Category: News

A Playground For Everyone

Mike Moore spends a lot of time at the Wesley Chapel District Park (WCDP) on Boyette Rd.

Sometimes he is coaching. Other times he watches his three kids participate in other activities. And other times, he has noticed the absence of children with disabilities, who don’t get the same opportunities his kids do.

“A void,” he calls it.

A few years ago, Moore, the Pasco County Commissioner for District 2 and Seven Oaks resident who represents most of Wesley Chapel, started out on a mission to fill that void.

On Aug. 6, Moore revealed his work to his fellow county commissioners, as plans to build an inclusive playground that is welcoming to those with physical disabilities — and to those who care for them — sprang to life.

“I’ve been doing a lot of research the last couple of years, looking at other inclusive parks around the country,” Moore says. “I thought it was something we should do here. I wanted to figure out a way to make that happen.”

With help from the local community, including the Rotary Club of Wesley Chapel, AdventHealth Wesley Chapel and the Lennar Foundation, the county commission accepted a total of $120,000 in contributions towards building the new playground — with $5,000 more in contributions expected — and agreed to kick in $215,000 of public money as well.

The $340,000 is expected to cover the entire cost of building the inclusive playground.

Moore says that work could begin on the park in about six months.

The response from the community since the announcement has been overwhelming, Moore says, noting that he has even received calls from others looking to make donations, and parents of children with disabilities who are overjoyed.

The playground is not just for children with disabilities. The goal is to build a playground that is available to everyone, and isolates no one. It will be the first of its kind in Pasco County, but not the last, Moore hopes. He says that for every 1,000 children in Pasco County, there are 85 who have some type of special needs. The Pasco County School District says there are 16,000 children with special needs countywide.

“We want a place where kids have the opportunity to participate and not just sit on the sidelines, no matter what their abilities are,” Moore says.

While many area parks may be compliant with Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) guidelines, few truly meet the standards of what proponents consider to be inclusivity.

To meet those inclusive standards, many of these playgrounds incorporate wider pathways and easier-to-navigate surfaces, activity panels that are at ground height, larger swings with more back support and sensory elements that include touch and music.

While the local playground may focus on physical activities, Moore says promoting socialization is a significant benefit of inclusive playgrounds, which bring kids who might otherwise shy away from others due to their disabilities together by promoting active play.

“We want a place that takes away the social barriers and gives parents an opportunity to participate as well,” Moore says. “Parents don’t always feel they are part of something, because their kids can’t take part.”

Getting The Ball Rolling

Once Moore hatched the idea, he went to Keith Wiley, the director of the county parks department. With a new indoor recreation center on the way to the WCDP as well, Moore had synergistic goals.

Wiley’s reaction? He says he was thinking the exact same thing.

“Our team realized the need for more special needs summer camps, but where would they go?,” Wiley says. “That I got that call (from Moore) was an amazing coincidence.”

There are few offerings within 30 miles for area residents to take their children to. At the park at the New Tampa Recreation Center, some swings were outfitted last year to accommodate children in wheelchairs. And, in another part of Tampa Palms, an autism-friendly sensory park is in the design phase, although no money was included in the recent fiscal 2019 City of Tampa budget to begin construction.

To help raise the needed funds, Moore reached out to some reliable community partners.

As a former member of the Rotary Club of Wesley Chapel (and still an honorary member), Moore presented a proposal to the club, whose Board thought it was in line with their mission and agreed to donate money from a special charitable fund the club created.

“Years ago, when I was president, (former club president) Dane Parilo, Mike and I got together, and we had this vision — what if we could (start a special fund); what if we could raise money for future projects?,” says Eric Johnson, the past president of the Rotary Club. “And, it’s all coming to fruition right now. We are very excited about this opportunity.”

