Since the Kansas City Chiefs won the “Big Game,” four of the six winners in our “Big Game Squares” contest have already claimed their prizes, including both of our $100 gift card winners — Carrie Frump of Easton Park, who grabbed a gift card to the historic Columbia Restaurant in Ybor City, and Meadow Pointe resident Jim Headley (photo), who took a PopStroke gift card.
Also already claiming their prizes are $75 winner John Sousa of Lake Jovita (who also teaches at Cypress Creek High), who is getting a $75 gift card to Bonefish Grill, and Maggie Rich of West Meadows, who is getting a $25 gift certificate to Taste of New York Pizza.
Still to claim their prizes are $75 gift card winner Pamela Smith of Meadow Pointe & $25 gift card winner Daniela Quintana of Heritage Isles.
Thanks to all 195 people who submitted a valid entry form! Better luck next year to those who didn’t win a prize!
With so many bigger construction projects still on the horizon, here’s the latest on a number of new businesses now open or getting ready to open in the Wesley Chapel area:
Starbucks & Avis
These new buildings — Avis Car Rental (635 sq. ft.) and Starbucks (2,568 sq. ft; photo, above) — are located a few lots from each other, set in from Wesley Chapel Blvd./S.R. 54 (immediately adjacent to the southbound I-75 off ramp) at The Grove. Avis, which currently is only a wood frame, is located between the Cracker Barrel and the strip plaza that includes Brooklyn Water Bagel Co. (BWB); Starbucks is next to the Marathon gas station.
Construction of the Avis has been moving quickly, as it was just permitted in October, and is expected to be done this spring. Avis has more than a dozen locations across Tampa Bay, but currently the closest one to us is on N. Florida Ave., south of E. Fowler Ave., in Tampa.
We first told you about this Starbucks in May of 2022 and many locals have wondered when the project will be done. The plans were initially filed in 2022, but then withdrawn and resubmitted in the summer of 2023, hence the reason for the delay.
This large Starbucks will be unique and offer something not seen at any of the other stores in our area — double menu board ordering lanes (something you might normally see at a newer McDonald’s) and should make the drive-through more efficient.
The final touches are being put on the building’s exterior now, as the permits for the store’s illuminated signs were just approved at the end of December. A banner with the Starbucks logo that says “Coming Soon” is hanging on the front railing as a placeholder and a Starbucks spokesperson says the new location should be open by sometime in February.
Flying The Coop
In a Facebook post shortly before we went to press with this issue, the owners of King of the Coop, the Nashville hot chicken place that started in Seminole Heights, had closed its location at 27835 Wesley Chapel Blvd. (next to BWB) in front of The Grove as of Jan. 1.
King of the Coop also relocated its original Florida Ave. location to just south of the Front Porch restaurant on Florida Ave. in Seminole Heights, but that location also has closed.
The Facebook post blamed the closing of the Wesley Chapel restaurant on economic conditions across the Tampa Bay area that has indeed caused many businesses to be shuttered, but both several other new local fried chicken competition (Chick’n Fun, Slim Chickens, The Chicken Boss, etc.) and a difficult-to-read sign (at least from the road) may have contributed to its closing, too.
Spot X Hotel Renovations
The small (78-room) hotel that has had several other names at 5703 Oakley Blvd. is now the second privately-owned location of Spot X Hotel (the other is in Orlando).
Officially known as “Spot X Hotel Tampa Bay by the Red (Roof Inn) Collection,” the hotel is open and is expected to undergo a $1.2-million renovation that was originally supposed to begin in December but is now scheduled to start sometime next month.
For more information, call (813) 973- 1665 or visit RedRoof.com.
Paradise Grills Is Open; AutoNation May Be, Too
Here are updates on two new businesses we have been telling you about for a while in these pages:
The new Paradise Grills (photo, left) opened at 2705 Creek Grass Way (on the south side of S.R. 56 east of Rock & Brews) on Dec. 21 and it is an awesome showroom that anyone who owns a house with a back yard should definitely check out.
Paradise Grills specializes in not just grills, but full-on outdoor kitchens that will be delivered and installed for one price. If you want a built-in bar, large-screen TVs, a fire pit, tiki hut and/or unique patio furniture, Paradise Grills — which has 45 showrooms in six U.S. states (including 29 in Florida) — is your one-stop shop.
Meanwhile, the AutoNation USA used car lot located at 2807 Creek Grass Way (just south of Cigars International, next to the Tampa Premium Outlets), wasn’t quite open at our press time, but appeared to be very close to opening, so it actually may be open by the time you receive this issue.
The huge lot already had a large collection of vehicles ready to be sold as we went to press and the big service department was buzzing with activity in anticipation of the opening.
