Noon Rotary Inducts First WRH Interact Club; Plus, Page 1 Woes

Newly inducted members of the Wiregrass Ranch High Rotary Interact Club, president Charlotte Nymand, with WC Rotary sponsor Monica Carper.
Newly inducted member of the Wiregrass Ranch High Rotary Interact Club, president Charlotte Nymand, with WC Rotary sponsor Monica Carper.

By Gary Nager,

So, even though I’ve included something about the Rotary Club of Wesley Chapel (which meets Wednesdays at noon at Ciao! Italian Bistro in the Shops at Wiregrass mall) in every issue since I officially joined the club a few months ago, I couldn’t let the events of the past few weeks go unmentioned in this issue, as the WC Rotary officially inducted its first-ever Rotary Interact Club from Wiregrass Ranch High (WRH) on Nov. 7, also at Ciao!

“Interact” is the name given to Rotary-sponsored clubs for young people ages 12-18 who join together to tackle the issues in their community that they care most about, including hands-on service projects, making international connections and developing leadership skills.

The WC Rotary actually is sponsoring two Interact clubs, one at WRH and one at Land O’Lakes High. Each Interact Club has adult sponsors from its sponsoring Rotary Club, as well as a faculty advisor from the school affiliated with the Interact. For the WRH Interact Club, WC Rotary members Don Bryan and Monica Carper are the Interact Club’s adult sponsors and the WRH faculty advisor is Linda Sherwood.

According to Rotary.org, every Interact Club has to have at least two service projects each year, one that benefits the club members’ community and one that encourages international understanding. The WRH Interact Club members participated in their first such project the weekend before Halloween, when they volunteered at the annual Main St. Zephyrhills Haunted House. Main St. Zephyrhills raises money to help beautify the downtown Zephyrhills area and the Haunted House is that organization’s primary fund raiser each year.

And then, the WRH Interact Club was officially inducted by the Wesley Chapel Rotary in a dinner ceremony also held at Ciao!

Newly inducted member of the Wiregrass Ranch High Rotary Interact Club, Donald Bryan, receiving his Rotary pin from father and Club sponsor, Don Bryan.
Newly inducted member of the Wiregrass Ranch High Rotary Interact Club, Donald Bryan, receiving his Rotary pin from father and Club sponsor, Don Bryan.

To me, perhaps the most amazing thing about this new club of intelligent, career-oriented young people is that the president elected by the WRH Interact Club members is 16-year-old Rotary Youth Exchange student Charlotte Nymand of Denmark, who is spending this school year at WRH and staying a few months at several different homes of WC Rotary members.

During her multiple updates to the WC Rotary Club, Charlotte has shown herself to be confident, personable and fluent in six languages, including her perfect English. I don’t know about you, but I don’t remember students from other countries leading any of the clubs at my high school.

“I didn’t know if I could handle being president with my schedule,” Charlotte said. “But, I wanted to do it and (the other Interact Club members) elected me.”

Although Charlotte, who also makes appearances at other Florida Rotary clubs, will be leaving at the end of this school year, the WRH Interact Club will definitely be in good hands next year, too, as the following WRH Interact students also were inducted: president-elect Casey Chitty, secretary Kayla Lawson, treasurer Jessica DeMarco and executive Board members Donald Bryan, Ashleigh Hans and Preston Parilo.

Good luck to all of the Interact-ers.

Last Issue’s Page 1 Woes

I thought our last Wesley Chapel issue was one of our best ever until I got to work on Mon., Oct. 21 (after we went to press on Sat., Oct. 19), and found out that I had missed a tragically major news development that occurred just a few hours after we finished that issue.

I was really happy with my top-of-page-1 story and pictures from the first-ever “Festival of Flight” at the Tampa North Aero Park on Oct. 19 until I found out on Mon. (after the papers already had been printed) that, at about 3 p.m. on Sat., a wing-walking performer named Mark Curto had fallen off the wings of a World War II-era biplane to his death (see pg. 8). The part that stunned me was that I returned to the Festival Sat. night, to take pictures of the “Balloon Glow,” and no one mentioned the incident from earlier that day. I heard there were comments posted on Twitter the same day, but I had just finished the issue and I guess I wasn’t paying attention. Nowadays, the news never sleeps, but I was snoozing in this case. Sorry.

