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. 

Tell Me Why You Want To ‘Leap Into The Next 30 Years!’ 

As I told you last issue, my 30th anniversary of owning and being the editor of the Neighborhood News is February 25 and we will be celebrating with a big, by-invitation-only party on “Leap Day” — Thursday, February 29 — at the New Tampa Performing Arts Center. 

The event will be called “Leaping Into Gary’s Next 30 Years Of Neighborhood News” and will feature “A Taste of the Neighborhood News,” which means that several of my Favorite Restaurants from our last issue will be providing samples that will show everyone in attendance why I actually do love all of them. 

Another really cool thing about the upcoming anniversary party is that the 325-350 theater seats (right photo) used for performances of “Grease,” “Shrek the Musical” and “Dreamgirls” will magically disappear and be replaced with cabaret-style table seating for about 150 people (left photo), which means that seating for this event will be extremely limited, considering how many people in New Tampa and Wesley Chapel I’ve gotten to know and have come to consider to be friends over the past 30 years. And, that’s not to mention so many of my amazing advertisers who have kept — and continue to keep — me in business where too many other publications, including daily newspapers, have gone the way of the dinosaur. 

And, if you attended my 25th anniversary party at Bayscape Bistro at the Heritage Isles Golf Club five years ago, you know that there will be entertainment again for this year’s bash — and yes, that entertainment will again be karaoke, this time provided by mine and Jannah’s friend Tabitha Pollard of Luna Tunes, LLC. Tabitha not only has most, if not all of the songs that Jannah and I like to sing, she also is a bit of a Broadway buff who will surely be providing lots of opportunity for those who want to belt out a hit from anything from “Grease” to “Sweeney Todd.” 

The only thing that will cost anyone any money at the party is the alcohol, which will be a cash bar because of the PAC’s rules. The good news, however, is that we get to select the premium adult beverages that will be offered for sale. 

In other words, it’s going to be a blast! 

Here’s How You Can Attend! 

Despite the fact that there will be plenty of invited guests, one of the things that isn’t lost on me is that I wouldn’t still be doing what I do 30 years later if not for all of you — our loyal readers! 

To that end, if you’re interested in getting your name on the guest list for the “Leaping Into Gary’s Next 30 Years” party, send me an email to ads@ntneighborhoodnews.com with 50 words or less (and yes, that is a hard limit) as to why you want to or should be included, by no later than Friday, February 23. Please include your name, the community you live in (Tampa Palms, Pebble Creek, etc.) and your daytime phone number from your valid email address. I will read all of the emails and choose as many people as I have seats left for, whether that’s two or 22, by no later than Monday, February 26. Please put “I Want To Leap!” in the subject line! 

And here’s the thing — you Gary haters out there are invited to send me an email, too. If I get any good hater emails, I will likely invite those folks to attend because I prefer to meet my haters in person than to allow them to remain anonymous. See (some of) you on the 29th! 

Celebrating My 30 Years Of Neighborhood News! 

On February 25, I will be celebrating my 30th anniversary of owning the Neighborhood News. I bought (with a former partner) an 11-month old monthly publication that had little more than stories about advertisers written by those advertisers themselves. 

I published the 12th monthly issue in April 1994 (photo), which we considered to be the first issue of the publication’s second year in business. That’s why this issue is Issue 1 of Volume 32 of the Neighborhood News, rather than Issue 1 of Volume 31. 

When we purchased the publication in February of 1994, the total direct-mail circulation of the Neighborhood News was 6,500 homes, apartments and businesses — all of which (unbeknownst to me) were located in New Tampa’s 33647 zip code and which included the existing subdivisions in Pebble Creek, Tampa Palms, Hunter’s Green and the first two communities (closest to Bruce B. Downs Blvd., or BBD) of Cross Creek. 

