Pasco County deputies arrested a 23-year-old man Sunday evening suspected in a string of February robberies in Wesley Chapel and Zephyrhills.
Robert Dumas, of Wesley Chapel, was stopped for speeding on Bruce B. Downs Blvd. and Eagleston Blvd. As deputies searched the vehicle, they found a gun and a used marijuana joint.
Deputies also found a firearm and mask, along with shoes and clothing that matched the description from a string of recent armed robberies.
Dumas and the vehicle also matched those descriptions, and the Major Crimes division was notified as deputies continued to talk with Dumas until he confessed to the robberies over the course of six days, which started on Feb. 8 with the Citgo Gas Station gas station on S.R. 54 in Wesley Chapel.
About an hour later, Dumas also was accused of robbing the Best Western Hotel on Oakley Blvd. in Wesley Chapel, where he fired a gun shot. He also fired a shot during a robbery of the Metro PCS store in Zephyrhills. He also has been accused of robbing B Creative Painting Studio in Wesley Chapel, and a Subway sub shop in Lutz.
Wesley Chapel’s Tammy Knoll-Anderson invents a new yoga pose — The Cuddle — with Chief. Tammy was one of roughly 30 participants in a goat yoga class at FHWC. (Photos by: Andy Warrener)
There are several different disciplines of yoga, from Anada to Yin and many others in between.
But, with apologies to Bikram Yoga, or hot yoga, the hottest thing out there — and definitely the cutest — might just be goat yoga.
Yes, goat yoga. It is as you might expect — yoga and goats, in harmony, and recently, at the Wellness Center at Florida Hospital Wesley Chapel (FHWC).
“I’ve taken regular (yoga) classes in the past and when I saw the chance to do this one, I thought, ‘Yeah, I’m in,’” Wesley Chapel resident Tammy Knoll-Anderson said after finishing class. “It’s fun to be around and interact with the animals and it’s nice being outside.”
Indeed, modern afficionados have incorporated animals into their yoga practices. Cat and puppy yoga gained popularity for a time, but have been superseded by goat yoga, a craze that is sweeping the country. It has been featured nationally on ABC, CBS, NBC and CNN, and USA Today profiled goat yoga in places like Colorado, Florida, New Jersey and Oregon, the latter of which, the article said, was the birthplace of goat yoga.
Obviously, the goats are not demonstrating or performing a Bharadvaja’s Twist or downward dogs, but they are offering support in the form of their calm nature, and maybe a few kisses along the way.
According to GoatYoga.net, goat yoga is a form of Animal-Assisted Therapy in the context of an instructor-led yoga session. Obviously, the aim is for an outdoor session and the goats don’t participate in the exercises so much as provide ambiance.
(L.-r.) Barbara Morris, Jeff Bogue, Amy Bogue, Emma Bogue & Linda Harris at the Feb. 24 goat yoga class at the FHWC Wellness Center.
FHWC just happened to have all the right ingredients available — land (most important) and a desire to be creative, in order to offer a goat yoga class, the morning of Feb. 24.
“At the fitness center, we talk about thinking outside the box and engaging the community,” FHWC director of community wellness Barbara Morris says. “The hospital said we could use the pavilion behind the building, and the pieces began to fall in place.”
Morris looked for an instructor willing to teach the class. She found FHWC Wellness Center yoga instructor Rachel Jimenez a willing participant.
The goats themselves came from Fortune Teller Farms in Bushnell. Jeff Bogue, who is the program manager of ambulance services for the hospital, and his wife Amy have operated the farm since 2013.
The Bogues followed their dream, and now own and operate an all-natural, grass-fed beef and pasture-raised pork farm. The nine goats they have are all rescues, and while they do try to harvest milk from some of them, for the most part, they are pets.
When Jeff heard about the goat yoga notion from Barbara, the wheels were set into motion.
“I remember when I first mentioned it to Amy, she laughed, thinking I was joking with her,” Jeff says. “The next thing I know, I’m in Barbara’s office working on an ad for the class.”
Under the shade of the pavilion located behind the main building, the very first goat yoga class was hosted at FHWC on Feb. 24, with roughly 30 participants who enjoyed interacting with a handful of the Bogue family’s goats during the session.
