Retired West Meadows resident Gary Brosch understands the power of music. It brings people joy, lifts people’s spirits and, he says, it brings them closer to God.
Which is why Brosch and his wife Barbara work so diligently to spread that joy through their 501(c)(3) nonprofit No Fret Guitar, where underprivileged children are not only taught to play the guitar during a one-week camp, but get to take home that guitar afterwards.
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On the last Tuesday of school before the holiday break, one of the science teachers at Pasco Middle School (MS) in Dade City called fellow Pasco MS teacher Holly Mickler into her classroom to ask for some help judging science fair projects.
Mickler’s students were working on assignments with tutors, so she said she could leave her classroom for a few minutes to help.
That’s when Pasco County’s Superintendent of Schools Kurt Browning, Pasco School Board member Megan Harding and several other officials from the school district and teachers union knocked on that other teacher’s classroom door.
The group was directed to the science fair, where they surprised Mickler with the news that among all of the teachers in Pasco County, she had been chosen as the District’s Teacher of the Year.
“It was a little embarrassing that I wasn’t where I was supposed to be,” Mickler laughs.
Mickler is a 14-year teaching veteran who commutes to work from Meadow Pointe each day. Although she lives in Wesley Chapel, she has spent her entire teaching career at Pasco Middle School.
She has taught exceptional education and language arts, and then served as the graduation enhancement and dropout prevention teacher before launching the school’s AVID (Advancement Via Individual Determination) program about four years ago. As AVID coordinator, Mickler teaches students who choose to take the AVID elective class and coaches teachers on how to teach strategies for college, career and life readiness in their classrooms.
“Holly is a great example of what I look for in a teacher,” says Pasco MS principal Dee Dee Johnson, who was previously the principal at Wesley Chapel High. “She cares about her students, gets to know them, and believes in each of them. I’m extremely proud to have Holly as a teacher at Pasco Middle School, because she always goes above and beyond for our students, sets high expectations, and provides students with the resources needed to meet those expectations.”
Mickler says she thought long and hard about whether or not to complete the application for Pasco’s Teacher of the Year after being chosen as her school’s nominee.
“Once you’re selected at the school level, you’re given the option of deciding whether or not to take it to district level,” she says. “I don’t like bragging on myself, and that’s what it feels like, so I almost didn’t do it.”
But, Mickler says she also thought about her school’s reputation in the community, including things such as the recent removal of its previous principal, prompting Johnson’s move to the school.
“People need to recognize that we have incredible things going on here,” Mickler says. “I thought my application was a way to showcase that for others to see. I tried to respond in a way that people would see how awesome our kids are and how dedicated our staff members are.”
Ever humble, Mickler says she’s really no different than nearly all of the teachers in Pasco County, most of whom, she says, have great things happening in their classrooms, too.
“All of us are really working hard and are dedicated,” she says. “What we have in common and share is just a passion and a love for the kids.”
Mickler doesn’t have children of her own, so she calls her students her “babies,” making an emotional connection with them.
“They rely on me for academics, but also to help them through social issues and issues at home,” she says. “They trust me.”
Mickler is now Pasco’s nominee for the statewide Teacher of the Year, competition. That winner will be announced this spring.
The motion picture industry in Florida has had its ups and downs.
For example, Florida was a boomtown in 2011 when “Dolphin Tale” was being filmed in Clearwater.
But, more recently? Consider Ben Affleck’s 1920s gangster-era film entitled “Live By Night,” which premieres worldwide on January 13. The movie is set in Ybor City.
There’s only one problem, however — it was shot entirely in Brunswick, GA, which was able to offer the film’s producers as much as 30 percent in tax credits on expenditures.
Cities in Florida couldn’t match that, and therefore lost a golden opportunity to bring revenue to the area and build the filmmaking industry in the region and state.
When state funds for film incentives dried up in 2012, the onus fell to local production companies to pick up the mantle.
Guys like Wesley Chapel’s Todd Yonteck, the CEO of his production company called Digital Caviar.
The Red Carpet
If you happened to have been promenading downtown St. Petersburg on December 7, you might have seen a red carpet rollout at the AMC Theatres Sundial on 2nd Ave.
