Layal (left), Nouf (center) and Alghaliah Rizq own Queen of Hearts, which sells homemade jewelry as well as other products.
On the way to school one day just over a year ago, one of the neighborhood kids that Danielle Cannon was driving to school mentioned that she wanted to start selling some of her homemade bracelets.
Cannon’s own two kids, 7-year-old Jane and 9-year-old Adam, chimed in that they were interested in selling some stuff as well.
“So I posted online asking if anyone knew of a good place to do this little thing for the neighborhood,” Cannon says.
That little thing, however, became a much bigger thing. Within a day, more than 20 families had replied that their children wanted to be a part of it as well, and the Tampa Children’s Business Fair was born.
At the end of last month, Cannon’s army of “Kidpreneurs” set up more than 40 tables at the KRATE at The Grove container park, selling everything from artwork to tree saplings to cookies to Christmas trinkets to — you guessed it — bracelets.
“It has really grown,” says Cannon, who has poured thousands of dollars of her own money into her nonprofit fair where all the business owners are kids, ages 6-16. “Literally, the only limitation is finding places to hold it,” Cannon says.
The KRATE was generous enough to provide the space for free, although Cannon says other locations have charged as much as $1,500 to host a fair.
Cannon’s first event late last year attracted about 20 kids. The final event of this year, held at the Temple Terrace Recreation Center on Dec. 11, featured a whopping 75 tables and more than 100 Kidpreneurs.
“We would have had more but there was no more room,” Cannon says.
It was the fifth business fair of the year, and some of the young business owners — like New Tampa sisters Alghaliah (13-years-old), Layal (11) and Nouf Rizq (6) — have sold their wares at all of them.
The sisters, who all attend Turner-Bartels K-8 School, sell a variety of different necklaces and bracelets, including ones with clay beads displaying positive messages like “Kind,” “Cute,” “Love” and “Shine.”
At the KRATE fair, the trio’s Queen of Hearts business displayed an expanded product line to include pens and PopSockets (to help you hold your cell phone) and, at the Temple Terrace fair, they unveiled jewelry boxes made of resin.
“You can add colors to them,” Alghaliah says. “It looks really cool.”
The sisters have made more than $400 at the fairs. They say they wanted to learn more about entrepreneurship and the process has helped them become more confident.
“It’s been fun,” Layal says.
Cannon says the Rizqs are some of her best Kidpreneurs, even winning “Best Presentation” honors at one of the fairs. Typically, Cannon has local business owners help her choose the booths that have the “Best Presentation,” “Most Creative Business Idea” and “Highest Business Potential.”
Wesley Chapel resident Gabrielle Thompson shows off her wares at the recent Tampa Children’s Business Fair held at the KRATE at the Grove. (Photos: Charmaine George).
Gabrielle Thompson, a 15-year-old sophomore at Wesley Chapel High, was one of the “Kidpreneurs” selling blinged- out tumblers and other items from her business, jets_customs. She also does custom items if you’re looking to put a name or saying on a 12- or 20-ounce tumbler.
Gabrielle has been doing pop-ups for a few years now and was excited to join the TCBF event, and hopes to continue to do so in the future.
“It’s taught me patience and organization,” Gabrielle says. “And, money management, too, of course.”
The Tampa Children’s Business Fair encourages children to embrace all the tenets of entrepreneurship — developing a product and a brand, building a marketing strategy, setting prices and selling to customers.
Booths cost $25, but Cannon tries to return $5 to each business owner so they can walk around and network and buy things from their fellow Kidpreneurs.
Cannon hopes one day to not have to charge at all. She is hoping to land some sponsors to help cover some of the costs of running the quarterly fairs moving forward; those costs also include things like insurance and sometimes having to hire off-duty law enforcement officers, a requirement for some of the sites.
“I’m way over full-time hours working on this, but I know once people know about this they are going to love it,” Cannon says. “This is awesome, I love doing it, and the kids love it.”
For more information about the Tampa Children’s Business Fair and future fairs, visit TampaCBF.org.
Former Wharton High basketball star Shawn Vanzant is trying to lead the Wildcats back to the State tournament. (Photos by Mike Bitting)
If you were wondering if things would be any different for the Wharton High basketball team playing under a new coach for the first time in two decades, you can stop wondering.
In this year’s first game at home under new coach Shawn Vanzant, the Wildcats used an aggressive attacking defense that produced a slew of steals that they turned into a withering onslaught of three-pointers and transition buckets to open up a 28-7 lead en route to a 73-40 win over Steinbrenner High.
“Not much has changed,” says junior point guard Lucean Milligan, who had three steals and 10 points in the first quarter.