Although my predecessor claimed to also be mailing to Wesley Chapel, it turned out that all he was doing was dropping about 500 copies each month at the Meadow Pointe I clubhouse. So, as soon as I took over, I added about 2,500 total addresses in Meadow Pointe I, Williamsburg and, a few issues later, an additional 500-700 or so single-family homes and condominium units located in the community around Saddlebrook Resort, where I was living with my family at the time. We began mailing new issues every two weeks, to all of those households, before the end of 1994 and didn’t split into separate New Tampa and Wesley Chapel issues until 2005, when Wesley Chapel’s three zip codes had zoomed past 10,000 residential units, as New Tampa was closing in on 20,000 units of its own. 

Although I always knew how many units were approved for Wesley Chapel, I had no idea that it would catch up to, and pass, New Tampa in terms of the number of units and people living in them by sometime in 2021. 

From those first 10,000 total homes (and less than 30,000 total people) in May 1994, our all-direct-mail circulation is now 34,000+ homes, apartments and businesses (and more than 90,000 total people) in Wesley Chapel’s three zip codes (33543, 33544 & 33545) and 29,000 residences and businesses (and about 80,000 people), almost all of which is located in New Tampa’s 33647 zip code — although we do also directly mail to the 750 residential units in the Lake Forest subdivision off BBD (south of Tampa Palms), which has a Lutz zip code (33559). 

That means our total circulation has grown, with our communities, by at least 600% in 30 years — or by nearly 1,000% if you use the 6,500 units I inherited from my predecessor as our starting point. 

But for me, this is much more than just a numbers game. I have given everything I could to the communities of New Tampa and Wesley Chapel, and although many outstanding people have come and gone from our ranks, I am proud to say that I have been the publication’s one constant these last 30 years. 

The growth of electronic media throughout the world — did you foresee most people getting their news and information from their mobile phones 30 years ago? — has meant that we have had to change the ways we cover the news of New Tampa and Wesley Chapel, but nothing has stopped or even deterred me from continuing to provide more news and information about the communities we serve than any other local medium, print, broadcast and/or electronic. 

Although I would be lying if I said that being the big media “fish” in a relatively tiny little pond was a lifelong dream of mine — my degree from the University of Florida was in Broadcast News and I always hoped to own and program a radio and/or TV station and write and produce TV programming — serving as the editor of the Neighborhood News the last 30 years has been one of the absolute joys of my life. And, while I don’t think anyone else would hire me at my age, despite my decades of experience, if I didn’t still love what I do I would definitely try to find some other way to make a living. Although I love singing and acting, anyone who has heard me sing karaoke or seen my stand-up comedy act at the Tampa Improv or Sidesplitters will tell you that I never had a future in those fields. 

Another thing people who know me will tell you about me is that I love to throw a party — my 25th anniversary event five years ago at Bayscape Bistro on Cross Creek Blvd. was a blast, as was the “Grease” cast party I threw last year at Joe Whiskey’s on S.R. 54 in Wesley Chapel — and I am planning a doozy for my 30th anniversary celebration. 

And yes, there will be an opportunity for at least some of you wonderful readers to attend and share in that celebration. After all, although I owe my livelihood to the thousands of advertisers who have supported my business these last 30 years, I owe a large portion of my happiness to all of you who have been reading and responding to my work since I first took the reins at this publication. Stay tuned for more info! 

Is Bally Sports The Worst Of All Streaming Services? 

Although I also loved Major League Baseball, NFL football and NCAA basketball growing up on Lawn Guyland, New Yawk, I definitely was a major NHL hockey fan. 

Since my dad never really enjoyed watching sports on TV, I consumed as many games as I could get on our three network TV stations (ABC, CBS & NBC) and the two local stations that carried NY Yankees and Mets home games (Channels 9 & 11), and had to pick my own favorite teams in each sport since he could care less about any of them. 

My favorite NHL team when I was a kid was the Montreal Canadiens, because they were not only the biggest team, but somehow, also the best skating team. Oh, and they also just happened to win 10 Stanley Cups between the mid-1960s and late 1970s, when I became a hockey fan. Even when the New York Islanders, who played their home games only 15-20 minutes from where I grew up, began their run of four Cups in a row between 1980-83, my love for “Les Habitants” never wavered. 