Decked out on the carpet were acclaimed actors Dahlia Lagault (“The Walking Dead” Seasons 5 and 6) and Patrick Muldoon (“Starship Troopers”) for the premier of their new film, “Bernie the Dolphin.”
Actors, producers and writers huddled together for photos, took interviews and later filed into Theatre 1 for the film’s first theatrical screening, its world premiere.
“Bernie the Dolphin,” which Yonteck helped produce, was shot entirely in Pinellas County and at Marineland Dolphin Adventure in St. Augustine.
Yonteck is a Seven Oaks resident and an emergency room physician at AdventHealth Wesley Chapel. You could call film production his side hustle, although considering the amount of work involved, it’s much more than that.
“I have two jobs that are full time,” Yonteck said, after the premiere of “Bernie the Dolphin.”
In 2010, Yonteck and a friend, Paul Prator, began dabbling in film production. Initially, they took on a lot of commercial work. In 2013, they opened a storefront in Ybor City.
By 2015, a second office had opened and Prator stepped away from the company.
The commercial work was steady, Yonteck says. He booked and produced commercials for Verizon and USF.
But, something was missing.
“You don’t get to have as much creative fun with commercials,” Yonteck says.
His transition to more creative projects began slowly in 2013, when Digital Caviar had begun to produce some short films.
Staffers like partners Michael Brown, Victor Young and Conrad De La Torres came on board. Staffers Josh Long, Brandon Hyde and Brittany Hoppe also joined the company.
Digital Caviar’s first feature film came out in April of 2015, when “Crazy Lake,” a slasher film shot almost entirely in Brooksville, was released.
In December of 2015, the company embarked on a comedy, “Tropical Paradise 2.”
In 2017, Yonteck and Digital Caviar were hired to help on a joint production between Sarasota’s Ringling College of Art & Design and director Kevin Smith — famous for the cult film “Clerks” — called “Killroy Was Here.”
“The project started as a short in order to help the students get hands-on experience, doing the actual jobs in a production and also deliver the film,” Yonteck said. “It went so well and Kevin (Smith) was so excited after the shooting experience that he wanted to turn it into a feature.”
Smith came back in January of 2018, and then again over the summer, to finish principal shooting. The film is currently in post-production under Smith.
Before the chance to work on “Bernie the Dolphin” came along, Yonteck had seven producer credits — six for short films — to his name, as well as others for camera and electrical equipment, editorial, sound and production manager.
The concept for “Bernie the Dolphin” began circulating in 2017 when Yonteck, a longtime attendee of the Cannes Film Festival in France, could not attend.
“We either go or we send someone (to Cannes) every year,” Yonteck says. “It’s a great place to search for source material and to network. People see you, hear your name a few times and they’re more comfortable working with you.”
Yonteck wasn’t in attendance at the 2017 festival, but St. Petersburg Film Commissioner Tony Armer was.
Yonteck says that Armer got into conversation with reps from Grindstone, a branch of Lionsgate. The Lionsgate reps were talking up a concept that involved dolphins and oceanside locations.
Armer worked to convince them that Florida, Pinellas County in particular, had the locations they needed and the production companies to interview to make it happen.
By May of 2017, Grindstone and Digital Caviar were in contact and a local Clearwater-based writer, Teri Emerson, was tapped to write the script.
“The project was pretty much green lit by August of 2017,” Yonteck said. “We started finding the people to put it together and we had most of it solidified by the end of the year.”
Principal shooting began in January of 2018.
Keeping It Local
Yonteck was happy to work on a project filmed in Florida. Many film projects have left the state for better incentives elsewhere, reducing the number of opportunities for local producers.
The 2012 film “Magic Mike” was made in Florida, but the 2015 sequel, which is partially set in Tampa, was shot entirely in South Carolina. And, the 2017 drama “Gifted,” which is set in St. Petersburg, was actually filmed in Savannah, GA.
Georgia, thanks to its 30-percent tax incentive, now ranks third in the nation for film and television production and, according to an April 2017 story in the Atlanta Business Chronicle, had an economic impact of $7 billion in 2016.