The Bogues, with help from Morris and fitness program coordinator Linda Harris, put up temporary, plastic fencing around the pavilion to contain the animals, and placed small piles of feed near the yoga participants to encourage the goats to physically interact.
The goats needed little persuasion as they nibbled at clothing, some even jumping up on top of students’ backs or bellies. Two-week old Chief was one of the more popular goats, easily perching on students as they negotiated different poses. Jimenez says she was eager to try teaching her first goat yoga class.
“I have taken goat yoga but I had never taught it before,” Jimenez says. “The goats offer some humor and lightness to a session. There’s a seriousness to yoga and goats kind of balance that out.”
Goats also have a curious nature and while they’ll eat just about anything, Jeff says they make good candidates for interaction with a yoga class.
“The goats are ideal for this,” he says. “They’re calm, they like to interact with people and they’re clean, for the most part.”
The nice turnout for the goat yoga class could mean the return of Chief and his friends — the Wellness Center is already planning for a second class at the end of April.
As a parent, I’m happy that both of my sons have graduated from both high school and college, because the threat of continuing gun violence, especially towards young people, seems to loom ever larger in this country.
I can’t imagine how the families of the murdered students and staff at Stoneman Douglas High in Parkland are feeling. I don’t want to imagine it. But, I also can’t hide my head in the sand and pray that it somehow all goes away.
Children shouldn’t have to be afraid to go to school. Schools shouldn’t have to have metal detectors and beefed-up security, but they do.
I’ve never been a gun owner and the few times I’ve shot a gun of any kind, I could feel the death — whether accidental or intended — in my hands…and wanted no part of it.
Even so, I’ve also always had an open mind about both hunting and the need some people I have been close to have felt to have a gun (or guns) in their home in order to feel safe.
The one thing I could never understand was why anyone would own a military-style automatic weapon, other than maybe as a keepsake of someone’s time in the military. If you hunters out there are using AR-15s or AK-47s or even bump stocks to shoot deer, wild boar or even gators, I’m guessing that’s against the rules. But, if it’s not, shouldn’t it be? Even though these weapons can get off multiple shots in seconds, are they really the weapon of choice for home protection? Aren’t they, when legally kept, supposed to be unloaded and locked up when not in use and therefore harder to load and fire quickly at an intruder?
But, I certainly agree that the guns themselves are not the problem. People are. I therefore think that, in addition to trying to ban these types of weapons, anyone who wants to buy one should have to be evaluated by a licensed mental health professional before they can do so. I also think that the penalties for not only using, but possessing, these types of weapons would also need to be tougher.
And finally, I honestly think that in order to get the most people to be willing to give up these guns of mass destruction, they should be paid to give them back. Pennies on the dollar, but it’s better than having them confiscated or having to illegally hide them if they ever are banned. Even if our government had to buy back every military-style weapon and bump stock in this country, wouldn’t the monetary cost alone, much less the cost in human life and suffering be less than what we’ve seen in mass shooting after mass shooting?
I honestly believe that if anyone is going to finally bring about change with regards to guns in this country, those surviving students and families from Parkland have the best chance of finally getting it done.I truly hope they succeed because, sadly, we never know whose children (or parents or siblings) could be next.
Check Out Our Taste 2018 Preview Section!
At our press time on March 2, it was still three weeks out before the Taste of New Tampa & Wesley Chapel was set to return to the (surprisingly) warm and friendly confines of Florida Hospital Center Ice (FHCI) and I know it’s going to be bigger and better than last year.
The Taste, presented by the Rotary Club of New Tampa, in conjunction with the North Tampa Bay (formerly the Greater Wesley Chapel) Chamber of Commerce, will return to FHCI on Sunday, March 25, noon-4 p.m., or two weeks and two days after you received this issue in your mailbox.
As the restaurant coordinator for the event both years, I will say that we had a few (5 or 6) more restaurants secured with paperwork at the same time last year, but close to half of the 32 confirmed eateries and beverage providers we hdid have at our press time this year are newcomers to the event — and most of those that participated last year who don’t appear in our Taste preview section on pages 38-41 said they were going to return, we just hadn’t received their paperwork by Mar. 2. Since those pages were laid out for the issue, in fact, we have had two more providers — the Zephyrhills Brewing Co. and The Main Ingredient Catering Co. — send in their paperwork as I was writing the final page of our latest Wesley Chapel edition.