That is, until I moved to Wesley Chapel in June 1993, when the Tampa Bay Lightning had just completed the team’s inaugural season in the league. I promised myself that I would no longer cheer for the Canadiens and would bring my young sons to as many Lightning games as I could — which wasn’t difficult during those early lean years, because great tickets at the Bolts’ original arena at the Florida State Fairgrounds went for like $10 apiece (or so). 

Three years later, I even took Jared and Jake to both of the Lightning’s first-ever home playoff games at what was then called the Thunderdome (now Tropicana Field) in St. Petersburg, including the franchise’s first-ever home playoff win — a thrilling 5-4 overtime squeaker over the Philadelphia Flyers in 1996. The Bolts lost that series 4 games to 2, but both of my sons (including then-4-year-old Jake) got a legitimate taste of what playoff hockey is all about. In fact, after Tampa Bay won its first of now-three Stanley Cups in 2004, both of my boys gave up other sports to play high school hockey for Wharton High. 

Unfortunately, the apartment complex where Jannah and I currently live only has Frontier cable and we stopped being able to watch Lightning games at home in the middle of the season a couple of years ago — during the Bolts’ run towards the team’s third Cup in 2021— when Bally Sports (which was then called Bally Sports Sun, or maybe Fox Sports Sun) and Frontier couldn’t come to an agreement over carriage fees. Jannah — who is now a full-on Lightning fan, too — and I had to go to local bars with Spectrum cable or satellite to watch the Bolts’ run to the 2021 Cup, as we could only afford tickets to one of those playoff games. 

It wasn’t until sometime in 2022, when someone told us that we could now stream Bally on our Roku device, that we were able to resume watching our favorite team at home again — and we also became partial season ticket holders the same year. And, even though the Bolts didn’t get to hoist Lord Stanley’s goblet a third year in a row, we loved both attending games and watching the others as often as possible in the comfort of our own living room. 

And, while I have never really jumped on or fully embraced the Tampa Bay Rays bandwagon after hockey ends each year, since Jannah isn’t a baseball fan at all, we kept paying for Bally during last year’s hockey offseason, mainly because I didn’t want to go through the hassle of having to sign up again when the 2023-24 hockey season began a few weeks ago. 

All was right with our hockey world as the new season began, but sometime in late October, it appeared that we somehow got locked out of our log-in for Bally. It felt like 2021 all over again. My ever-resourceful wife got on her “Tampa Bay Lightning Fans” Facebook page and saw other people complaining about having the same problem. Had Bally decided to lock out those who were streaming — and paying $29.99 a month for the privilege — its “service?” If so, what could we do about it? 

As it turned out, no, that wasn’t the case. Although we never got any notice about it — or Heaven help us, will we see any kind of refund for the three or four Bolts games we missed because of it — Bally simply had some kind of outage on its own end. That outage lasted more than a week and here’s the kicker — none of the barrage of emails I had received from Bally as our streaming subscriber ever mentioned the outage or even offered a customer service phone number for me to call to complain. 

Instead, I had to find a customer service phone number for Bally on Google and when I called, during the first period of the Bolts’ 6-4 win over the Ottawa Senators on Nov. 4, I agreed to the option of being called back, instead of continuing to wait on hold, after the first period ended. Big mistake! Instead of calling me back before the game ended, I finally got a call back from Bally (at 12:35 a.m.) and the polite customer service rep asked me if I was watching Bally at the time. 

“The game ended three hours ago,” I said, “I’ve actually been asleep, so no, I’m not watching my TV now.” 

Well, I decided to go to my TV so the rep could get me hooked back up, so I guess “All’s well that ends well.” I asked the rep if there was a survey I could take after the call ended, “because I’ve got a doozy for you.” When she said I would have to hang up and call back to do so, I decided that telling this story in these pages might be a better way for me to express my…let’s say dissatisfaction…with Bally. 

