Congratulations go out to Avalon Park Wesley Chapel developer Beat Kahli (right in photo below, with Dist. 2 Pasco County Commissioner Seth Weightman) and his entire team from the Avalon Park Group on the Grand Opening and naming of Downtown Avalon Park’s community park — “Avalon Park Common.”
According to the Oct. edition of the Avalon Park Sun newsletter, community member Desiree Gutierrez is credited as the winner of the “Name the Park Contest.” For Gutierrez, the name says what the park is meant to be. She explained that a “commons” has traditionally been “a place where neighbors gather, children play and the community comes together. I think it reflects Avalon Park Wesley Chapel’s vision of creating a welcoming place for families, friends and future generations to make memories.”
Kahli, the founder & CEO of Avalon Park Group, added, “At Avalon Park Group, we believe every great town needs meaningful ‘third places’ — spaces beyond home and work where people can gather and connect. Avalon Park Common will be exactly that for Avalon Park Wesley Chapel.”
He added, “It is especially meaningful that the name came from a member of our community. This park belongs to the community, and we look forward to filling it with farmers markets (see ad below), festivals, music and celebrations for many years to come.”
Commissioner Weightman said, “I am always proud to be part of exciting new additions to our communities here in Pasco County.” — GN; all photos by Charmaine George
Our annual 𝐑𝐞𝐚𝐝𝐞𝐫 𝐃𝐢𝐧𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐒𝐮𝐫𝐯𝐞𝐲 & 𝐂𝐨𝐧𝐭𝐞𝐬𝐭 ends 𝐧𝐞𝐱𝐭 𝐅𝐫𝐢𝐝𝐚𝐲, 𝐍𝐨𝐯𝐞𝐦𝐛𝐞𝐫 𝟔, but we’re giving you more chances to win up to $200 in FREE dining at the restaurant of your choice anywhere in the Tampa Bay area! There also are prizes of $100, $75, $50 & $25! Today, 𝐘𝐨𝐮𝐫 𝐅𝐚𝐯𝐨𝐫𝐢𝐭𝐞 𝐉𝐚𝐩𝐚𝐧𝐞𝐬𝐞/𝐒𝐮𝐬𝐡𝐢 𝐑𝐞𝐬𝐭𝐚𝐮𝐫𝐚𝐧𝐭 & 𝐘𝐨𝐮𝐫 𝐅𝐚𝐯𝐨𝐫𝐢𝐭𝐞 𝐁𝐚𝐤𝐞𝐫𝐲 located in New Tampa or Wesley Chapel. 𝐍𝐎 𝐏𝐔𝐑𝐂𝐇𝐀𝐒𝐄 𝐍𝐄𝐂𝐄𝐒𝐒𝐀𝐑𝐘! 𝐀𝐥𝐥 𝐲𝐨𝐮 𝐡𝐚𝐯𝐞 𝐭𝐨 𝐝𝐨 𝐭𝐨 𝐞𝐧𝐭𝐞𝐫 & 𝐰𝐢𝐧 𝐢𝐬 𝐜𝐨𝐫𝐫𝐞𝐜𝐭𝐥𝐲 𝐟𝐢𝐥𝐥 𝐨𝐮𝐭 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐞𝐧𝐭𝐫𝐲 𝐟𝐨𝐫𝐦 HERE.
Vendor demonstrations (below right) and special deals (above left) are both part of Customer Appreciation Days at Nutrition Smart on BBD.
Even with Whole Foods now under construction less than a half-mile further south on Bruce B. Downs (BBD) Blvd., I will continue to shop at Nutrition Smart — which opened in Wesley Chapel in 2008. All of the produce is organic and not really higher priced than Publix — and definitely less expensive than Whole Foods.
The store has great selections of healthy eggs (below left) and grass-fed beef (right), as well as bulk products like healthy pumpkin seeds & popcorn, plus coffee & much more. i heart bees raw honey (below right), Sami’s Bakery breads (below left) & Ice Cream for Bears (Below) are just some of the healthier products at Nutrition Smart.