In short, I will be stunned if we don’t at least match last year’s 46 food and beverage providers and I won’t be surprised at all if the number ends up at 50 or more.
In fact, there are at least 40 additional restaurants that have expressed serious interest in being at the Taste, so keep visiting TasteofNewTampa.org every day to see what new culinary delights are expected to be added to an already impressive roster.
Please note that this year’s “People’s Choice” winners will have to keep selling tickets past 3 p.m., because the total weight of each food/beverage vendors’ tickets will…um…carry a lot of weight.
The New Tampa Players will return with new performances and guitar afficionado Shaun Hopper (right) will be the day’s entertainment headliner, known for his “fingerstyle” and percussive technique.
I give big kudos to FHCI owners Gordie Zimmermann and George Mitchell for being so happy to welcome the Taste back to the largest skating complex south of New York state, with an amazing floor covering one of the complex’s 17,000-sq.-ft., NHL-sized rinks. Gametime indoor temp? Right around 72 degrees (F.). Seriously.
I also congratulate New Tampa Rotary president Karen Frashier, her awesome team of “JCs” — James Carner and Jason Contino — who already have brought in more sponsors and sponsorship dollars for the event this year than last, logistics guru Matt Palmer, our beer & wine license expert (and Private Chef) Peter Gambacorta, entertainment chair Bob Thompson, volunteer coordinator Dr. Colin Beach, marketing whiz Craig Miller, the always-helpful Lesley Zajac and Debby Amon,and new Taste committee member Nikki Smith, who has made sure that any food that isn’t sold during the event this year will be donated to local food banks immediately following the Taste.
For more info about the 2018 Taste, including how to pre-buy tickets or volunteer, visit TasteofNewTampa.org. And, check out our Taste Preview Section on pages 38-41 in our latest issue and look for exclusive WCNT-tv Taste preview segments on Facebook, too.
For years, he was a squeaky-voiced kid who sang quietly in the church chorus, who ran the lights at his family’s Dreamhouse Theatre, a kid happy to work behind the scenes in the midst of his song-happy family of performers.
Then one night, at the age of 15, he called his family into the living room of their Seven Oaks home.
“Mom and Dad, I want you to hear something,” he told them.
Sensing something dramatic was about to happen, Darci, his mother, pulled out her phone and started recording.
Zach started singing. Frank Sinatra’s “The Way You Look Tonight.”
Everyone’s world changed that night.
“When I heard his voice like that, I started bawling, just crying,” Darci says.
His sister, who was in her room, heard her brother sing and started screaming, and came rushing into the living room.
“It was like, whaaaaaaat?,” says Bryan, his father.
Zach has always been afraid of what people would say if he sang for them. He told his parents he wasn’t sure he should share his voice.
“You need to share this with the world,” Darci tearfully told him.
And he has, from one “American Idol” audition to the next, from Wesley Chapel to Orlando to New York.
But, how about Hollywood? Well, no one is saying.
Zach D’Onofrio is good at keeping secrets.
Zach and Darci, before he entered the room to sing for the celebrity judges.
Once America’s hottest television show, “Idol” is back for the start of its comeback season this Sunday. March 11 , 8 p.m., on ABC-TV (WFTS-TV Channel 11 locally).
At the D’Onofrio home, friends and family will gather in that living room again, this time sharing Zach’s voice with the world. Everyone will see the audition for the first time, including Zach.
“I am kind of nervous about how I’ll look,” he says, sitting under a green shade at the Starbucks on S.R. 56 near the Shops at Wiregrass, surrounded by a caffeinated crowd that has no idea that, possibly, the next “American Idol” sits among them.
A junior at Wiregrass Ranch High, Zach was one of the hundreds to audition for “Idol” at Florida Hospital Center Ice back in August 2017. He was one of 25 to continue on to auditions in Orlando two weeks later. And, he also was one of 16 who flew to New York City in October for a chance to sing in front of this season’s “Idol” judges — pop/soul legend Lionel Richie, country star Luke Bryan and perky pop performer Katy Perry.
