The original Wiregrass Wobble Turkey Trot 5K and 1-Mile Fun Run will again be held at the Tampa Premium Outlets tomorrow — Thanksgiving Day, Thursday, November 23, at 7:30 a.m. If you scan the code shown here before 7 p.m. tonight, you can still get in on the pre-race-day pricing.
Every 100th finisher of the 5K will win a FREE pair of shoes from Fleet Feet (located next to Sprouts on Hunter’s Village Dr.) and long-sleeve shirts are still available if you register now.
The Wiregrass Wobble, the New Tampa & Wesley Chapel area’s original pre-feast calorie burn, will again benefit the New Tampa Family YMCA in Tampa Palms.
Before you visit the new Goofy Turtle toy store inside the Tampa Premium Outlets (located next to Saks Off 5th), you should get rid of all of the preconceived notions you have about toy stores.
Goofy Turtle has prices similar to what you’ll find at Walmart or Target, and has a selection that rivals the old Toys “R” Us stores, but in a much smaller space and with a completely different focus.
At Goofy Turtle — which is owned by long-time friends Swathi Atchuta, Soujanya Nomula and Lakshmi Kanthi Korlepara and their spouses — although there are some more traditional toys, the emphasis is on fun toys for kids that also are educational. Really.
(Clockwise from top left): Co-owner Swathi Atchuta shows off a Poke-A-Dot book by Melissa & Doug toys. Your kids can try out some of their new toys (or just hang out) in Goofy Turtle’s Princess Castle play area. The Toddler Tree greets you as you enter the store. Crafty kids will love Aquabeads, which are an improvement over Perler Beads because you only have to add water, instead of ironing them, to create a variety of cool toys. (Photos by Charmaine George)
The three families that own Goofy Turtle all have children ages 7-11 and all have lamented over the lack of anything educational to be found in most toy stores. They also didn’t like the idea of finding items they thought they would like on Amazon and other online services that they ended up having to return because they either weren’t of the quality or the size they expected.
“One thing we can honestly say is that people who buy toys here don’t bring them back because they’re not satisfied,” Swathi says. “Our staff is trained to know about every toy in the store and people appreciate being able to see and touch what they buy before they buy it!”
So, since Goofy Turtle is a new franchise that currently only has three stores — the flagship store in Manchester, CT, plus Grapevine, TX, and the Lutz/Wesley Chapel location at the outlet mall — the partners liked the flexibility and the corporate entity’s focus on educational toys.
Unfortunately, the local partners originally leased their space in late 2019, or just before the pandemic hit, and weren’t able to open until shortly before Christmas of 2020.
“No one knew we were here,” says Swathi, “so we’re trying to get the word out now about everything we have to offer.”
A Truly Amazing Selection!
Although mine and Jannah’s kids are now adults, we are both grandparents to amazing toddlers and Goofy Turtle starts with the kind of fun, educational toys that stimulate young minds like Jax’s and Rosie’s. From musical Ditty Bird and Poke-A-Dot books by Melissa & Doug, dolls, musical toys, play mats, trucks and so much more by Melissa & Doug, Haba and Green Toys (whose toys are all made from recycled materials), to “crafty” toys for slightly older kids, like Aquabeads, Craft-Tastic, Land of Dough (which is a truly reusable Play-Doh improvement taken to the next level) and so many others, young minds never had so much fun learning — at least my kids never did!
(Clockwise from top left): You can’t beat the variety of crafting toys at Goofy Turtle. Swathi shows off a Wild Republic plush sea turtle. Whether you want your kids to select from a huge variety of STEAM or Coding toys, you can’t beat the selection at Goofy Turtle, which also has Steve Spangler Science brand Oobleck! slime/quicksand. (Photos by Charmaine George)Â
Yes, there is a smattering of Disney and Star Wars learning toys mixed in, but even the plush toys at Goofy Turtle are educational, especially the large variety of Wild Republic animals and dinosaurs.
Swathi also says that kids love hanging out in Goofy Turtle’s unique Princess Castle (see photo at the bottom of the previous page) so much that many parents have asked them where they got it so they can re-create it in their own homes.
If you have older kids and/or teenagers in your home who also would appreciate playing with something other than (or, at least, in addition to) video games, Goofy Turtle also has you covered with such high-tech wizardry that a lot of it went over my head…completely!
“Not only do we have an entire STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering & Math) toy section, we also have quite a few STEAM toys that include that Art element, too,” Swathi says, as she shows me one of several Power Blox by E-Blox sets that can even use your kids’ existing building bricks to create their own toys that light up and move. Think Legos on steroids.