According to Johnson, Rotary District 6950 (which includes about 40 Rotary Clubs) is giving a $10,000 grant to match the Wesley Chapel Rotary’s donation of $35,000, and the club plans on donating $5,000 more to be raised from their Casino Night fund raiser being held tonight at Lexington Oak Golf Clubs, bringing their total donation to $50,000.

That is one of the club’s biggest donations to date.

The Rotary Club will maintain a butterfly garden adjacent to the playground.

The Lennar Foundation also is donating $50,000.

“We are very excited and grateful (to be involved),” said Arcadia Solesky, director of marketing for the Lennar Foundation.

Meanwhile, AdventHealth contributed $25,000 to the project.

“Our brand promise is to feel whole,” says AdventHealth chief financial officer Tyson Davis. “I can’t think of a better way to apply that brand promise in our community than being a part of this project.”

Perhaps no one, however, was more pleased than Moore. He says the inclusive playground will go down as one of the highlights of his career.

“It’s not always the government doing things, it’s the community coming together for the betterment of all of our kids,” he said. “After this project is done and complete…this will rank as one of the top things we’ve ever done.”

2019 WESLEY CHAPEL Dining Survey

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A Sign Of Hope

Megan Vila still cries when she thinks about her brother and former New Tampa firefighter Stevie LaDue, who killed himself last year, a victim of the overwhelming mental anguish his job had brought him.

A drive down Bruce B. Downs (BBD) Blvd., however, sometimes helps bring Megan solace. That’s where a recently erected sign on the corner honors the memory of Stevie’s fight, as well as the one she has waged since his tragic passing.

The stretch of BBD from Cypress Preserve Dr. to just past Fire Station 20 in Tampa Palms, where Stevie served as a firefighter and paramedic for his last 15 years, has been officially renamed as the Stevie LaDue Giving Hope Highway.

“I am elated,” said Megan, a Lutz resident. “It’s incredible.”

The idea, which Megan says she spent six months relentlessly criss-crossing the state for in 2018, is that post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is a real thing, and must be taken seriously. LaDue’s father Stephen cited a number of calls, including one where his son saw a decapitated body and another at a rape scene where the victim turned out to be Stevie’s ex-girlfriend, as instances that scarred him mentally.

“It took such a toll on my brother,” Megan says.

While Stevie saw a psychiatrist, his growing anxiety made it so he could no longer go out on calls. He found out when trying to get worker’s compensation that mental trauma was not covered.

He felt that the system had failed him. He began to drink. His despair deepened to the point where he felt he could no longer go on.

“When he died, it became my mission to change this so any firefighter could be able to get help,” Megan says.

She traveled the state to speak to any representative or senator who would listen. Armed with facts like a firefighter is three times more likely to die of suicide than in the line of duty, she enlisted the help of the state’s Chief Financial Officer Jimmy Patronis. She made 16 trips to Tallahassee, lobbying lawmakers to change the laws and extend the benefits to first responders.

And, in 2018, Megan finally realized her goal.

At the Tampa Firefighters Museum in March, then-Governor Rick Scott signed Senate Bill 376, which provided worker’s compensation benefits for first responders in Florida who are dealing with PTSD, as well as requiring mental health training for those agencies.

On the last day of the legislative session in 2018, Megan and her husband, Tampa Fire Rescue Captain Ricardo Vila, watched from the floor of the legislature as the plans to honor Stevie with a stretch of BBD passed unanimously.

Florida State Sen. Lauren Book, who sponsored SB 376, also suggested the sign that now graces the corner of Commerce Park Blvd. and BBD be erected in his honor. Megan said the LaDue family came up with the name — “Giving Hope Highway” — and wanted it to be near the station where Stevie spent 15 years.

More than a year later, it was erected with so little fanfare even Megan didn’t know it had actually gone up until she saw a picture of it.