Indeed. The Wildcats were off to a 10-1 start heading into the Christmas break.
Wharton made a winner of Vanzant, who was making his home debut as the Wildcats’ new head basketball coach after taking over for Tommy Tonelli, Hillsborough County’s all-time winningest coach.
In a gym where Vanzant once starred as arguably the program’s greatest player ever, it felt as if he, or even Tonelli, had never left.
“Easy transition; I think it’s the best option we could have had,” says senior forward Chandler Davis. “He played here, and he played at a high level at Butler (University in Indianapolis, IN).”
Vanzant is a great story that just keeps on getting better. The Wildcats added the latest chapter by beating the Warriors.
“I’m not gonna lie, it was a special moment,” Vanzant said afterwards. “I played four years here, coach Tonelli was like a father figure (to me). It was like a welcome home party.”
Karmello Branch goes up for two of his 16 points in the home-opening win over Steinbrenner.
The following night reminded Vanzant there is still work to do. The Wildcats laid an egg against a good Newsome team that returns a lot of size and experience, losing 48-39, but are currently on a seven-game winning streak.
There is no question that Vanzant is the man for the job. Tonelli, it seems, had waited for this moment for a few years, the chance to hand his program off to his star pupil. He wanted someone who could coach, sure, but it was more important to find someone who could lead, which life surely has prepared Vanzant to do.
As a kid, Vanzant’s family fell apart due to a myriad of problems, including his mother’s death right before his second birthday. As a teenager, midway through his high school career, he ran out of living options until New Tampa resident Lisa Litton and her family took him in.
As a high school star, Vanzant led Wharton to a 29-2 record in 2007 and, three years later, he helped Butler get to within two points of the 2010 NCAA Championship, which they were denied 61-59 by Duke University and its legendary coach Mike Kryzewski.
After a pro career spent mostly overseas, Vanzant turned to coaching and helped turn perennial basketball loser Bloomingdale High into a playoff team.
Now, he’s back home.
Vanzant and the Wildcats, regarded as one of the best teams in the Tampa Bay area, are expected to win many more, as they are coming off a 28-3 season and the program’s second Class 6A State Semifinal appearance.
Although Vanzant has the same distaste for polls as his predecessor — “They don’t mean anything” –—the Wildcats entered this season ranked by various online sites as one of the top-three teams in Tampa Bay.
“We have some things to work on, but if we do that, we’ll be good,” Vanzant said.
Milligan, a slick playmaker who can score in bunches, the 6’-5” Davis, last year’s top postseason scorer, and senior guard Christian Ayala are all key returners from the State Semifinal team.
Senior forward Karmello Branch is another player who played at States last season, but for Class 3A Tampa Catholic. He transferred back to New Tampa.
Sophomore guard Nick Womack played for Vanzant at Bloomingdale last year, and sophomore guard Jayson Montgomery is making the transition to varsity this season look easy after scoring 16 in the home opener.
Vanzant loves what he sees so far, especially the team camaraderie and togetherness.
“Tonelli laid the groundwork, and we have a lot of guys from last year’s Final Four team,” Vanzant says. “All I have to do is come in here and not mess it up.”
Milligan and Davis both say there is no chance of that happening, because if there’s one thing that isn’t different with the change of coaches, it’s the Wildcats’ mindset.
Attorney Elizabeth Devolder (center) and her team at the Law Firm of Elizabeth Devolder, located just off the Bruce B. Downs Blvd. exit off I-75. (Photo provided by Elizabeth Devolder)
Attorney Elizabeth Devolder says that, these days, she’s seeing a lot of families who have suffered through the pandemic — and even the stress of having to prepare for Hurricane Ian — and are thinking about what would happen if they or someone they love were to pass away or become incapacitated.
The Law Office of Elizabeth Devolder, which Devolder launched in January 2021, is ready to help. The boutique firm is located in the Tampa Palms Professional Center, just off the Bruce B. Downs (BBD) Blvd. exit of I-75 in Tampa Palms.
Devolder earned her Juris Doctor (J.D.) law degree at the Tampa campus of the Thomas M. Cooley Law School in Riverview in 2016, after a successful career in advertising and sales management. She had previously earned a Bachelor of Arts (B.A.) degree in Corporate Communications from the College of Charleston, SC, in 1997. For five years, Elizabeth worked jointly with her ex-husband Bryan Devolder at their Devolder Law Firm.
Associate attorney Rachael Alexander was previously a case manager, working closely with Elizabeth while going to law school and helping her found the new firm.