New McDonald’s Opens On BBD In Wesley Chapel

McD's Chamber Ribbong Cutting
McD’s Chamber Ribbong Cutting

By Gary Nager

Congratulations to the Frost family — father Jack (not a misprint) and sons Chris and John, for the opening of their fourth McDonald’s franchise in our immediate distribution areas.

The Frosts, who already have McDonald’s locations in Tampa Palms, in the New Tampa Center on BBD and on S.R. 54 in Wesley Chapel, opened at 1733 Bruce B. Downs (BBD) Blvd., next to PNC Bank, in front of Nutrition S’Mart (just south of S.R. 56), with a WCCC ribbon cutting on Oct. 31 (photo above).

At least 50 WCCC members were on hand at the sparkling new, upscale “Mickey D’s,” which doesn’t have a children’s play area but does have large menu boards warning you that those McNuggets you love are more than 1,000 calories.

The new open-24-hours restaurant also hosted its own even bigger Grand Opening celebration on Saturday, November 23, beginning at 11 a.m., with a visit from Ronald McDonald himself, face painting, a prize wheel, some great giveaways and a balloon artist.

 

Pasco Commissioners Reject The Only Bid For District Park Fields

District Park Fields Plan
District Park Fields Plan

By Matt Wiley

The grass is not getting any greener yet for the new fields slated for the Wesley Chapel District Park — at least, not yet —as the Pasco County Board of County Commissioners (BOCC) has voted to reject the only bid that came in for the project the first time it went out for bid.

During the October 22 meeting, the BOCC voted unanimously to reject the sole bid for the project from Lithia, FL -based QGS (Quality Grassing Services) Development, Inc., due to the company’s bid estimate of more than $2.2 million to construct two artificial turf fields at the District Park.

According to records, in addition to the cost of the fields, themselves, the bid also included lighting and parking in with the construction price. However, the project was only budgeted for $1.75 million, said Ed Caum of the Pasco Office of Tourism and Development.

“The (QGS) bid came in (almost half a million dollars) above that,” Caum told the commissioners.

District 5 commissioner Jack Mariano brought up the idea of installing grass fields at the park, due to their lower cost, but the idea met opposition from recently appointed Pasco County administrator Michele Baker.

“The specifications (for the fields) are being looked at again and can be tightened up,” Baker explained, adding that she thought that the county should go out to bid again to find a contractor to install turf fields. “We still believe that turf fields are the way to go for tourist opportunities.”

By tourist opportunities, Baker means marketing the fields for big sports tournaments. She said that turf was the logical solution because of the amount of wear and tear that type of field can take.

Baker explained that the county is interested in working out a deal with the Wesley Chapel Athletic Association (WCAA) to use the new turf fields for their regular sporting events, as well as the existing grass fields, any time a major lacrosse tournament is not in town.

“The (new) fields have got to be able to withstand the traffic and the heavy use,” Baker said.

“We’ve had problems before with over-use,” Caum said, adding that the two turf fields would collectively cost about $20,000, annually, to maintain. Although grass fields are considerably cheaper, it requires more work to maintain them, with constant reseeding, mowing and the abundant use of fertilizer, which the county is trying to eliminate in an effort to be “greener.”

Caum says that the marketability of the fields is key.

“Turf fields are always green,” he says. “Teams can’t use the fields when there isn’t any grass on them, which is what happens when they are reseeded. We want the fields to be usable year-round.”

The turf fields’ primary use would be for large lacrosse tournaments, such as the annual Dick’s Sporting Goods Tournament of Champions, which will be held at the park December 29-31.

Pasco purchasing director Scott Stromer says that the county has issued another solicitation for proposals, which are due by December 10.

 

Wesley Chapel Chamber Celebrates 15 Years & More

Lab 3 Marking Chamber Ribbon Cutting
Lab 3 Marking Chamber Ribbon Cutting

By Gary Nager

It’s hard for me to fathom that the Greater Wesley Chapel Chamber of Commerce (WCCC) is celebrating its 15th anniversary this month, and even harder to believe the number of ribbon cutting events and Chamber mixers I’ve been to just in the last 30 days alone — too many, in fact, to post a pic of most of them in this space — and yet, I only attended about 2/3 of the 15 available Chamber events since our last issue went to press.

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