Category: Wesley Chapel

Suncoast Arts Festival Draws Big Crowds With Eye-Catching Art

Wesley Chapel artist Alan Metzger didn’t sell any of his original art all weekend, but when he packed up Sunday at the conclusion of the 11th annual Suncoast Arts Festival (SAF) at the Shops at Wiregrass mall, he did so with plans to return.

“I thought it was a real good event,’’ said Metzger, who did sell 20-40 prints of his work, including a commemorative poster for the International Polo Club of Palm Beach for which Metzger won an award and some acclaim. “The (SAF) event was really well run, and I was impressed.”

The SAF, held on Paseo Dr. down the heart of the mall the weekend of Jan. 16-17, got a perfect day of weather on Saturday for its biggest crowds, and then survived a major overnight storm to once again pull off a successful event.

Artists came to the area from places like Satsuma, FL, Aurora, CO, and Eastham, MA, selling all kinds of fine art, jewelry and other crafts.

“I’m really pleased with how everything went,’’ said Jennifer Douglas, who owns Jennifer Lee Events, which managed this year’s SAF. “Even the bad weather (early Sunday morning) did very minimal damage. The skies cleared just in time for another gorgeous day.”

Proceeds from the festival are donated to Pasco County schools through the Fine Arts of the Suncoast’s grant program.

Eleven grants were awarded Sunday to Pasco County art students, including Wiregrass Ranch’s Darcy Fermin.

Fermin was awarded the grant so the school could work with its printing press to making etchings and linoleum carvings and create one-of-a-kind prints. Students there are researching the pros and cons of different printing press art.

Douglas said that while she wouldn’t have official attendance figures for a few weeks, in recent years the event has drawn roughly 100,000 visitors over the course of the weekend and this year’s crowds were similar to those in the past.

The festival had a free, hands-on art garden and art “makerspace,” where kids could create their own works of art. In front of the Dillard’s at the mall, sidewalk artists used chalk to create drawings of colorful frogs, a large octopus, a 3-D rendition of BB-8 (the droid from the latest “Star Wars” movie) and others.

This also was the first year the street art was a commissioned exhibit, which was sponsored by Tampa Bay Business for Culture & the Arts.

Metzger said the rough overnight weather did scatter the tent and some of the artwork of one of the artists across from him, but the festival’s staff did a great job of retrieving the tent and art and restoring it to its proper place.

Some artists did choose to leave before the bad weather arrived on Sunday to be safe, Lee said, because their art was more delicate, but she also noted that there was a total of 125 booths set up by artists and sponsors, and 116 confirmed artists, as well as seven sidewalk chalk artists, and that business was as brisk on Sunday as it was the day before.

On the main stage across from Macy’s, De Lei’ed Parrots (photo on next page) provided musical entertainment on Saturday and the popular Florida-based band the Black Honkeys played on Sunday.

The 2016 SAF’s Best of Show Award went to Maitland, FL artist Rolly Ray Reel, who has been exhibiting at art festivals all across the country for 45 years and has appeared at this event before. His booth featured mixed media pieces that toed the line between painting and sculpture, incorporating found items like chains, stones and metal with acrylic and oils into some very interesting art that caught the eyes of many those passing by.

Other winners this weekend included:

1st place, 2D — Ed Myers

2nd place, 2D — Collin Margera

3rd place, 2D — Jinsheng Song

1st place, 3D — Tim Peters

2nd place, 3D — Harry Welsh

3rd place, 3D — Nancy Cutler Jewelry

1^st place, jewelry — Obayana Ajanaku

2nd place jewelry — Kathleen LaValley Masterson

Best booth design — Jake Asuit

Emerging Artist winners

1^st — Ana Christina

2^nd — Jalen Rehsi

3^rd — Bree Leviston

For a complete list of the art winners, including chalk art and emerging artist winners, visit SuncoastArtsFest.com or TheShopsAtWiregrass.com.

Irish 31 to Open at Wiregrass Mall!