“People talk about the Ben Affleck movie a lot, how it was written for Tampa, it was a story about Tampa and Ybor City, but they ended up building Ybor City in Georgia,” Yonteck says. “They just got so much value in incentives.”
The effect a movie can have on local business and a local economy often cannot be understated.
When the first “Dolphin Tale” movie was released in 2011, after having used the Clearwater Marine Aquarium for a major location, it bolstered tourism in Florida by more than $2 billion, according to a March 2015 article in The Hollywood Reporter.
Attendance at the aquarium spiked from 76,000 to 750,000 annually the year after the film’s release. Unfortunately for industry workers in the area, the film’s production company, Warner Brothers, isn’t based in Florida.
“A lot of the money in incentives that we did have went to big projects like ‘Dolphin Tale,’” Yonteck said. “I think it’s better to give the incentives to companies that stay and don’t pack up and leave when they finish shooting.”
The cast and crew for “Bernie the Dolphin” was almost entirely Floridian. The same holds true for the cast and crew of “Bernie the Dolphin 2,” which will be released in 2019.
“A lot of the actors were locally cast and the entire crew was Florida-based,” Yonteck says. “People are going to where the work is. We’ve been able to keep some people here in town but it’s hard to find good talent and when you train people up, they often go elsewhere but we’re going to keep trying to shoot here.”
The production shifted back and forth between St. Petersburg, Clearwater and St. Augustine. What worked for “Bernie the Dolphin” was the production value of the ocean access in Pinellas County, as well as at the ocean park in St. Augustine. The film was shot in January, taking advantage of the mild winter in Florida. However, Yonteck says a couple of cold blasts made for some funny moments in production.
“One day of shooting it was super windy and cold on the beach,” he says. “It was kind of funny because the actors were freezing and we had to make it look like it was warm.”
With “Bernie the Dolphin 2” already in post-production, Yonteck and Digital Caviar continue to support the film industry in the region and state in their efforts to make Florida competitive and more attractive for filmmakers.
Oh, and by the way— Yonteck provides a tip of the cap to his current hometown in “Bernie The Dolphin” as well.
An Easter egg — generally an inside joke hidden in a film or video game — in the film comes in the form of Yonteck’s boat, “Impulse Buy,” which acted as a platform and support boat, and it also was featured as the boat belonging to Kevin Sorbo’s character, Winston Mills.
Only a local might catch “Wesley Chapel, Florida” emblazoned on the boat’s stern, during an aerial drone shot, but we sure did.
Want To See It?
Bernie the Dolphin is currently available in On Demand options for cable/satellite customers that include Frontier and Spectrum. It also is available through iTunes. Yonteck expects an electronic copy or Blu-Ray option to be available for purchase by February.
Restaurant and retail news is golden.
And, it seems,
Both are part of the Cypress Creek Town Center Development of Regional Impact (DRI).
Nothing seems to get our readers more excited than news about the Cypress Creek Town Center.
In January of 2018, we broke the news about Earth Fare, HomeGoods, Chipotle, Walk-Ons Bistreaux
In fact, Cypress Creek-related stories and maps (2) — touting the arrival of restaurants like Chuy’s and Mellow Mushroom as well as many others — held the Nos. 3 and 6 spots on our 2018 web traffic rankings.
Wesley Chapel was gripped by Cypress Creek Fever in 2018, and there’s still so more to come. Earth Fare, HomeGoods, Walk-Ons and Blaze should all open in the first quarter of 2019, Chipotle just recently opened, and vertical construction has begun on Hobby Lobby, Burlington, Five Below and others.
The list of new places being built all across Wesley Chapel is seemingly endless. In addition to Mellow Mushroom, Chuy’s, Bahama Breeze and the Hyatt Place Hotel on the north side of S.R. 56, there was MOD Pizza and Nationwide Vision At Home on the south side near the Tampa Premium Outlets.
A little to the east of I-75 on 56, the Hilton Garden Inn hotel on the south side opened and in the Wiregrass Ranch DRI a few more miles to the east, the even newer Fairfield Inn on the north side of 56 did as well, as did Nothing Bundt Cakes highlighting a slew of new stores at the Shops at Wiregrass.