There also is a large section of wall devoted to coding toys.
(Clockwise from top left): For kids who seemingly love to break things, try iPlay iLearn’s Take Apart toys. Kids can learn how to fly their drones in Goofy Turtle’s Drone Cone. Odyssey’s UpShot bow & arrow gaming system is one of many available smart toys. We couldn’t fit all of the hot, trending items for sale in Goofy Turtle, so pictured above are just a few of them.
Science toys include everything from the Thinkfun brand Code Master and Code On The Brink programming logic games (for ages 8-definitely-not-this-adult) to the MoBotz Ramblez voice-changing “sidekick” and the UpShot Bow & Arrow gaming system from Odyssey, Steve Spangler Science brand Oobleck! slime/quicksand and so many more that I’m really not doing the list of STEM and STEAM goodies justice.
And of course, since drone vehicles are the wave of the future, not only is there a huge selection of drones for sale, there’s even what I call the Drone Cone, where kids can learn how to control and fly their drones in an enclosed space.
Swathi and her partner Soujanya’s husband Eshwar Babu Vanaparthi, who helped take me on the tour of the store, also promise that as the Covid pandemic hopefully becomes more and more a thing of the past, that Goofy Turtle will offer much more opportunity for kids to try out toys in the store.
There’s even plans to convert one area of the store (near the Princess Castle) into an enclosed small party room where each child in attendance can play with a toy their parents have purchased and other fun play ideas coming soon.
In other words, even though Goofy Turtle also offers more traditional play blocks, pogo sticks and other less-educational toys, this is no ordinary toy store and you should definitely bring your kids of all ages to check it out!
Goofy Turtle (2416 Grand Cypress Dr.Âşw) is open Mon.-Thur., 11 a.m.-8 p.m., 10 a.m.-9 p.m. on Fri. & Sat. & 10 a.m.-7 p.m. on Sunday. For more information, call (813) 406-0518 or visit GoofyTurtle.com and please tell them the Wesley Chapel Neighborhood News sent you!
A piece of the ladder from FDNY Ladder Truck 18, pictured above being pulled from the rubble of the north tower of the World Trade Center, will be the centerpiece of a 9/11 Memorial being developed by the Rotary Club of Wesley Chapel and the Tampa Premium Outlets. (Photo courtesy of Chris Casella)
Every year when the Rotary Club of Wesley Chapel is handing out miniature American Flags on the anniversary of Sept. 11, 2001, current club president Chris Casella is moved to tears.
People who lost a brother, sister, loved one or a friend thank Casella and his fellow Rotarians, and share their heartbreaking stories.
“It never fails,” says Casella, who, due to an injury, was on limited duty as a sworn officer with the New York Police Department (NYPD) when the World Trade Center towers crumbled to the ground.
The latest project hatched by Casella and his fellow Board member Troy Stevenson and the Rotary Club is Pasco County’s first permanent 9/11 Memorial, which will be dedicated at the Tampa Premium Outlets on Saturday, September 7, at 8:46 a.m., the time the north tower was struck in 2001.
Stevenson is a 13-year first responder with the National Disaster Medical System and U.S. Dept. of Health & Human Services. Casella and Stevenson have received a lot of help from not only their fellow Board members, but especially from Wesley Chapel resident Stephen Spelman, a retired Fire Department of New York (FDNY) emergency medical technician who was at the foot of the north tower when it collapsed.
The dedication of the new memorial will follow a one-mile Memorial Run/Walk at TPO — which will begin at 7:30 a.m.. The run/walk is open to all ages and is $10 per person to participate. All net proceeds will go to fund local scholarships for graduating high school students in Pasco County who intend to pursue careers as first responders.
The centerpiece of the 9/11 Memorial will be a 2-foot piece of the ladder from FDNY Ladder Truck 18 (photo), which will be framed and hung on a 25-foot stretch of wall at TPO’s food court. The wall will have a vinyl wrap depicting images from that day, as well as the names of everyone who perished.
According to Casella, FDNY Ladder Truck 18 was destroyed by falling debris, but the firefighters on the truck were all spared.
“Everybody on that truck survived by jumping under the ladder,” Casella says.
The ladder segment belongs to Spelman, who received it for being a scheduled guest speaker at a ceremony on 9/11/17 at the Motts Military Museum in Ohio, which he was unable to attend, due to Hurricane Irma.