A Neighborhood News Exclusive By Gary Nager

Former USF football star Jay Mize, who already has four successful Irish 31 restaurants (in Hyde Park Village, Westshore, Westchase & at the Amalie Arena), says he hopes to open his fifth & sixth locations by the end of 2016.One of those new locales is on Clearwater Beach & the other is in The Shops st Wiregrass mall, in a shared building that just began site work next to Panera Bread.

Mize says the Irish 31 at Wiregrass will be 2,800 SF & will feature the same great chef-inspired (I call it ‘Irish-plus-gourmet’) cuisine as the other Irish 31 locations.

“It’s sort of a race to see which of our new stores opens first,” Mize says. “But we hope both will be open by the end of 2016.”

Mize noted that he couldn’t disclose the business that would share the building at our press time, but, “we know it’ll be good for us because we’re compatible with everyone.”

Visit Irish31.com for more details.

Suncoast Arts on tap this weekend at Wiregrass mall

By Celeste McLaughlin

On Saturday and Sunday, the “main drag” through the Shops at Wiregrass – Paseo Drive – will again be filled with all kinds of art for the 11th annual Suncoast Arts Festival (SAF).

Created and produced by Fine Arts of the Suncoast, the Festival typically attracts about 100,000 people (photo from last year, right) over the two days of the event. About 125 fine artists and craftsmen will have their art on display, including sculpture, jewelry, painting, drawing and even sidewalk chalk art.

“Artists travel here from all over the country,” says Jennifer Douglas, who owns Jennifer Lee Events, which is managing this year’s festival. “They’re coming to participate in our juried competition, which will award $10,000 in prizes.”

Kids can participate in the free hands-on art garden, with activities and take-home crafts throughout the weekend, and can complete a scavenger hunt to earn prizes. There also will be an art “makerspace,” a creative place for older kids. According to Douglas, the makerspace environment helps kids, “understand the symbiotic relationship between art and technology, and shows them how art translates into many areas of our lives.”

This year’s “Chalk Walk” will be the first to feature only professional street artists. In the past, the Chalk Walk has been an amateur competition, but this year, it’s a commissioned exhibit, sponsored by Tampa Bay Businesses for Culture & the Arts.

Other highlights of this year’s SAF include a glass-etching experience and an emerging artists exhibit, where artwork by Pasco County high school students will be on display.

Entertainment will be provided all weekend long at the main stage across from Macy’s, with headliners De Lei’ed Parrots and The Black Honkeys.

Proceeds from the Festival are donated to Pasco County schools through the Fine Arts of the Suncoast’s grant program. Any teacher in a Pasco County school (public, private, or charter) can apply for these grants for any fine or performing arts discipline, including dance and music, to supplement art programs in the school, giving students special experiences beyond their school’s typical curriculum. Recipients of the 2016 grants will be announced at the festival on Sunday.

For more information, visit SuncoastArtsFest.com.

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Kumquats Return To Dade City!

Downtown Dade City’s always-fun 19th-annual Kumquat Festival will be held on Saturday, January 30, 9 a.m.-5 p.m.

“It’s real, authentic, old Florida featuring a unique and funky little fruit,” says John Moors, executive director of the Greater Dade City Chamber of Commerce, which puts on the event.

Kumquats are small citrus fruits grown near Dade City. Moors says this year’s crop is plentiful and is being harvested now, in advance of the Festival.

With more than 425 vendors and 40 sponsors, historic downtown Dade City will be transformed to include arts and crafts, a car and truck show, live local entertainment, a farmer’s market and all kinds of kumquat pies and products.

“Our vendors offer a wide variety of interesting, eclectic, and homemade items,” says Moors. “And, of course, all of our shops and restaurants will be open.”

About 40,000 people attended last year (photo), and Moors expects that this year’s Festival will attract a similar crowd. He says Dade City’s downtown has new restaurants, including a Mediterranean/Greek restaurant and a cigar lounge, which complement the great southern food people have come to expect in the quaint old town.

And, those who attend the Festival will see another sign of downtown revitalization, with the opening of a new City Hall and police headquarters this month.

Admission and parking are free, and free transportation also is provided from multiple satellite lots. New this year, Moors says vendors will offer their kumquat pies for sale in the parking lots, so guests can purchase theirs right before they head home and not have to carry their pies around during the event.

