New Tampa location will be bringing approximately 110 full- and part-time jobs to the area. Sprouts will host a virtual hiring fair with video interviews on July 1 and 2. If interested, you are encouraged to apply online at sprouts.com/careers.
Sprouts will be hiring department managers, assistant department managers, clerks, cashiers and other positions.
Doug Greseth is the all-time winningest coach at Wesley Chapel, with a 300-164 record leading the boys basketball team.
He removed the poster of the 1995-96 Chicago Bulls team that won 72 games. He packed up boxes of trinkets and papers accumulated over 36 years of teaching physical education and 34 years of coaching.
After 17 years at Wesley Chapel High (WCH), a tenure that included a 300-164 record โ the most wins of any coach at the school in any sport โ Wwildcatsโ boys basketball coach Doug Greseth has officially hung up his coaching whistle.
Heโs certainly earned it. Greseth has played and coached basketball for more than 50 years and, including his previous tenure at Tampa Jefferson (1999-2002) and Okeechobee (1983-96) high schools, his coaching record was 533-325 overall
Greseth and the Wildcats finished the shortened 2019-20 season with a 16-9 record. It was the 14th year his Wildcats finished with a winning record. His run also included nine playoff appearances.
โI think kids really like discipline,โ Greseth said about the secret to his success. โI think they like leadership. I think they like organization. I donโt think thereโs anything wrong with being demanding with kids.โ
His best seasons at Wesley Chapel were back-to-back 24-5 records in 2011-12 and 2012-13, including a District championship and two Sunshine Athletic Conference Coach of the Year awards.
Forward Erik Thomas, the schoolโs all-time leading scorer (2,138 points) and rebounder (1,203) and the 2013 Class 4A Player of the Year, starred on both of those teams. Greseth, who also spent time as an assistant coach at the University of Tampa, said Thomas was the best he ever coached, and the two still stay in touch.
โPlaying for Greseth in high school is what helped me grow into the player I am today,โ says Thomas, who is currently playing professionally in Argentina. โHe was an awesome coach that really cared about his players and it showed in our performance. The fact that he is always willing to welcome me with open arms says a lot about his character and, to this day, we still remain connected.โ
Greseth, who remembers high school basketball when the 3-point line was taped on the court because it was experimental prior to 1987, also fondly recalled guard Chase Bussey, the leading scorer from his first Wildcats team, forward Greg Jenkins (who went on to play football for the Oakland Raiders) and forward Isaiah Ramsey, the leading scorer on his last four WCH teams.
Peter Livingston, 36, has coached the girls basketball team at Wesley Chapel for the past six seasons, and he says the school has big basketball shoes to fill, not only for Gresethโs on-court successes, but because of the intangible benefits the coach brought to WCH.
โThe administration will be sad to see him go because you could always go to coach Greseth and he straightened things out,โ Livingston says. โOne of the kids got caught doing something and the administration said they werenโt going to give him a referral, but they were going to go tell coach Greseth, and the kid said, โNo, no, please, give me the referral!โโ
Known as a defensive-minded disciplinarian, the 63-year old son of an Air Force officer used his man-to-man defense to turn young boys into successful men.
More than 40 players Greseth coached went on to play basketball or football in college, including one in the NBA and three in the NFL.
Whatโs next?
โIโm not sure,โ he said. โIโm going to take a vacation.โ