New Challenges Don’t Usually Faze Me, But This One Took A Toll 

Over the past nearly 30 years, the Neighborhood News has faced more challenges than I even care to remember — including new competition, the growth of online communities, paper shortages, Covid-19 and many more. 

When you’ve been doing what I have done for as long as I have, there also are likely to be at least a few health-related issues, but I’m appreciative I’ve been fortunate enough to not have to deal with any long-term complications. 

A few weeks before the Covid pandemic shut everything down, I had the second of two cataract surgeries at the St. Luke’s Eye Center in Tarpon Springs. On my follow-up appointment with my optometrist, David Scamard , O.D., of Excellence in Eye Care, a few months later, Dr. Dave asked me if I was having any “floaters” in either of my surgically-repaired eyes and I emphatically and happily told him “No.” 

That response continued to be true until less than four weeks before this issue was supposed to go to press, when I finally understood what he meant by “floaters.” I visited Dr. Dave at the Costco south of S.R. 56, where he took digital photos of my eyes and said he saw the likely source of my floaters. He told me to come back a few days later for a full eye exam. 

It was at that appointment, at about 11 a.m., with my vision in my left eye suddenly blurry, that he determined that I had a detached retina. He immediately set up an appointment for 2-1/2 hours later with retinal specialist Alfred White, M.D., of Retina Vitreous Associates of Florida, which has an office on the north side of S.R. 56 in Wesley Chapel. 

Dr. White, who combines a great bedside manner with being super matter-of-factly about what I was about to go through, confirmed the detached retina and scheduled me for emergency reattachment surgery the next day. I had two questions about this — could I hold off the surgery for a week or two so Jannah and I could go to North Carolina to visit her daughter and her family and see a concert we had been planning to attend for more than six months, and of course, how would I get the Oct 3 Wesley Chapel issue done if I had to keep my head in a face-down position in a massage chair donut hole for 45 minutes of every hour after surgery for at least the next 5-7 days? 

Dr. White told me that if I didn’t have the surgery, my detached retina could get worse and make the recovery from the surgery more difficult. And, whether I had it or not, the pressure in that eye could get so bad that the plane we planned to fly in to NC could have had to have made an emergency landing on my behalf. 

So of course, I had the surgery the next day. And, while keeping my head down for that many hours and that many days — and having to sleep face-down until my follow-up appointment a week later — was anything but easy, Jannah did everything for me to make sure I got through these difficulties by driving and doing most everything else for me during my recovery. 

For the few minutes each hour that I wasn’t looking down, I was at my computer working to finish that Oct 3 issue, which went to press just three days after our usual deadline — and arrived in mailboxes just two days after its planned Oct. 3 cover date. I was so thankful it wasn’t any more delayed than that. 

I also am sorry that we don’t have quite as many news stories in this New Tampa issue as we usually do. I was so far behind with the Wesley Chapel issue that I couldn’t get as many stories researched and done for this Oct. 17 issue. 

Even so, I appreciate the efforts of not only Drs. White and Scamard, but also of our editorial research specialist Joel Provenzano, who helped me get as much info as possible for the story on pages 12-14 of this issue about the two different approaches to determining the boundaries of Wesley Chapel; to our amazing primary graphic designer Valerie Wegeman, for getting the maps for that story and all of our ads done; and especially, to Jannah for doing pretty much everything else that I normally do to complete an issue and for making sure both editions are chock full of ads so I had less space to fill than usual. 

I also am equally appreciative for all of you — our amazing readers — who continue to give me a reason to do what I have done for nearly three decades. 

As to what caused my retinal detachment, Dr. White said that people who have been extremely nearsighted for most of their lives — as I was until I had my cataract surgeries in 2020 — are more prone to this problem because being nearsighted constantly stretches your retinas as you age. Other possible causes are actually having had cataract surgeries (but that would normally have happened sooner), being diabetic (which I’m not), injuries to the eye (which I haven’t had) and, as often as not, bad luck. 

So, while getting a detached retina may just have been bad luck, I am going to recover my eyesight, which actually makes me feel pretty lucky.