For more info, see the ad on this page or visit DadeCityChamber.org.

Wiregrass Ranch girls hoopsters cement selves as district’s team to beat

By Andy Warrener

It’s still another week before district basketball tournaments heat up for area teams, but any suspense about who might be the Class 7A, District 8 top seed was quickly quashed coming out of Christmas break.

Wiregrass Ranch High (WRH) opened the new year with consecutive victories over what was expected to be its stiffest competition – Freedom, Plant and Steinbrenner — to clinch the top seed for the 7A-8 tournament starting Jan. 26 at Plant. WRH, now 20-2 on the season heading into tonight’s game at Tampa Catholic, will play Leto in the quarterfinals.

The day before, the WRH girls completed the regular season sweep of second-seeded Plant, doing so with star player Trakyra Kidd in foul trouble. Kidd got into foul trouble in the first half, and had to sit out for much of the second.

Without Kidd, the Bulls ended the third period on a 6-0 run. When Kidd returned in the fourth, the Bulls put Plant away 63-50.

“That win was a big moment for us moving forward,” WRH head coach John Gant said. “It was concrete that we saw when she (Kidd) wasn’t on the floor that we were not going to fold our tent, that we can play and play well without her.”

The Bulls and Kidd would follow up that performance the next night on the road against the Patriots. While Freedom kept the game close through the third period, Kidd went off in the fourth, scoring 12 of her 24 points and hitting all six of her free throws, making her 10-for-10 from the charity stripe on the night. The Bulls prevailed 49-43 and clinched the top spot in 7A-8, and two days beat Steinbrenner 54-42.

The Bulls host Sickles Friday in a 7A-8 contest.

Gant and Kidd lead one of the better girls basketball teams in the area. The Bulls have dropped only two games this season — a two-point loss to Seffner Christian in the season opener and a one-point loss to Palm Beach Gardens at the Florida Prospects Tournament in Orlando.

Three points are all that separates the Bulls from an unblemished record. Kidd has been a driving force in that endeavor.

“She has a mentality that she will not be stopped,” Gant said. “She has a nose for the goal and when you have lightning quickness and someone tries to stop you, it’s very difficult.

“She is one of the top two athletes in the area. This season, her maturity and her basketball intelligence have combined extremely well. She’s a coach’s dream. She makes me look good when the ball’s in her hands.”

Kidd is averaging just over 16.1 points per game, after scoring 9.8 last year. She also averages 6.4 rebounds, 5.5 steals and 4.3 assists a game.

Kidd has lots of help from a well-balanced WRH team.

Junior forward Stephanie Brower, who is averaging 10.7 points and 8.8 rebounds a game, is one of the team’s most potent inside threats.

“She (Brower) is the second-best athlete on the team and plays tremendous defense,” Gant said. “She has great basketball intelligence and she’s one of the key leaders when TK (Kidd) is out.”

Junior guard Melissa Gordon is the team’s deep threat. Gordon has nailed 29 of the team’s 41 three-pointers this season and presents a great second option to Kidd.

“She (Gordon) has been hitting key shots for us this year,” Gant said. “She’s very difficult to guard.”

Sophomore guard Alexis Boldon and junior forward Nicole Carey are additional threats.

“Boldon has that wiry, won’t quit attitude,” Gant says. “She’s one that always has the motor running and can help handle the ball…and she plays well inside.”

Junior guard Brooke Preiser comes off the bench and averages more than four points a game. Senior forward Alima James adds some more force inside with rebounding and blocked shots.

As the district playoffs loom, the Bulls have an extra layer of confidence knowing they can keep the train on the rails even without Kidd.

“The Plant game made me happy because I could see that even if I get in foul trouble, we’ll be more confident knowing the team can handle it,” Kidd said.

Once bitten, but not shy, boy back at school after snake encounter

Sabrina Mize was watching her 8-year-old son Dylan jumping on a trampoline in a friend’s backyard in Quail Hollow before he jumped off to chase a ball barefoot through the grass.

A few seconds later, he was running towards her.

“Mom, I got bit by a snake,’’ he told her.

Sabrina didn’t believe it at first.

“Did he just say what I thought he said?,’’ she thought.

