Frapwell Is Pasco’s Volunteer Of The Year; WRH Senior Wins Regeneron Award! 

The Pasco County School District recently named Gretchen Frapwell, whose kids attend Veterans Elementary, the District’s Adult Volunteer of the Year. 
(Photos: Pasco School District) 

Gretchen Frapwell, a volunteer at Veterans Elementary, has been named the Adult Volunteer of the Year by the Pasco County School District. 

According to a Facebook post released by the School District, “Gretchen is the definition of a volunteer. She has been volunteering at Veterans Elementary School for five years and has logged in 220 volunteer hours so far. With two children attending Veterans, she serves on the SAC committee and is a PTA member which supports (the school’s) 91 staff members and 675 students. The PTA recently provided recess equipment for each grade level. She is there for every school event, including book fairs, school carnivals, science nights and holiday shops. Gretchen has shown her creativity by planting a pumpkin patch in the courtyard for the teachers and students to utilize. It was a great idea for learning purposes, but also brought beauty to the school. We appreciate everything she does for Veterans Elementary to improve overall morale for the teachers and students.” 

Sharon Zurita, of the Veterans Elementary PTA, says that, “Gretchen in amazing. She’s everywhere and does so many things at our school. She’s not only willing to do things we ask, but also suggests things we can do to help the school.” 

Among those things, Gretchen says, was that she “Organized closets, planted gardens, ran a carnival last year…Trunk or Treat event, where we handed out actual ice cream, book fairs…anything and everything. My kids are only going to be this young for so long, so I show them, by taking time off from my job, how important their school is. I guarantee that once you (volunteer) for an hour, you’ll want to do more. The kids are just awesome.” 

Other Volunteer winners this year are Ann Birch, Gulfside Elementary (Senior Volunteer) and Avery Hoskins, Anclote High & Gulfside Elementary (Youth Volunteer). 

Congratulations, Meghna! 
Wiregrass Ranch High senior Meghna Manjith was named a Regeneron STS Scholar for her project, winning $4,000. 

Our sincere congratulations go out to Wiregrass Ranch High (WRH) senior Meghna Manjith, who has been named a Scholar in the Regeneron Science Talent Search (STS) for 2024. She received a $2,000 award for herself and $2,000 for WRHS for her project, “Preventing Surgical Site Infections: Designing a Novel Post-Surgical Treatment Using Silver Nitrate & Ayurvedic Extracts in Combination with DNA Sequence Analysis.” Amazing! 

According to SocietyforScience.org, “Regeneron STS is the nation’s oldest and most prestigious science research competition for high school students. Started in 1942 as the Westinghouse STS, Regeneron STS recognizes and empowers our nation’s most promising young scientists who are developing ideas that could solve society’s most urgent challenges.” 

Only 300 Scholars were selected from more than 2,000 entrants nationwide, with only 40 finalists selected for an opportunity to win the $250,000 top award, which was scheduled to be announced on Mar. 12. 

What an accomplishment, Meghna!

Here’s Another Chance To See Wesley Chapel Theater Group’s ‘Broadway Through The Decades’ 

“We Go Together” from “Grease. (Photos by Charmaine George)

A few short months ago, we told you about the Wesley Chapel Theater Group (WCTG)’s “Broadway Through the Decades” performance at TrebleMakers Dueling Piano Bar & Restaurant in The Grove. 

That performance attracted about 150 people and nobody who attended (including yours truly) went home disappointed. 

Well, the weekend we went to press with this issue (Mar. 9-10), WCTG was at it again with another “Broadway Through the Decades: Contemporary Era” show, with the performances this time being held at the Zephyrhills Lions Club. 

The Lions Club provided dinner on Saturday night and dessert for the Sunday matinee, so WCTG secretary Samantha Grahn, who also did the publicity for the show, said that the theater group had to provide a hard number of attendees to the Lions Club a couple of days before the two performances. 

The WCTG cast from “Broadway Through the Decades: Contemporary Era.” 