For the past two years, Spelman and Casella have discussed what to do with the piece of ladder. Ideas ranged from donating it to a library or local firehouse to building a memorial, which wasn’t financially feasible.
While organizing the Memorial Run/Walk with TPO, one of the mall’s executives mentioned that he had been approached by a guy looking for help with a possible memorial. Casella asked if the guy’s name happened to be Steve…and it was.
Once TPO agreed to host the 9/11 Memorial by donating the space, plans took off and eventually came to fruition.
Casella also has been active in organizing events to benefit first responders, such as having Rotary Club members serve breakfast at all of the Fire Rescue Stations in Wesley Chapel and the Pasco Sheriff’s District 2 office in Dade City each year on 9/11.
The 9/11 Memorial and run/walk, however, may be his proudest achievement. “It’s emotional for me, and I know it is for Steve as well,” Casella says, his voice cracking. “Memorializing it is a big deal for, I think, everybody. It’s something we’ll never forget.”
Casella says the response to the Memorial Run and 9/11 Memorial has already been “incredible.”
Spelman has been in contact with two women who lost their husbands on that terrible day who also will share their stories at the dedication. Surviving first responder John Berrang also recently emailed Casella to applaud the Rotary Club’s efforts and said he’d like to participate in the one-mile run, despite currently undergoing treatment for stage 3 cancer contracted at the World Trade Center site. It was an email that Casella says was both inspiring and difficult to read, but a reminder that Sept. 11 remains a terrible day with a lot of meaning to many people.
“Thanks again,” Berrang wrote to Casella, “for remembering the heroes we lost on 9/11.”
For more information or to sponsor the Walk/Run, visit WCRotary.com/911-Memorial-Mile, or email Casella at Cdcasella@me.com or Stevenson at Troynyc65@aol.com.
“We are now at 100-percent occupancy,” Tampa Premium Outlets (TPO) general manager Stacey Nance told me at the July 20 ribbon cutting event for the new Kate Spade store (photo) in TPO. “How many malls can say that?”
In addition to Kate Spade (see below), Nance says the remaining three slots at the outlet mall also are all now taken — True Religion Designer Jeans & Clothing, Salt Life and the Man Cave Store, which has been a hit at other Simon malls with billiards tables, Harley Davidson gear, Mr. Beer and more.
But, there’s no doubt that a lot of people — dozens were on hand during or shortly after the store’s ribbon cutting to check out the deals — are excited about the high-end handbags, wallets, clothing and accessories at Kate Spade, the store chain that the late designer Kate Brosnahan and her husband Andy Spade (the brother of actor/comedian David Spade) created as Kate Spade New York in 1993, combining her first name and his surname. The couple had sold all of their interest in the brand to Nieman Marcus by 2006, which then sold it to Liz Claiborne that same year.
Of course, Kate was found dead in her apartment on June 5 of this year, by her own hand, leaving a note for her daughter Frances.
“We signed this lease in December,” Nance, an admitted fan of the brand, said. “And we’re really excited that Kate Spade is open.”
Get Ready For The Hyatt Place!
“We know there’s not enough hotel rooms in Wesley Chapel right now,” says Karen Martin, the director of sales for the new 132-room Hyatt Place hotel on the north side of S.R. 56, next to Bahama Breeze, which had its “soft” opening on July 31. “But, it’s about to get a lot more fun out here.”
Martin says that although the six-story hotel just opened, “My phone’s been ringing off the hook for weeks, especially with people booking rooms for tournaments at the hockey rink (Florida Hospital Center Ice, located just east of I-75 on S.R. 56, while the Hyatt Place is just west of the interstate).
Although Martin says the new Hyatt Place doesn’t have full Hyatt resort amenities, it does have a Gallery restaurant and bar, a separate breakfast area, an outdoor swimming pool, nice fitness and business centers and meeting spaces with built-in audio/visual features.
The adjacent Sierra Conference Center has a really nice ballroom that Martin says can seat about 350 people with tables in a banquet setup and can be subdivided into three smaller ballrooms, which can each seat at least 250 people each in a theatre-style seating set-up. Martin says she also loves the conference center’s adjacent break-out and outdoor seating areas.
“But, to really get a feel for whether or not we should be hosting your event,” she says, “you should come out and take a tour. We’re all really excited to be open.”
She adds that the hotel hopes to host an upcoming “Final Friday” networking event for the North Tampa Bay Chamber of Commerce and is planning “a big Grand Opening event sometime in November.”
The Hyatt Place Wesley Chapel is located at 26000 Sierra Center Blvd. For more information, call (813) 803-5600 or visit HyattPlace.com.