“The fact that the City of Tampa firefighters posted it on their Facebook page was great,” Megan said, as her voice began to crack. “That’s the whole idea. We don’t want anyone who is suffering to not come forward. Now they can.”

paramedic PTSD Stevie LaDue

USF’s New Tampa Business Climate Study Begins With Packed Meeting

In order to begin a study by students in Master’s degree programs at the University of South Florida as to why so many businesses have exited New Tampa the last few years, USF helped organize a unique meeting on July 16, featuring a panel of elected officials and local business owners.

The meeting was Phase 1 of the USF group’s efforts to study New Tampa’s faltering business climate as the students endeavor to figure out what, if anything, can be done to stem the business red tide.

A panel that consisted of the director of the USF School of Public Affairs (where the Master’s degree candidates are studying) Ron Sanders, Rotary Cub of New Tampa past president Karen Frashier, Oliver’s Cycle Sports owner Randy Myhre and three local elected officials (see below) was greeted by a packed house of spectators (who were mainly New Tampa residents; see photo on next page) at the meeting, which was held at Compton Park in Tampa Palms.

Hillsborough County District 2 commissioner Ken Hagan, District 7 Tampa City Council member Luis Viera and newly elected District 63 State Rep. Fentrice Driskell agreed to be on the panel because all of them share concerns about why major companies and mom-and-pop businesses alike are having so much trouble surviving, much less thriving, in zip code 33647.

Sanders said that the study is being conducted by USF students seeking their Master of Public Administration (MPA) degrees in either Urban & Regional Planning or Public Affairs, after then-mayoral candidate (now Tampa Mayor) Jane Castor campaigned in New Tampa.

Castor said many local residents asked her why the business climate in zip code 33647 seemed so poor, especially when compared with the booming economy in Wesley Chapel, just to New Tampa’s north, on Bruce B. Downs (BBD) Blvd. and S.R. 56.

One of those Castor was talking to just happened to be Sam Becker, a graduate assistant in the School of Public Affairs, and she asked Becker to look into what, if anything, USF could do to help her figure out what could be done to help New Tampa’s businesses. By the time Castor was elected in March, the wheels were already in motion.

“This meeting is the kickoff to Phase 1 of the study — to meet with the community,” Sanders said at the meeting. “Phase 2 will be individual interviews with community staples — elected officials, business owners and residents — such as those in this room. In Phase 3, the students will look at the literature (facts and figures) and the (business) practices going on in the area. For example, is (New Tampa’s situation) just part of a national phenomenon or are there local factors” causing our area’s economic gloom (or both)?

Although Hagan, Viera and Driskell all agreed that the meeting was important, there didn’t seem to be too much help for the USF students coming out of this first get-together.

Among the factors pointed to as to why so many businesses have closed in New Tampa were the high rents, the lack of tax incentives to open major businesses, and even some things brought up by Frashier and Myhre.

Frashier, who also is the co-chair of the Taste of New Tampa & Wesley Chapel, mentioned that New Tampa doesn’t have a large enough gathering place for major events, such as the Wiregrass Wobble 5K road race her club hosts (at the Shops at Wiregrass) every year on Thanksgiving morning, or the Taste (held at AdventHealth CenterIce), “So, we have no choice but to put on these events in Wesley Chapel.”

Hagan and Viera both touted the new Village at Hunter’s Lake development that will be home to a 20,000-sq.-ft. New Tampa Cultural Center, as well as several unique restaurants and retailers (as we reported last issue), but that those are all coming online in 2020 or even 2021.

Myhre said he thinks that bicycle paths connecting the subdivisions in New Tampa would make getting to and from local businesses easier, without having to drive a car, but Hagan said, “Connecting communities is great, but have you seen how hard it is to get even one road connected between communities?” — an obvious jab at the whole Kinnan St.-Mansfield Blvd. flap between Hillsborough and Pasco counties.

Residents at the meeting also brought up how long the widening of BBD in New Tampa took, which affected local businesses, while one noted that S.R. 56, where so much of Wesley Chapel’s growth is taking place, currently has very few residences directly off of it. No one came up with any reason why this helped or how it has affected the economy in the Wesley Chapel.