In her new firm, Devolder — with support from Rachael and a growing staff, including a legal assistant and case manager — continues to handle estate planning and probate matters, and Devolder’s clients say she is both smart and compassionate.
When Christine Smith’s husband died four years ago, she says she hired Devolder to help her.
“It was really overwhelming,” Smith explains, “but she asked me things gently and slowly and spent so much time with me at one of the worst times of my life.”
Smith says Devolder’s compassion is only half of the reason she is so pleased with her experience with the firm.
“She’s also probably the smartest person I’ve ever met in real life,” says Christine Smith. “She’s really sharp.”
Elizabeth Devolder
After working out her own estate plan, Smith brought her young adult son in, too, to set up documents that would allow her to make medical decisions for him if he were to ever become temporarily or permanently incapacitated. Devolder recommends a number of documents — such as a Power of Attorney and others that may apply to your unique situation — for everyone, so that someone you choose has the authority to care for you if something unexpected happens.
Christine then introduced her 91-year-old father to Elizabeth, who handled his documents, as well. “We’re multigenerational clients,” she says.
Devolder says she helps many families like Christine’s, who are experiencing the crunch of what she calls the “sandwich generation,” where children are becoming adults but still need a lot of support from their parents, while their older parents also are becoming increasingly needy.
“You have a lot of people depending on you,” Devolder says.
Another multigenerational client is JoAnne Tucker, a Hunter’s Green resident who first hired Devolder to help her handle her brother’s estate when he began showing signs of dementia and ultimately passed away.
“The entire process can be so confusing,” Tucker says. “But, sitting down with Elizabeth was very comfortable. She and Rachael always answered all of my questions — no matter how many times I asked — and helped me to be confident that I had all of the information I needed and knew exactly what to do next.”
Later, Tucker went back to Devolder to prepare her own documents. Then, her mother and sister worked with Elizabeth, as well.
Devolder says you shouldn’t do what you heard your neighbor did, or take a friend’s generic advice.
“My job is to take what I know about the law and apply it to a specific set of facts,” Devolder explains, “because the documents you might need depends upon the makeup of your family — such as how many kids you have, if your family is blended, if there is conflict in the family, and the makeup of your assets.”
Devolder says that the entire Baby Boomer generation will be age 65 by 2030, and that 75 percent of people over age 65 will need some type of long-term care. She says she can help you plan for that care to help your family avoid spending too much of its resources on that care.
While many people don’t want to think about the possible need for long-term care — which is required when someone needs help bathing, feeding, dressing or going to the bathroom — Devolder says that now is the time to start planning for it.
“When it was time for your kids to go to college, you didn’t first start looking at colleges the week before they were supposed to start classes,” she says. “The time to plan for that is well in advance. It’s the same with long-term care.”
Attorney Elizabeth Devolder is pictured here with her grandfather Harry Constantine Demosthenes and great aunt Electra Demosthenes Kageorge (both now deceased). Elizabeth’s new business venture, The Legacy Studio, will be a video studio located inside her law firm that will help families capture and preserve the stories of their older generations.
The Legacy Studio
Devolder’s desire to help families goes beyond just preserving their financial assets and planning for the future. She says she has a passion to help people protect their entire respective legacies, including their memories.
To that end, she is opening up a second business located inside the law office that will allow families to preserve their older generation’s most precious recollections.
She says the idea came to her when a client told her he thought he knew the stories his grandmother told, but after she passed away, they were lost. Then, the client’s mother also passed away, and he realized her stories were lost, as well. He told Elizabeth he wanted to write his own stories down for future generations, so that those precious memories would be preserved.
The idea of preserving people’s memories resonated with Devolder, but she realized that technology allows us to do much better than just writing things down.
“How you tell the story is part of the story,” she says, adding that video is the ideal medium for preserving these legacies. So, she created The Legacy Studio to provide that opportunity for not only her legal clients, but for anyone who wants to preserve their precious memories.
She says her clients have welcomed the idea and that the studio website will be up and running soon at www.LeaveYourLegacyStudio.com, although Devolder says she doesn’t yet have a scheduled grand opening date.
She is hoping The Legacy Studio will bring families together, and allow grandparents and parents to leave their stories as a legacy for their children.
The Law Office of Elizabeth Devolder is located at 5383 Primrose Lake Cir., Suite C, in the Tampa Palms Professional Center. It is open Monday-Friday, 8:30 a.m.–6 p.m. For more info or to make an appointment, call (813) 319-4550, or visit ElizabethDevolder.com.