“That limited us to only about 130 people total for the two shows,” Samantha says. “But, we had a lot of wonderful singers performing and the audiences both days really seemed to enjoy the performances.” 

The “Contemporary Era” performances includes many current and recent past Broadway favorites, including the entire company singing “Be Our Guest” from “Beauty and the Beast,” Danielle Warren’s “I Don’t Know How to Love Him” from “Jesus Christ Superstar,” Vette Berrian & the Company on “Day By Day” from “Godspell,” the entire company on “We Go Together” from “Grease” and favorites from “Rent,” “Pippin,” “Chicago,” “A Chorus Line,” “Sweeney Todd,” “42nd Street,” “Into the Woods,” “Les Miserables,” “The Phantom of the Opera” and many more. 

“A Little Priest” from “Sweeney Todd” performed by Krystian Kopycinski & Danielle Warren. 

“We’re now three years in with this group,” Grahn said afterwards. “And every performance we do is a fund raiser so we can afford to rent theaters for our future performances. We’re also writing some grants to try to get some more money to do more shows and we’d like to have them at the (Pasco School District’s) Instructional Performing Arts Center (IPAC) and other venues in Wesley Chapel.” She adds that the School District is looking into building a smaller “black box” theater for community performances. 

She adds that in the meantime, however, “We have a great relationship with the Zephyrhills Lions Club. They don’t charge us to rehearse there and the rent to do our shows there isn’t that expensive. We really owe them a big thank-you!” 

So, What’s Next? “Office Hours!” 

Grahn says that WCTG’s next show will be the comedy play “Office Hours,” written by Norm Foster, which also will be performed at the Zephyrhills Lions Club, this time without food service. 

There will be three performances of “Office Hours” — matinees on Saturday, April 20, and Sunday, April 21, and a Saturday (Apr. 21) evening performance. Also coming up April 4 at 7pm, the next performance of “Broadway Through the Decades” at TrebleMakers Dueling Piano Bar. 

“We also would love to have feedback from the Wesley Chapel community regarding what shows or types of shows they would want to see,” Grahn says. 

For tickets to see “Office Hours” or the April 4 encore of “Broadway Through The Decades” at TrebleMakers Dueling Piano Bar and more info about the Wesley Chapel Theater Group, visit WesleyChapelTheaterGroup.org or search “WesleyChapel TheaterGroup” on Facebook.  


Cheryl Abramson performing “On My Own” from “Les Miserables. 
Jonathan Hogsett performing “If I Can’t Love Her” from “Beauty & the Beast.”

“Be Our Guest” from “Beauty & the Beast.” 

Business Briefs — PAM Health Rehabilitation Hospital Coming To Wiregrass 

The site plan for the PAM Health Rehabilitation Hospital in Wiregrass Ranch. (All of these graphics were submitted to Pasco County)

Back in December, Wiregrass Ranch submitted plans for an a new east/west access road through parcel M3 (see map, bottom right), which was intended to help provide access to a proposed new PAM Health Rehabilitation Hospital and future outparcels. This road will connect with Bruce B Downs (BBD) Blvd., at the directional median opening that aligns with Stockton Dr. on the other side of BBD. 

The location map for the PAM Rehab Hospital.

In the future ultimate build-out, it’s intended that this road might be punched through the wetland and connected directly as an extension to the existing Bella Corsa Blvd in Estancia at Wiregrass. This extension will serve two functions — 

1) to give residents direct vehicular and pedestrian access to the large commercial developments and reduce traffic on the main roads, and 2) to give residents an alternative way to access BBD. 

The plans for the Parcel M3 access road and future commercial.

The proposed PAM Health Rehab Hospital will be located immediately north of the Amberlin Apartments site (on the other side of the natural wetland pond) and, even though the plans don’t currently show it, it will be required to be cross connected to Amberlin and the small commercial retail outparcel to the south (M3 Outparcel B site) with a small road, which will allow this rehab hospital (and all of the future Wiregrass commercial) to have access to the signal at Eagleston Blvd. upon ultimate buildout. 

