Chamber Hosts Another Successful Fall Festival; Plus, Rotary Happenings!

An editorial by Gary Nager

My heartfelt congratulations go out to the Greater Wesley Chapel Chamber of Commerce (WCCC), which hosted perhaps its most successful Wesley Chapel Fall Festival ever at The Grove shopping center on Oct. 12-13.

The weather was perfect, although a little warm, but the weekend of live music, food (including the annual “Wing Battle”), arts & crafts, hayrides, adoptable pets and signature events like the Rotary Club of Wesley Chapel (Noon)’s annual Little Miss & Mr. Pumpkin Patch Pageant again attracted thousands of people to the parking lot of the popular shopping center.

On this page and page 3, instead of my usual editorial, I decided to showcase the Chamber’s latest fall extravaganza, as well as recap the WC Rotary Club’s incredible picnic with the kids from the Everyday Blessings children’s shelter.

The Fall Festival’s annual Wing Battle, sponsored by Cornerstone Air Conditioning & Heating, saw lots of winners, including Beef O’Brady’s on S.R. 54, which won the “People’s Choice” award, and to the new Ker’s WingHouse on S.R. 54 and Lexington Oaks Golf Glub, which was awarded two of the titles by the day’s judges.

The crafters on hand offered everything from homemade steel drums to pumpkin-themed clay pots to a wide variety of artisan-created jewelry and clothing.

Among the more popular events of the weekend was the Wesley Chapel Lion’s Club’s Parade of Pets and all of the musical acts, including the Cypress Creek Dixieland Band, Bryan Edwards, the Time Bandits, Nunes at Night and the Stone Grey Band.

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The Fall Festival was sponsored by The Grove, Wesley Chapel Nissan, Pasco County and Digitaltap.tv, with children’s bounce houses and activities sponsored by Victorious Life Church. Great job!

Rotarians Count ‘Everyday Blessings’ At Picnic

As I’ve told you in previous issues, I am so proud to be a member of the Rotary Club of Wesley Chapel, which meets Wednesdays at noon at Ciao! Italian Bistro in the Shops at Wiregrass mall. The club’s meetings just over the past few weeks have included Florida House Speaker Will Weatherford, Pasco County Sheriff Chris Nocco, World Martial Arts Games competitor Ethan Dillon (see page 27) and Dwight N. Wood, Sr., the author of a book entitled Survival of the Heart, Tragedy of the Mind, which is an incredibly inspirational story that is in part about the trauma of a tragic accident the author was involved in at the junction of I-75 and I-275.

But, as inspirational as Wood’s book is, I was even more taken by the Rotary’s recent picnic at Hillsborough River State Park with the kids from the Everyday Blessings Children’s Shelter, whose missions is to, “provide high quality care for sibling groups through a live-in caregiver model.” Everyday Blessings, Inc., is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit receiving partial funding from community-based care agencies of southwest Florida and partial funding from private donors.

The afternoon picnic featured great food, lots of spray-on hair coloring (for people and dogs, lol), three-legged races and other events, but the best part for yours truly and several of the other Rotarians in attendance I spoke with was that you literally couldn’t tell which kids were from Everyday Blessings and which ones were the children of the Rotarians. An amazing day!

For more info or to make a donation, visit EverydayBlessingsInc.org.