Our hearty congratulations go out to all of the winners of the 2022 North Tampa Bay Chamber of Commerce (NTBC) Excellence in Business awards, who were presented with their trophies at the NTBC’s annual “Celebrating Excellence” awards banquet on Nov. 10, at Treble Makers Dueling Piano Bar & Restaurant in The Grove at Wesley Chapel.
Hosted by NTBC Chairman Javan Grant and the Chamber’s president and CEO Hope Kennedy, the Excellence in Business awards event was a super-fun evening of delicious food, beverages, music and festivities, as several Wesley Chapel- and New Tampa-based businesses were finalists for the four awards which, as Kennedy explained, are the four guiding principles of the Chamber — Integrity, Collaboration, Inclusivity and Innovation.
Two businesses located in Wesley Chapel — Junkluggers, which won the Innovation Award, and RADDSports, which won the Integrity Award (and also was nominated for the Collaboration Award), ended up taking home top honors, while Wesley Chapel-based Innovation Preparatory School (Innovation), Blue Heron Senior Living (Integrity) and RAW Space Collaborative (Inclusivity) and New Tampa-based Shred 360 (Integrity) all made it to the top-three vote-getters among the NTBC’s Board member judges, but didn’t end up winning their respective awards.
The other award winners, which aren’t located in New Tampa or Wesley Chapel were AmSkills, Inc. (based in Holiday), which won the Collaboration Award, and the Pace Center for Girls in New Port Richey, which took home this year’s Inclusivity Award.
Also honored at the event was Rotary District 6950 (of which the Rotary Club of Wesley Chapel Noon is a member club), which took home the Community Hero Award for the District’s efforts to help Hurricane Ian victims in Ft. Myers.
District 6950 Governor Troy Willingham accepted the award on behalf of the District, and he was joined on stage by numerous members of the Wesley Chapel club, which helped spearhead the collection of truckloads of much-needed supplies that were brought to Ft. Myers.
Congratulations again to all of the winners, finalists and 93 total nominees!
For membership and other information about the North Tampa Bay Chamber (1868 Highland Oaks Blvd., Suite A, Lutz), call (813) 994-8534, or visit NorthTampaBayChamber.com.
Darren Glover made the move in 1997 from Eisenhower Middle School in Gibsonton to a brand new high school opening in New Tampa.
A quarter of a century later, he’s still a Wharton Wildcat and has no plans to ever leave. He was one of more than 200 current and former Wildcats who gathered Nov. 5 in the school’s cafeteria to celebrate the school’s 25th anniversary.
Glover is one of just five teachers at the school that opened the school and has remained there, along with paraprofessional Sherry Hargin, guidance counselor Cindy Rogers and English teacher Merrill Connor.
Others, like current principal Mike Rowan, assistant principal Eddie Henderson and guidance counselor Tommy Tonelli, were at Wharton in 1997, but left for other jobs before coming back to stay at the school.
While Glover may not have expected to spend the next two-plus decades at Wharton, he confesses to having loved every minute of it.
He met his wife Elizabeth, a social studies teacher, at the school (well, technically, at happy hour at Durango Steak House, which is now Hungry Crab Juicy Seafood). They had two sons – Riley, who graduated from Wharton in 2021, and Aubrey, who is currently a senior.
“I built a family here. It has been really great,” says Glover, a driver’s education teacher and athletic department business manager. When the school organized the 25th anniversary gathering, he was eager to reconnect with past Wildcats.
The celebration included the school’s first principal Mitch Muley and assistant principal (AP) Carmen Aguero (top left photo on next page), plus the four other principals who have led the school — George Gaffney, Brad Woods, Scott Fritz and current principal Mike Rowan, who was an original teacher at the school (all of whom are shown on page 1).
Also on hand were original staffers and athletic coaches Marcie Scholl, David Mitchell (2nd photo from left on next page), Henderson and Tonelli (both in far right pics on next page). The celebration was held prior to Wharton’s football game against Hillsborough High, and many of the dignitaries stuck around for the 27-7 win, as the ‘Cats head into the playoffs. Many of the original staffers were recognized on the field during halftime.
“I was really looking forward to seeing everyone,” Glover said.. “They weren’t coming back for a free hamburger (or, in this case, Mediterranean food from The Little Greek); they were coming back for a reason. — to see their old high school, to be a part of it again. It’s a great thing.”
The original staff at Wharton.
During the pre-game meal, not only did the 200+ people in attendance hear from Muley and Rowan, but current Wharton math teacher Carlos Rosaly read a number of recollections of the early days of the school written by those original staffers:
“From Carmen Aguero,” Rosaly read, “one day there was a huge squirrel that climbed up the building outside the cafeteria and Mitch yelled to Junior (former head custodian Tirso ‘Junior’ Cintron), ‘Get the pressure washer and shoot that thing. So, Junior did exactly that. Meanwhile, the bell rang and out from the cafeteria came 200 children who all of a sudden were getting showered on.”
