New Satellite Rotary Club Inducts 12 Charter Members!

The first Rotary Club chartered for New Tampa or Wesley Chapel — the Rotary Club of New Tampa (RCNT), which has met on Friday mornings at Tampa Palms Golf & Country Club for 25 years, now has a satellite club.

On April 7, twelve Charter (11 new and one returning) members of the Rotary Satellite Club of New Tampa After Hours were introduced by Rotary District 6890 Governor Mark Skolnick and After Hours chair Bob Thompson and inducted by RCNT president Walter Oles at Florida Ave. Brewing Co. on S.R. 56.

Although the club is a Satellite Club of the RCNT, Thompson, After Hours Sergeant-at-Arms Cam Caudle and membership chair Jason Contino say that the new club will meet in person only once each month (at least for now) on the first Wednesday of each month at locations throughout New Tampa and Wesley Chapel. “We’re also planning to have a Zoom meeting on the third Wednesday of each month,” Thompson said, “and begin working on service projects right away.”

The new satellite club’s first service project was a recent painting event at the Friends of the Joshua House Foundation, Inc. (FJHF), painting and prepping the residences of the abused and neglected children who live there for an upcoming Grand Re-Opening event.

The painting party was part of the After Hours Club’s promise to its Apr. 7 guest speaker, DeDe Grundel — the executive director of the FJHF, pictured above — when Thompson announced that the Joshua House will be the first charity of focus for the new Satellite club.

Contino says, “The Satellite club appeals to those who found Rotary attractive but couldn’t or didn’t want to meet at 7 a.m.”

The Rotary Satellite Club of New Tampa After Hours’ next meeting — which is open to prospective members and guests — will be held on Wednesday, May 5, at 7 p.m., at Double Branch Artisanal Ales in The Grove at Wesley Chapel. — GN

Ramma-Lamma-Lamma! Singalong With ‘Grease’ On Mar. 13!

Gary gets ready to sing “Beauty School Dropout.” (Photo by Charmaine George)

When the musical “Grease” hit Broadway back in 1972, my best friend’s Doug’s dad, an investment banker, purchased 10% of the show and basically has been getting paid every time any of the songs from the smash hit show (and yes, even the 1979 movie with the same name, starring John Travolta and Olivia Newton-John) are performed.

The good news, for a certain young wannabe performer, was that Doug’s family took me to see that show at least six, seven or ten times before the summer camp I attended in upstate New York put on “Grease” as our summer production in 1974. 

And, even though I didn’t get to star as Danny Zuko — the role created on Broadway by Barry Bostwick (later, the silver-haired mayor on the Michael J. Fox TV sitcom “Spin City) and reprised by Travolta in the film — despite being the only kid in camp who had memorized every word of every song, I did get to play both Teen Angel (played by Frankie Avalon in the movie) and Johnny Casino, with two solo songs (“Beauty School Dropout” and “Born to Hand Jive”).

Therefore, when I heard that the Rotary Club of Wesley Chapel (the club Jannah and I belong to, which meets for lunch at noon every Wednesday at Omari’s Grille in the Lexington Oaks Golf Club) was going to put on a free, socially distanced “Grease is the Word” Singalong event (on Saturday, March 13, 4:30 p.m.-8:30 p.m., at Land O’Lakes Heritage Park, 5401 Land O’Lakes Blvd.) — starring deputies from the Pasco County Sheriff’s Office against firefighters from the Pasco Fire Rescue department — I knew I had to get involved.

To kick off that involvement, I re-created my role as the Teen Angel (in full costume; photo) at a recent Wesley Chapel Rotary meeting, which was enough to get me an invitation to sing the song again at the “Grease” singalong” event.

I’m obviously pretty excited about the opportunity to be on hand as a part of my childhood is revisited once again, and I hope that at least some of you reading this also will attend — even though my Rotary Club is located in Wesley Chapel and the deputies and firefighters competing (for three prizes; I’m pretty sure I’m not eligible) are from Pasco County, because not only is “Grease” the word — it’s also a heckuva lot of fun!

And, speaking of fun, here are some fun trivia questions about one of my all-time favorite musicals:

1) How many Tony Awards did “Grease” win in 1972?

2) Who played Rizzo in the original Broadway cast and what TV show did she begin starring in 1972?

3) What hit song sung by John Travolta and Olivia Newton-John in the “Grease” movie was not in the original Broadway show?

Answers:

1) Zero. The original show, which held the record for longest-running Broadway hit (later broken by “A Chorus Line,” was nominated for seven Tony Awards, including Best Musical, but did not take home any hardware.

2) Adrienne Barbeau, who played Maude’s daughter Carol on “Maude.”

3) “You’re the One That I Want.”

Rotary Club Of WC Planning Biggest Event

honduras-eric-copyThe Rotary Club of Wesley Chapel Noon, which meets Wednesdays for lunch at Quail Hollow Country Club (QHCC) off Old Pasco Rd, is doing more than just planning its next humanitarian trip to Troyes, Honduras, in April 2017.

The club is selling plaques to local businesses and individuals interested in supporting our area’s largest Rotary Club — which has sent 10-20 of its nearly 100 club members each year for the past five years to install latrines and water purification systems (in conjunction with the nonprofit organization called Pure Water for the World) in one of the most impoverished areas of one of Central America’s poorest countries,.

WC Rotary Club member Troy Stevenson of Wesley Chapel Nissan (and Acme Outdoor Movies) came up with the idea because he had been part of a similar fund raiser as a member of the WC Lions Club. Club member Trevor Campbell of Cash 4 Gold off S.R. 54 and Eiland Blvd. in eastern Wesley Chapel, picked up the idea and ran with it.

Campbell, who will be making his third trip to Honduras with the club, says Stevenson’s contacts have helped the WC Rotary get 300 plaques for a reasonable price, which Campbell, Stevenson and other club members have been selling {with all checks made payable to the “Rotary Club of Wesley Chapel Noon Foundation,” the club’s 501(c)(3) nonprofit fund} to area businesses by knocking on doors.

honduras-plaque-1-copy“For a hundred dollars, you not only get a plaque, you get to show the public that you support the biggest international humanitarian effort our club makes every year,” Campbell says. “I took three weeks off from work to knock on as many business doors as possible and people really do seem to know about our club’s efforts and want to support us. It’s been pretty gratifying.”

At our press time, Campbell and his fellow WC Rotarians have more than 100 commitments from local businesses at $100 per plaque. “And, we’ve already got $8,000 of that in-house,” Campbell says proudly. “I’m still hoping to sell all 300 plaques this year. The more we raise, the more we can do for these amazingly appreciative people.”

The WC Rotary has helped install hundreds of these life-saving water purification systems in the homes in Honduras and will continue to send — and help — as many people as possible each year, with the continued support of the community.

Current club president, Dr. Pablo Rivera of Core Spine & Rehabilitation, who has missed only one of the five previous trips, says, “No one has ever come back from our Honduras trips unchanged. Help us this year and maybe you’ll end up wanting to join us next year.”

For more information, visit WCRotary.org or attend a meeting any Wed. at noon at QHCC as my guest. First-time attendees are always free.