(l.-r.) Cypress Creek High students Liam Dzanan, Liz Velisse Bermudez-Ortiz (aka “Pily”) and Gabriel Linck show off the new wheelchair tray Liam and Gabriel engineered for Pily. (Photos were provided to the Neighborhood News)
“Pily” has some really strong arms.
They’ve gotten that way because the 20-year-old has always used them to push her manual wheelchair wherever she needed to go.
But one thing those arms can’t do is be useful for a separate task while she’s pushing the wheelchair.
Pily is a student in Cypress Creek High’s on-the-job training (OJT) program for students with disabilities who have deferred their high school diploma and not yet graduated, although they are between 18 and 21 years old. They are learning skills and tasks that will prepare them for opportunities in the workforce when they turn 22 and public school is no longer an option.
John Sousa is the OJT educator who teaches Pily, whose real name is Liz Velisse Bermudez-Ortiz.
John says OJT, “is a transition program where we help to answer the question for parents, ‘What am I going to do with my child when there is no longer free public school for them?’”
The 12 students currently in his class work in the cafeterias at Cypress Creek High and Middle School, and some of them travel to Publix. Without a tray, and while pushing her wheelchair with her arms, Pily was unable to participate in the work that the other students were doing.
“I looked at this problem I have,” says John, “and I realized that I have engineering students next door. So I walked in and said, ‘Mr. Baker, can you give me two hotshots who are really into figuring out solutions to problems?’”
“Oh, I’ve got lots of those,” John says Nathan Baker, the engineering instructor, told him. John says he gladly accepted help from seniors Liam Dzanan and Gabriel Linck. They are part of Cypress Creek High’s “pack leader” program and, in the engineering department, which means they have the opportunity to work on special projects.
“I have a refrigerator with snacks,” John says he told them. “And you guys could give this young lady arms. You could give her the ability to pick things up and hold things.”
John says they took the task to heart.
Liam and Gabriel set out to fabricate a tray that would fit on Pily’s wheelchair, allowing her to carry trays in the cafeteria, boxes and other items, helping her to contribute to the work she and her peers are assigned to do.
They came up with a thick acrylic tray and the idea to trim it with a lip, so things wouldn’t roll off it. They also had to take precautions so it wouldn’t crack during fabrication or while Pily is using it.
Liam and Gabriel previously had plenty of opportunities to learn engineering skills in the classroom, but this project was the first time that their work was not just hypothetical.
A previous project, for example, was to create a boot that would help someone with cerebral palsy to walk. The students came up with a great solution, but it didn’t actually help a real person.
The fact that Pily would be counting on them to solve her problem made this project exceptionally different.
“We felt like we couldn’t mess this up,” Liam said. “And like all of our prior practice and hypotheticals all led up to this. Only a real engineer could finish the project to help Pily.”
Gabriel agrees.
“It’s kind of intimidating because if we make mistakes, they’re expensive,” he says. “We only had one chance to make it. If we messed it up, we would have to buy another sheet for $150, so it’s a lot of pressure.”
So they sketched and re-sketched on paper until they were sure they had the right design, then made cardboard models to try it out in real life.
They learned how important it is to look at things from Pily’s perspective, instead of from theirs.
This led them to learn to countersink screws to make them perfectly flush so they couldn’t scratch, for example. They did a lot of sanding. They even make changes after they thought they were finally done, adding neoprene to make points of contact more comfortable.
It was all worth it when they got to present the new tray to Pily.
“She was ecstatic when we gave it to her,” said Liam.
John says he is so proud of Liam and Gabriel. “They were able to put that tray on her chair, and even added Velcro straps so it can slide into a new chair if she gets one,” John explains.
Not only does the new tray allow Pily to complete work tasks she couldn’t do before, it’s also essential to helping her feel included as a part of the OJT group.
“Independence is a huge thing in life for everyone,” he says. “Here’s a 20-year-old girl who can now carry things from point A to point B, be included in the group, and perform simple job tasks because of the help she got from these kids.”
John thinks this is just the beginning of many more projects to come. In fact, he said, engineering students also have come up with a 3D-printed tool that helps his students who lack the dexterity to open a soda can get the leverage they need.
“The engineering students at this school are amazing,” he says. “It’s amazing what kids are doing to help other kids.”
Members of the Wesley Chapel Bills Mafia, the local support group for fans of the Buffalo Bills, were sent home heartbroken (again) from TrebleMakers Dueling Piano Bar & Restaurant at The Grove on Sunday, when their beloved Bills lost 27-24 to the defending Super Bowl Champion Kansas City Chiefs to end their Cinderella season.
A little less than 200 Bills fans, most of them wearing the team’s signature royal blue jerseys, attended Sunday’s WC Bills Mafia Watch Party, which was sponsored by Rapid Access Wellness, LLC, and which featured some outstanding raffle prizes, as well as a sumptuous buffet provided by TrebleMakers.