Plans for the small retail outparcel to the south show this future cross connection which also would include sidewalk access. This retail development (Outparcel B) will be a small multi-tenant plaza whose future tenants are currently unknown but could be a mix of retail and a small restaurant. 

In addition, construction plans for the Ace Medical Plaza (M3 Outparcel C) were just submitted to the county in February. This site is located immediately in front of Amberlin and will be a two-story, 15,000 sq.-ft. building occupying Outparcel C of the Wiregrass development, at the southeast corner of BBD and Eagleston Blvd. 

Special Needs Kids & Young Adults Have Special Skills 

When I notified the winners of our annual “Big Game Squares” Contest to find out what restaurants they wanted gift cards to, it turned out that one of the winners was John Sousa, the On the Job Training (OJT) Exceptional Student Education (ESE) teacher at Cypress Creek High that we had featured in a previous issue. 

You may recall that one of John’s ESE kids needed a tray for her wheelchair and he enlisted the help of two of the school’s young engineering students to create one for their schoolmate’s chair. 

I therefore should not have been surprised when John asked me if, instead of just meeting him somewhere to give him his $75 Bonefish gift card, if I would instead give it to him in person in front of his class. He also asked if I would be willing to talk to his class (photo) of 14 young adults between the ages of 18-22, who participate in his class, which is funded by Florida’s “Every Student Succeeds Act” (ESSA, which was signed into law in 2015) to prepare these young people to join the workforce. 

“Basically, at age 22,” Sousa told me, “they’re no longer eligible for this program and there are very limited opportunities for them to be employed when they finish here.” 

He thought I could give his students — who are on the autism spectrum and/or have other physical, mental, emotional and speech disabilities — some pointers about writing resumes, about the advertising and publishing business and the workforce in general. But for me, it became more about the kids themselves and what their interests were. 

One young lady named Artia said she really wants to be a baker and would love to work at Publix, which offers work opportunities for a lot of differently-abled young adults. 

A shy young man named Tyler, whom Sousa said loves to look inside machines and is fascinated by trains, rail yards, airplanes and rockets, gave me his full attention when I described how the presses that print the Neighborhood News work. 

But, the young man who most intrigued me was Craig Moore, who said he really wants to be a songwriter but also has written a large number of poems. Craig said that what he does is listen to songs on the radio and then write his own lyrics to those songs. I explained that although I have no direct contact with the music business, that I would be happy to publish one of Craig’s excellent poems on this page, to see if anyone would be interested enough in his poetry to publish a book of his unique perspectives on a variety of topics. 

While I hoped that I was able to reach his students, the best part for me was that John sent me a text afterwards and said that not only did the kids really appreciate my hour with them, but that Craig told both his counselor at school and his parents how excited he was to have his poem published in the Neighborhood News.

John, who has been teaching ESE kids for 38 years — the first 20 in his native Illinois and the last 18 in the Pasco School District — said that he is looking for more local professionals who would be willing to talk to his class (photo). 

Cypress Creek principal Karen Hetzler-Nettles says, “Mr. Sousa is a special person who works hard to keep his students from falling through the cracks.” 

John, who also thanks his instructional assistant Keith Reiley for all the help he provides, also told me that one reason he cares so much for his students is because, “I was basically a special needs kid myself. I came to the U.S. from Portugal when I was eight and neither of my parents spoke English. I had to learn English quickly to help them buy their home and do their taxes and I did that by watching cartoons. I wish they had an English for Speakers of Other Languages (ESOL) back then. It would have really helped me.” 

If you would like to speak with his class, please email jsousa@pasco.k12.fl.us. 

Is The Announced Whole Foods Still Coming To Wesley Chapel? 

Unfortunately, the site plan shown above, for the long-vacant parcel of land at the intersection of Aronwood Blvd. and Bruce B. Downs Blvd (photo on next page, by Joel Provenzano), which was released online, was withdrawn by the applicant just a few days later. 

When plans for a development with a Whole Foods grocery store (at Bruce B Downs Blvd. and Aronwood Blvd., in front of Meadow Pointe) and Lifetime Fitness in Wesley Chapel were leaked online, residents flooded multiple Community Facebook groups with comments, where half were rejoicing about the possible arrival of Whole Foods finally coming and the other half were still really hoping for a Trader Joe’s instead. 