Rosaly also read an anecdote from former Wharton AP Pam Peralta, “Some of Pam’s favorite memories are coaching swim team with Marcie Scholl and winning Districts in our first year, and attending sporting events and watching Wharton’s finest cheerleaders at the spring pep rally that first year.”
Rosaly said Aguero also recalled when interviews were being conducted in the trailers on BBD and Muley was upset about something and “started spewing profanities…in front of a visiting parent. Carmen said to the parent about Muley, ‘Man, you never know what you’re getting into with these construction workers.’”
Starting Out…
In December 1996, Mitchell Muley was named Wharton’s first principal. He had already opened Ben Hill Junior High on Ehrlich Rd. 10 years earlier, and he had a good relationship with long-time Hillsborough County Schools administrator Paul R. Wharton, for whom the school was named. Muley, then 49, was the perfect fit.
Mitch Muley, the school’s first principal.
He worked out of a trailer on Bruce B. Downs Blvd. near where the school was being built.
Muley spent his first six months ordering equipment, interviewing potential teachers and visiting potential students at junior high/middle schools like Van Buren and Buchanan that weren’t really close (Benito Middle School, which also opened in ‘97, provided a much closer option for New Tampa kids, too), and King, Chamberlain and Hillsborough high schools.
He put together a committee of those students who, in March, picked a school mascot — as the Wildcats beat out the Wolves.
In April, the school’s colors were selected – navy blue and white, with black trim – and the school hired its first head football coach, Dan Acosta.
The first football team had to practice that spring at Greco Middle School on Fowler Ave. They had to practice without equipment.
That was followed by selecting cheerleaders, a band director, a fight song and an alma mater song, as well as more coaches and teachers.
On August 17, 1997, Paul R. Wharton High swung its doors open for the first time. The traffic light on BBD across from the entrance to what is now Live Oak Preserve hadn’t yet been installed. Fences and walkways weren’t quite completed. Some painting still had to be done. The auditorium wouldn’t be ready until Oct. 1.
“We were still trying to get our certificate of occupancy two days before opening,” Muley recalls. “Just trying to get everything ready, to get it open, is what I’ll remember from that first year.”
Wharton is now the neighborhood school, but communities like West Meadows and Cross Creek were fairly new, so many of its original 1,400 students were driven or bused in from previously attended far-away schools like Hillsborough and Chamberlain.
“What I remember was the diversity,” says Kedric Harris, currently an assistant principal at Gaither who attended Wharton that first year. “It was the first time being at a school that had a real world atmosphere. We had no seniors, but it was an interesting mix of white, Black and Hispanic students.”
Harris dove right in. He loved being at a new school. He ran for, and was elected, treasurer of the student government, and played on the basketball team that won 20 games.
What he remembers most is that while the school’s colors were blue, white and black, the school itself looked lavender and purple when he first arrived.
Harris was likely the first Wharton student to ever return to the school as a teacher. After graduating from Florida A&M, he became an English teacher at Wharton from 2004-11, and then an administrative resource teacher before moving to Gaither.
Tonelli, who retired as the super-successful boys basketball coach but continues as a guidance counselor at Wharton, says there is always something special about a new school, and you could feel it in 1997.
“It’s the excitement of everything being the first,” Tonelli says. “You are helping to establish the tradition, helping set the pride and create the enthusiasm for the school. That was an exciting time.”
Tough Times, Too…
There were tough times early. More than $19,000 of video equipment (76 VCRs and 14 camcorders) were stolen the weekend before the school opened, and a fight between students the first semester captured a significant amount of media attention.
The fight helped tarnish Wharton’s image, and other similar issues over the years have helped prevent the school from shaking it.
“Wharton, from the beginning, because of some of the fights, got a bad rap and a bad name,” Tonelli says. “But, a lot of really good things have gone on at Wharton the last 25 years. It has been unbelievable, really — really successful in so many areas. Academically, we’ve had some unbelievable kids that have gone on to do great things. From the school paper, the culinary program, the yearbook, the athletics, we’ve had a lot of really good things happen and a lot of good things continue to happen.”
Glover agrees, which is why it meant a lot for the past students, teachers and administrators to gather to celebrate 25 years of wonderful moments, he says
“I think Wharton bound the (New Tampa) area together,” he says. “We’ve had some bumpy times, but it’s a great school. We have some great families here, and there are some great things always happening. I wouldn’t want to be anywhere else.”