“I can post about it now (on Facebook) that I auditioned, and can tell people that I have gone to New York for the show,” Zach says. “A lot of kids know that, like my close friends, but they don’t know anything past that. Some kids sitting next to me in classes don’t know. People don’t know that I danced with Katy Perry.”
* * *
Wait…what?
His father just shakes his head and smiles. Yes, it really happened. It only took 10 seconds of “The Way You Look Tonight” to drop open the jaws of the judges, and another 10 seconds after that, Perry was dancing her way towards Zach. Richie stood and danced as well, and Bryan couldn’t help but join in.
Zach maintained his poise, and continued singing, even as he and Perry danced together.
“I just kept going,” he says. “We were dancing. I twirled her, I dipped her, things like that. Kept singing.”
“Dipped her,” says Zach’s dad, shaking his head and beaming proudly, with maybe a tinge of jealousy. “My man!”
If it wasn’t his voice that prompted Perry to dance with Zach, maybe it was his “socks appeal.” Socks are kind of Zach’s thing. He has a collection of 50 pairs or so of uniquely designed footwear. He brought pairs for each judge — American flag socks for show host Ryan Seacrest, skulls for Richie, roosters for Bryan.
For Perry, her socks depicted cats sitting on rainbows shooting lasers from their eyes, which sounds like a description of some of her videos. It was, Zach says, the perfect choice, and she wore them on her hands while she danced with him.
“It broke the ice,” Zach says. “It definitely made things easier.”
* * *
It is only natural that Zach would discover his talent for singing.
Bryan and Darci met at a concert at the Happy Gospel Center in Bradenton. Bryan was in a band with other family members called Southern Praise, and they were the headliners that day. He was the eligible bachelor of the group, and his sister joked to the crowd that, “if you can feed him, you can have him.”
Darci thought Bryan was a wonderful singer. When it was her turn to sing later that day, she was nervous thinking he might be watching. She wrote him a letter afterward, he wrote back, and one year later, they were married.
Zach and his older sister, Taylor, were born into music. Taylor embraced it, performing and singing at a young age, and Zach remembers singing “Oh, Holy Night” with his family at a Christmas church service when he was eight.
Bryan, Taylor, Zach and Darci before a Dreamhouse Theatre production.
But, for the most part, he hung back and mostly played youth soccer, even making the junior varsity team at Wiregrass Ranch High.
Four years ago, his parents, who both work full-time at North Tampa Behavioral Health on S.R. 56 in Wesley Chapel, started the Dreamhouse Theatre. They performed shows at various locales before settling at their current location in Lutz.
Zach was working the lights for a production of the “Little Shop of Horrors” in October 2016,when he was struck by how much fun all the performers seemed to be having. He decided afterward he would surprise his family with a Frank Sinatra song in the living room that night.
After that, Zach took his first role as Benjamin in “Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat.” Bryan played Joseph, and Darci and Taylor also were in the production.
“Oh my gosh, it was so exciting seeing him getting into it,” Bryan says. “He had a solo in the show, and just nailed it. I was so excited to see him shine.”
Zach took on roles as one of the three little pigs in “Shrek,” and played Lord Farquaad in “Shrek The Musical Jr.,” sitting on his knees the whole show. “That was probably my favorite,” he says. “I wondered why I waited so long to do this.”
At Wiregrass Ranch, he joined the chorus this school year, ready to refine the talent he had unleashed the year before. His teacher originally thought by the sound of his speaking voice that Zach would be singing tenor, until he showed off the rich, deep sound that surprises so many.
“He’s very talented,but it wasn’t something I heard from the very, very beginning,’’ says Wiregrass Ranch fifth-year choral director Solangi Santiago.“Every now and then, though, we could see that this kid had something special.”
Then, one day, a friend sent Zach a link to sign up to audition for “Idol” at Florida Hospital Center Ice, where he took his first steps in the hope of becoming the next big thing.
* * *
Given a choice of audition spots after getting through the Wesley Chapel and Orlando stages of the audition process, Zach selected New York, an obvious pick, considering his crooner style and affection for Sinatra, which he developed after buying old vinyl records of the legend on shopping excursions with his father.