Many were just grateful it was not another car wash, a self-storage facility, or more apartments. Some had concerns about added traffic and others about how the County Commissioners could allow another undeveloped lot to be built on. Others remembered this land already had a long history, but few could remember exactly what that was. 

Unfortunately, the plans for a Wesley Chapel Whole Foods store are now up in the air again. Just a few days after the planned store was made public, the chain’s meeting with Pasco County to present its concept plan was canceled by the applicant. We’ll keep an eye out to see what happens next. 

However, many local residents drive by the long-vacant parcel everyday and notice a long-standing relic and consequence of the Great Recession, an abandoned and unkept parking lot (of a never completed Outback Steakhouse development that was reportedly going to include a Cheeseburger in Paradise restaurant and others) that’s been overgrown by tall weeds, grass, and trees, covered with trash and litter. 

Even as an overgrown parking lot, the parcel next to Pasco Fire Rescue Station No. 26 has still served the community in its own way. For a couple of years it was used as a temporary place where Christmas trees were sold and many new drivers have been out there practicing how to drive or learning how ride a motorcycle. 

A Little History 

Pasco County originally had a different idea for the use of the land. When Meadow Pointe 1 and Aronwood Blvd (back then called Meadow Pointe Blvd.) were first approved in the early 1990s, this land was zoned for commercial development, so there was a place to build the stores needed to support this large new community. Back then, BBD/C.R. 581 was called the “Road to Nowhere” and there was very little commercial development along the corridor. 

Since then, any number of large- and medium-sized grocery stores have popped up in Wesley Chapel and New Tampa, including Walmart, Sam’s Club, Target, Publix, Winn- Dixie, Nutrition Smart, Aldi, Sprouts and most recently, Lotte Plaza Market. However, the residents of Wesley Chapel have long desired for even more healthy and diverse options. For a while, Earth Fare helped satisfy this need, until all their locations in Tampa Bay abruptly closed a few years back. 

Two other Tampa Bay area grocery favorites — Trader Joe’s and Whole Foods have yet to make it into the growing Wesley Chapel area. Trader Joe’s, one of the highest rated specialty grocers in Florida, currently has stores in many populated areas around the state (even in Gainesville) but the closest one in Tampa is nearly 30 miles away. 

One reason customers like Whole Foods (which was acquired by Amazon in 2017) is because Amazon Prime members receive special deals and deep discounts at the store, along with other perks like easy and free Amazon pickups and returns in-store, where they’ll actually pack your return for you. 

The chain is now quickly expanding to more areas throughout the Tampa Bay area. At the end of February, St. Petersburg’s first Whole Foods opened to a line around the store, and last year, the “green” grocer entered into discussions for a future store in the Trinity area. 

Here is a brief history of the land in Meadow Pointe where the Whole Foods and Lifetime Fitness were proposed to be built: 

2008 — Construction plans were submitted to Pasco County and then approved, which showed an Outback Steakhouse, Cheeseburger in Paradise and other restaurants up front, with a large retail plaza in the back under a future phase. The parking lot for the Outback was constructed but then construction of the restaurant was halted due to the recession. 

2013 — The parcels were platted to officially become part of Meadow Pointe, Tract 2, long after Meadow Pointe began developing. 

2019 — A Concept Plan submitted to Pasco county that showed a 30,000-sq.-ft. grocery store, multiple fast food restaurants with drive through lanes, plus retail and apartments in the back under a future Phase 2. 

2021 — Rezoning plans were submitted to Pasco County that showed keeping the original Outback Steakhouse parcel in the front (from 2008) as-is, but changed the plans in the back to remove the retail plaza and replace it with apartments. 

2024 — Preapp meeting with Pasco County was requested that showed Whole Foods and Lifetime Fitness as standalone anchor tenants, replacing all previous plans. However, a few days later, that preapp meeting was canceled at the request of the applicant.