For New Tampa’s businesses, the hope is that more answers will come out of Phases 2 & 3 of the study.

Hagan New Tampa usf viera

Freedom Sophomore Qualifies For Olympic Trials!

Michelle Morgan started swimming competitively when she was 7.

By the time she was 8, she knew she wanted to go to the Olympics.

Now, at the age of 14, the Freedom sophomore will get her chance.

Morgan, one of the top distance swimmers in Florida and a member of the Pipeline Swimming Club that trains at Tampa Palms Golf & Country Club, last month became the first swimmer in the Tampa Bay area to qualify for the 2020 U.S. Olympic Trials, making the cut in her marquee event, the 400-meter Individual Medley.

At a meet in Orlando, the New Tampa resident swam the 400 IM in 4 minutes, 51.42 seconds, just under the Trials cutoff of 4:51.79.

“It was pretty exciting,” said Morgan, who will be one of the youngest competitors at next year’s Olympic Trials, which will be held in June in Omaha, NE. Only the top two finishers in each event at the trials make the U.S. Olympic team.

Morgan, the top-rated mile swimmer in the country in her age group, said she expected to make the cut at some point this year, but still didn’t believe it when she touched the wall and looked up at her time. Swimmers from a number of other clubs were there to congratulate her as she exited the pool.

“When she hit the time, my wife went crazy and a whole bunch of families around us went crazy,” said Glynn Morgan, Michelle’s father. “It was exciting for her. We knew at some point this was coming, but it’s nice that she won’t have to chase it from meet to meet frantically trying to qualify.”

She is not done yet, however. Morgan missed the trials cut in the 800m freestyle at the same event in Orlando by less than half a second, swimming her race in 8:48.50; the cut is 8:48.08, a time Morgan seems poised to better.

Pipeline coach Rene Piper thinks Morgan also has a chance to make the Olympic Trials cut in the 200 IM, the 400 and 1,500 freestyle and the 200 butterfly, although the coach admits the last event is not Morgan’s favorite.

Morgan could eventually have some local company at the trials — Piper says fellow Pipeline member Carly Joerin, also a sophomore at Freedom, has an outside chance of posting a qualifying time between now and June 2020.

Setting aside the long odds of making any Olympic team, just making it to the trials is an impressive milestone.

There are roughly 400,000 swimmers registered with USA Swimming. At the 2016 trials, there was an average of 120 swimmers per event.

In the 400 IM qualifying races, there were 125 swimmers. Morgan’s time would put her in the top 30 of that group.

A daunting challenge, to be sure, but Morgan is the complete package, Piper says. She’ll have her choice of colleges next year when coaches are allowed to begin recruiting her, and her ceiling appears to be unlimited.

“She’s super smart academically, a super great student, and has a high swimming IQ, too,” Piper says. “Her focus is just incredible, and she is determined.”

Piper also says that Morgan’s work ethic is unmatched, and she never misses a practice. The one time she was late, everyone was so surprised and worried they couldn’t start the practice until she got there. Piper jokes that they have a saying at the club: “If Michelle isn’t at practice, she’s dead.”

Morgan, who finished third at the Florida Class 3A State championships last year as a freshman in the 200 IM and the 500 free, is currently chasing more Olympic trial cuts — particularly in the 800 free — at the 2019 Speedo Junior National Championships in Stanford, CA — her first big national meet.

“I’m just trying to see how good I can do in my other events,” Morgan says. “I’m trying not to jump ahead too far.”

That could be tough, with the Olympic Trials on the schedule. While the 2024 games in Paris, when Morgan will be 19, may be a more realistic goal, the experience next year will be a big boost to the promising young swimmer.

“It’s so tough to make the Olympic team,” Piper said. “But, we have already made the hotel reservations, and I am so excited for her to go and experience this. It will be great.”

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