Sure enough, upon further inspection, Dylan’s left ankle had two small, but very defined, puncture marks.

While Dylan had snake venom in his veins, Sabrina must have had ice water running through hers.

After getting some ice for his foot, she went hunting for the snake, hoping to identify it and praying it wasn’t poisonous. About a foot-and-a-half long, she found it where her son had likely stepped on it, prompting the bite. She inched closer, within ten feet or so, and snapped a quick picture of the red-and-orange-colored snake on her cell phone before returning to her son.

All the while, she stayed calm, cool and collected.

“Because my son was calm, I was calm,’’ Sabrina says. “He was upset when I went to go find the snake, but that was really it.”

Sabrina sent the picture to a friend, asking if she knew what kind of a snake it was. That’s when Facebook sprung into action.

Shortly after her friend took the photo and posted it on the more-than- 8,000-member-strong Wesley Chapel Community Facebook page, local animal specialist Chris Wirt (we featured him in our issue dated October 24, 2015) received a message on his cellphone. He had been tagged in the Facebook post.

There is a friendly, running joke on the Facebook page about snakes and Wirt, the former Wesley Chapel resident who owns A All Animal Control of Tampa Bay. It seems like at least once a week, someone in the Wesley Chapel Community is tagging him and hoping he can identity some creature that has camped out on someone’s porch or driveway to help determine the level of danger to the home’s inhabitants and pets.

And, it doesn’t just happen on the Wesley Chapel Community page. Wirt estimates that he receives five requests a day calling on his expertise with all kinds of critters from across the Bay area.

In this case, Wirt knew the snakebite was nothing to trifle with — he replied that Dylan had been bitten by a cottonmouth, a highly venomous type of water moccasin.

Sabrina already was at Florida Hospital Wesley Chapel (FHWC) when she received the news, about an hour after Dylan had been bit. Dylan was then transported to Florida Hospital Tampa because it has inpatient pediatric beds (FHWC does not). There, he was treated with anti-venin to combat the dangerous bite.

Sometimes, anti-venin isn’t necessary, even when the victim is bitten by a venomous snake. According to the Tampa Poison Center website, 25 percent of snakebites are “dry bites,” where no venom is introduced to the body.

In Dylan’s case, the swelling had worsened, and had moved up his leg and was now creeping up the back of his calf. Sabrina said the bottom half of his leg “blew up so much you couldn’t touch the skin; it was so tight and so hard.”

Dylan received a treatment of antivenin at 8 p.m. His body reacted well to it, so he received two more treatments over the next twelve hours.

Sometimes, like in the case of Hope Allen, the Greater Wesley Chapel Chamber of Commerce president, more drastic measures are required. In 2014, Allen was bitten by a pygmy rattlesnake — which Wirt says is the most common snake he comes across in Wesley Chapel — and required 18 vials of anti-venin and a five-day stay at FHWC, including two in the Intensive Care Unit.

“(Dylan) might have only gotten a little tiny bite of the venom,’’ Wirt said. “But if you don’t pay attention to what’s going on and keep running around or whatever, it could start eating away at the muscle or nerve…and it could absolutely be fatal. The 5-to-6 deaths we see every year, though, are usually because the people bit are someplace where they can’t get medical care.”

After two days in the hospital, Tampa Poison Control cleared the Veterans Elementary second-grader for a Wednesday release. The hospital kept him an additional night, just to be safe.

Sabrina said Dylan, who returned to school last week and is now off crutches, was probably more upset about the extra night in the hospital than he was about getting bitten by the cottonmouth.

On Thursday, Dylan was cleared by his doctors and left the hospital in a wheelchair.

The next day, he was back at the same friend’s house, whose yard had been cleared and treated for free by Wirt. Dylan spent most of New Year’s Eve sitting in a chair with his leg elevated, holding a stick wrapped in the skin of the snake that bit him, compliments of a neighbor who had killed it.

Wirt is currently offering his snake service for $175 (it normally costs $250), which includes clearing the yard of any snake dens or nests and treating the perimeter of the yard and the house. He can be reached at tampa@aallanimalcontrol, or visit AAllAnimalControl.com/tampa.