We’ll have updates about the Hilton Garden Inn & Residence Inn hotels coming soon to S.R. 56 in our next issue.
Here & There, This & That…
• I can’t even tell you how excited my taste buds are now that Taste of New Tampa & Wesley Chapel favorite Nothing Bundt Cakes has opened across from Noble Crust in the Shops at Wiregrass mall. Whether you love red velvet or dark chocolate cake with extra creamy white icing, or the decadent white chocolate raspberry bundt cake, Nothing Bundt Cakes will have you salivating for more.
Check out a free sample when you visit and please tell the staff that you read all about them in the New Tampa Neighborhood News!
• Meanwhile, congratulations go out to my friends Travis and Fiona Monday, the owners of Fit 4 Life Personal Training & Physical Therapy Studio (17419 Bridge Hill Ct. in Tampa Palms), who celebrated the studio’s 22nd year in business with another great Martini Party, catered by the nearby Stonewood Grill & Tavern, on July 20.
Robert Hutton and Barbra Spesak are the first two through the doors at the newest Chick-fil-A on S.R. 56.
If you are having trouble wrapping your head around why anyone would camp out in a parking lot on back-to-back nights for a free chicken sandwich, order of waffle fries and a medium drink weekly, Robert Hutto understands.
If you think it’s all about the chicken (although he says it’s really not), Hutto gets it.
And if you think Hutto is a little crazy for sleeping in an asphalt parking space off S.R. 56 and then hanging out there all day in 93-degree heat — for a few sandwiches — he doesn’t blame you.
Crazy?
“They are not too far from the truth,’’ Hutto says.
Hutto and Barbra Spesak, Brandon residents, were the first two people in line at the Grand Opening of the newest Chick-fil-A in our area, this one in front of the Tampa Premium Outlets off S.R. 56. Hutto arrived June 28 at 8 p.m.; he saved a spot under his 10’x10’ tent for Spesak, who arrived after work at 11:30 p.m.
Decked out in complimentary red and white Chick-fil-A t-shirts and paper hats, they were the first two in line and the first two through the door on Thursday morning, June 30. As cameras from two local television stations rolled — as well as our own WCNT-tv cameras recording footage for our second episode (see pages 44-45 and 51), Hutto and Spesak met the local Chick-fil-A franchise owner Britt Young, shook his hand and received their chicken “debit” card — stocked with 52 No. 1 combos — before being ushered out another door and back into the parking lot.
For those doing the math at home, it was 34 hours of waiting for about 30 seconds of picking up the reward.
“But, it’s about the experience,’’ Hutto said.
The experience is called the First 100, a Chick-fil-A tradition started 12 years ago to celebrate the grand openings of their wildly popular fast food chicken restaurants. Chick-fil-A has given away more than $27-million in free food since beginning the First 100.
For Hutto, it was the third time he had been one of the first 100. He also waited overnight at the Chick-fil-A openings on Waters Ave. in Citrus Park, as well as for the Bruce B. Downs Blvd. location in New Tampa.
“I’ve made some friends at these things,’’ Hutto said. “They have a live deejay playing music. They feed you breakfast, lunch and dinner, so that’s not bad. It’s a good time.”
Both Hutto and Spesak admit that they probably won’t eat every No. 1 meal on their cards themselves.
“It really isn’t about the sandwich,’’ Hutto said. “When we are out and we see someone who needs a sandwich, like a homeless person or something like that, we’ll go hit the drive-thru and use the card for them. We’ll also use it for friends and family.”
Hutto, who transports RVs all over the country for a living, says he also sometimes uses his free meals as a pit stop when he’s on the road.
He said of all the First 100 events he has attended, this one might have been the toughest. It was blistering hot, the heat made even worse by his setup on black asphalt, and it rained three times. During one heavy downpour the last day, more than a dozen revelers seeking free chicken abandoned their posts, and the first 12 alternates were selected.
Nothing, however, was deterring Spesak, a certified nursing assistant. It was her first overnighter at Chick-fil-A.
“It was fun,’’ she said. “Everybody thought I was crazy, the people at work thought I was crazy, for taking days off to go camp out at a Chick-fil-A.”
And, she may have caught the fever. Asked if they had plans to do this again, Spesak said she is already scouting out the next opening.
“I hear they might be opening one soon on Dale Mabry,’’ she said, smiling.
“I’ve made some friends at these things,’’ Hutto said. “They have a live deejay playing music. They feed you breakfast, lunch and dinner, so that’s not bad. It’s a good time.”