The restaurant’s co-owner Jamie Hess, who is from the Buffalo area, has hosted many of these watch parties, but hopes were higher than ever this year that his beloved Bills would win the franchise’s first-ever Super Bowl as the team was getting to host (for the first time) Patrick Mahomes, Travis Kelce and the rest of the Chiefs in an AFC Divisional Playoff Game. The team had to win its final five games of the regular season and a Wild Card Playoff Game over the Pittsburgh Steeler just to advance to face the Chiefs in the rematch of a 20-17 Buffalo win on Dec. 10.
But, it wasn’t meant to be. Despite holding the lead four times, QB Josh Allen and his Bills fell behind to stay when Chiefs’ RB Isiah Pacheco scored with 14:20 left in the 4th quarter.
“What are they doing?,” shouted one fan sitting next to me as the Bills were unsuccessful on a second half fake punt in their own territory, which ended up not costing the Bills any additional points because Kansas City fumbled the ball into and out of the Buffalo end zone a few plays after the failed fake punt, resulting in a touchback and the Bills getting the ball back. “How about just going for it on 4th and 3 instead?
The Watch Party also included some great raffle prizes — a jersey and a football signed by current star Bills wide receiver Stefon Diggs, a mini-helmet and jersey signed by Hall of Fame former Buffalo running back Thurman Thomas and a 50-50 drawing for half of nearly $700 in cash.
“It was a great turnout and a great event,” Hess said after the Bills faithful left with broken hearts…again. “But, if the Bills could have pulled it out and kept winning, we could have had even bigger crowds for the AFC Championship and Super Bowl games. Oh well, maybe next year.”
Miss Petite Wesley Chapel 2024 Aline Giampietro Trifonov will compete for the title of Miss Petite Florida in March. (Photos provided by: Georgi Trifonov Photography)
Local music instructor Aline Giampietro Trifonov didn’t have to win a pageant to be named Miss Petite Wesley Chapel 2024, but she did have to apply to the Miss Petite Florida pageant with professional pictures. She says that candidates for the title are selected based on their contributions to their community.
“Through my performing, teaching and work in the performing arts, I was able to demonstrate a significant contribution to Wesley Chapel,” Aline says, “and I had to show the pageant how my work has {done} exactly that for our community. In addition to being a performer and music teacher, I’m also an entrepreneur and I work as a freelance petite model, and I want to represent other petite women.”
Aline says the Petite USA Pageant is the #1 pageant in the U.S. for petite women 5’6” tall and under. If you’ve ever watched a Miss America or Miss Universe pageant, it’s obvious that the contestants are tall and willowy.
“So, the Miss Petite is a great opportunity for me to represent and inspire other women who wish to pursue modeling, regardless of their height,” Aline says.
Aline is not only a music instructor, but also an aerialist who performed at the Whinge Festival in Ybor City in December.
The 5’-2” classical pianist, performing arts advocate and founder and executive director of the Piano Performance Arts Academy, LLC, in Wesley Chapel, who is originally from Brazil, was selected as a semi-finalist for the 2024 Florida Petite pageant, which is the official state preliminary pageant for the National Petite USA Pageant. The State Division will be held the weekend of March 8-9 at the Embassy Suites hotel on the USF Tampa Campus and, if Aline wins the Florida title, she will advance to the national Miss Petite USA 2024 pageant, which will be held in July 31- Aug. 3 in Chicago.
Petite USA™ was founded in 2009 to be a platform for petite women who are 5’6 or less. According to PetiteUSA. com, it is the nation’s largest pageant system for petite women and is proud of its history and past queens. The pageant offers titles for five different divisions: Teen, Miss, Ms. Mrs., and Elite Ms., in more than 50 different states and regions across the U.S. The Petite USA pageant is the official preliminary to the Universal Petite pageant, where petite women from all over the world compete for the coveted Teen, Miss, Ms., Mrs. and Elite Ms. Universal Petite titles.
“What attracted me to enter this pageant is the opportunity to represent my community, serve others through my leadership and have an opportunity to have a much bigger outreach,” she says. “I love the fact [the pageant] embraces a sisterhood attitude with a healthy competition, and they have their heart in promoting our personal platforms. This is much more than just a beauty competition. It allows women to speak of their leadership, service and how we can use our voices to make a difference. I would love to expand my voice in the performing arts, music education and champion other women’s beauty as well.”
Aline, who also is the vice president of the Music Teachers National Assn. (MTNA) and an aerialist with the Aerial Dragons group in Ybor City, is seeking sponsorships to support her attempt to reach the national event. In addition to cash sponsorships, she is seeking a seamstress, pedicures, a photographer, help with wardrobe, shoes, hair extensions and more.
“Help me extend my voice through performing arts, fashion and music!,” Aline says. “Together, we can do it!”
To help or for more information, call Aline at (813) 528-3638 or email her at PianoPerformanceArts@gmail.com.