Main Event Entertainment is building an entertainment center offering bowling, laser tag, adventure courses
Along with the new Wiregrass Sports Complex, which broke ground in 2018, and an indoor athletic facility at Wesley Chapel District Park, those complaining about there being nothing to do in The Chap should hopefully find some peace.
And, the development wasn’t limited to places to shop and eat — houses are going up at near-record levels, and Wesley Chapel broke ground on one fire station (No. 38) while revamping another (No. 13 on Old Pasco Rd.)
Getting to those places might be an issue in 2019 (early frontrunner for Story of the Year!), as the DDI at S.R. 56 and I-75 is just one of a number of major roadway projects being built in Wesley Chapel.
While the S.R. 56 extension from Meadow Pointe Blvd. to U.S. 301 in Zephyrhills made great progress basically out of view in 2018, the DDI will begin work smack dab in the middle of it all. Combined with the widening of S.R. 54 from Bruce B. Downs (BBD) Blvd. to Zephyrhills that started in 2018, driving in our area should be interesting in 2019.
But hey, at least there’s someplace to go.
A second hospital could be coming to Wesley Chapel .
Officials from BayCare Pasco, a newly created not-for-profit organization established to develop and operate a proposed new 60-bed acute care hospital, met with county planners about opening its first Wesley Chapel location on an 111-acre site in the northeast quadrant of the planned I-75 and Overpass Rd. intersection.
Prior to meeting with Pasco County, BayCare received preliminary approval for its application to build the new hospital.
The BayCare location will be ideal for the thousands of homes being built in the neighboring “connected city” (which is already home to residents in the Epperson development) as well as future growth on the west side of I-75.
“We know that the demand for health care services will continue to increase in that (Wesley Chapel) community, and we’re eager to bring more of BayCare’s clinical excellence to residents in this area,” said Tommy Inzina, president and CEO of BayCare, in a statement.
While it operates 15 hospitals in Tampa Bay — BayCare also operates a HealthHub in the Publix in Hollybrook Plaza on S.R. 54 — this will be the company’s first hospital located in Wesley Chapel.
BayCare Pasco says the proposed hospital will be state-of-the-art and have 30 medical/surgical beds (all private rooms with bath and showers), including 18 progressive care/intensive care beds with full capabilities, including eICU (virtual) monitoring; and 12 women’s services beds, including postpartum obstetric beds and nursery capabilities; as well as 30 observation beds to accommodate patients who need to be assessed for next steps in care.
The proposal also says the hospital will have an emergency department with 30 ER beds and four operating rooms
IT’S OFFICIAL: All Florida Hospital facilities made it official on Jan. 1, becoming AdventHealth as part of what the healthcare giant is calling a “new consumer-centric brand launch.”
The announcement of the name change was made in August, and became official with the new year.
The former Florida Hospital Wesley Chapel (FHWC) is now AdventHealth Wesley Chapel (AHWC), one of 30 Advent Health hospitals and freestanding departments in Florida.
Based in Altamonte Springs, the company’s hospitals and other facilities are all now displaying the new name.
“This is an exciting time as we elevate our ability to connect communities with our expanded network of care,” said Mike Schultz, president and CEO of Advent Health’s West Florida Division. “This name change reinforces our commitment to provide a viable, affordable health care system and to continue our unique brand of inspired, compassionate whole-person care through clinical expertise and leading-edge innovation.”
AHWC currently is the only hospital located in Wesley Chapel. It opened as FHWC in 2012, and it continues to expand.
In 2017, a massive expansion was completed that doubled the number of operating and emergency rooms, while adding 62 private inpatient rooms.
The hospital most recently completed a $2.8-million women’s health center, called Inspiration Place (see ad on pg. 2 of this issue), in December of 2017, and earlier this year, opened a 24-bed offsite emergency department on S.R. 54 near the Suncoast Pkwy.
AdventHealth Wesley Chapel’s adjacent 50,000- square-foot Health & Wellness Center continues to receive overwhelmingly positive reviews from local residents.
AdventHealth recently met with Pasco County planners to propose an additional three-story medical office building and future parking garage on nearly nine acres off Legacy Blvd., adjacent to AHWC.