It was Darci, however, who got to go on the Sunday-through-Wednesday trip with him, the first trip to New York for both of them, and they stared wide-eyed at everything around them for three days. They visited the Statue of Liberty and the 9-11 Memorial, Facetiming the best moments with Bryan and Taylor.
“I made him sing ‘New York New York’ in the middle of Times Square,” Darci says.
Outside the judges room at the Hotel Pennsylvania in midtown Manhattan, Darci was all nerves, while inside, her teenage son was taking a giant bite of the Big Apple — dancing with a pop princess while impressively, considering the circumstances, remembering all the words to his song.
“I didn’t faint,” Zach joked.
For three minutes, Darci strained to hear her son sing. The television cameras were trained on her, and she looked at them and asked: “Have you ever had a mom pass out before?”
What little she says she could hear of Zach, she liked.
“He sounded incredible, like never before,” Darci says.
Afterward, he told her he thought it was his best audition yet.
Did he have a golden ticket in his hand when he told her?
“You have to tune in March 11,” he says, smiling. “You may see me on the show.”
Joshua Gomes visiting the Premdan School in Mumbai, India, last summer.
In 2008 and 2009, when Joshua Gomes was just 6 and 7 years old, he accompanied his family on trips to India, where so much of what he experienced left a lasting impression on him.
Joshua is now a high school sophomore who lives in Hunter’s Green and attends a biomedical magnet program at Middleton High on N. 22nd St. in Tampa.
His goal is to one day become a cardiologist, but he’s not waiting until he graduates from medical school to help people.
He’s working now for the benefit of children in India, just like he remembers from his trips there when he was a little boy.
Back then, Joshua tagged along as his mom Arlene and sister Ayesha volunteered at a small school in Mumbai, called the Premdan School for Impoverished Children, which is run by Catholic nuns. It was started in the 1970s by a nun who wanted to help children living in the slums of Mumbai, who don’t have access to the educational opportunities reserved for the upper class.
Joshua says his mom and dad are both from India, and his family traveled there in 2008 and 2009, when his grandparents passed away. While they were there,Arlene offered to provide a meal to students at the school, which teaches kindergarten to children no one else will educate.
At right in the red shirt, Joshua’s first visit to the school in 2008. He is raising money to support students at the school via a GoFundMe page.
The experience was eye-opening, because of the poor conditions of the school, how eager the kids were to learn, and also because of the gratitude the children showed for the help they received. Arlene and Ayesha, who was about 12 at the time, continued to volunteer with the students throughout their time in India. They helped the children with their studies, provided food and handed out candy as treats. Joshua sometimes got to come along.
“The kids are cramped in tiny rooms, with small desks and small chalkboards,” he recalls. “There’s such poverty.”
After those trips, Arlene says she was putting off going back, although she needed to take care of business related to her parents’ deaths. But, Joshua didn’t forget about the kids in that little school.
“Even after all these years, I have always remembered how appreciative these children were for what we gave them, and I always wanted to go back one day,” Joshua explains.
Arlene says he asked to return to the school many times over the years. “He finally told me, ‘I don’t want to hear any excuses,’” Arlene says. So, they planned a trip last summer and Joshua was thrilled to be able to finally visit the kindergartners at the Premdan School again.
“I think education is so important for these children to make something of themselves in life so they can take a different path and stay off the streets,” he explains. “It is a foundation for these children.”
Before he left, Joshua promised the principal of the Premdan School, Sister Sylvia, that he would continue to promote the school and raise support for it back here in the U.S. After reaching out to friends, family and local businesses, he hopes the New Tampa community will support his efforts, as well.
Joshua is hoping to re-stock the school’s three classrooms with necessary supplies — such Joshua as books, colored pencils, maybe even playground equipment — before the new school year starts in June.
“He has a very caring personality,” saysArlene. “He’s always been interested in helping kids, in education and in making a difference and helping out.”
He’s set a goal to raise $750 through a GoFundMe page. While he had raised more than half of that at our press time, Joshua says, “I want to raise as much as I can because the school and the children really need it.”
To support Joshua Gomes’ efforts to help the Premdan School, visit GoFundMe.com/PremdanSchoolForTheImpoverished.