There’s bulk coffee and healthy nuts, seeds, popcorn and more. There’s raw milk, grass-fed beef, top-quality eggs and a huge variety of the most popular brands of healthy dark chocolate (and thankfully for me, quality milk chocolate, too, even though I know it has none of the health benefits of dark chocolate). There’s even Ice Cream for Bears, which is made only with honey (get it?) instead of sugar.
Sami’s Bakery breads
Throughout the store, one of only two in Florida (the other is in Pembroke Pines near Hollywood), there are items marked as “Flocal,” as in “Florida Local,” meaning the products are grown or made right here in the Sunshine State.
Among those Flocal options is Sami’s Bakery bread, which is made in Temple Terrace and has gluten-free, high-fiber and low-carb breads that actually are delicious. There’s also i heart bees raw, unfiltered Florida honey that is grown across the state and is packaged in BPA-free pouches.
And, store manager Fausto Soriano and health & beauty care and wellness manager Joe Geier, who took photographer Charmaine George and me on another tour of the store, are proud that Nutrition Smart has “the largest selection of vitamins and supplements in this area,” according to Joe. Both are well aware of every health trend, including the fact that so many people are taking GLP-1 medications to help with weight loss these days that they are turning to supplements like creatine to help build back muscle mass that also is lost when GLP-1s like Wegovy (semaglutide) and Zepbound (tirzepatide) are taken, especially long-term.
Also extremely popular right now are collagen peptides (like the Florida-based Healthy Living Proteins brand shown right), which help improve skin hydration, reduce wrinkles, provide joint and bone density support and also can help with muscle mass when combined with resistance training.
“And, best of all,” Fausto says, “the people we have on the floor are all extremely knowledgeable about what we sell. If there’s something you need, they’ll ask the right questions to help you choose the best option for you.”
Divine Leaf Vegan is A Hit!
The popular Divine Leaf Vegan café inside Nutrition Smart make a The Beyond Patty Melt that is truly…divine.
“We used to run the juice bar in the back of the store ourselves,” Fausto says. “But, not only was our tenant the Divine Leaf Vegan Café the first vegan restaurant in Wesley Chapel, serving delicious sandwiches (like the Beyond Patty Melt on the next page), it also makes amazing healthy smoothies.” This month’s special is the Harvest Moon Smoothie, which is made with apples, mangoes, cashews, dates, blue agave nectar, house-made caramel sauce, cinnamon and Garden of Life turmeric booster. It literally tastes like a caramel apple.
Customer Appreciation Day-Oct. 24!
One of the best days of the year to give Nutrition Smart a try is its annual Customer Appreciation Day, which takes place this year on Saturday, October 24. It’s a full day of fun, education and savings that includes FREE goodie bags, starting at 8 a.m. — while supplies last — and FREE samples and vendor demos throughout the entire day. There also are free raffles — and you don’t have to be present to win. Raffle prize winners will be contacted via text the following Monday. There also will be a live DJ on-site from 11 a.m.-3 p.m. and much more.
“A lot of people do find us on Customer Appreciation Days,” Fausto says. “Once we get them in the store, they usually always come back.”
And, although I first found Nutrition Smart before it opened as Wesley Chapel’s first — and for now, still the only — “green” grocery store, I also keep coming back for its excellent produce, Jannah’s favorite spearmint tea and Sami’s Bakery bread, plus two of my favorite healthy cookies (I’m partial right now to the chewy Alyssa’s Healthy Oatmeal Bites) and more.
For more info about Nutrition Smart (1821 BBD), call (813) 341-4444 or visit NutritionSmart.com. See the ad below for a coupon that gives you 20% off purchases of $75 or more & 10% off purchases of less than $75.
The Dad Skool group enjoyed a “Dads Not Working Happy Hour” at Seminole Hard Rock Hotel & Casino on Sept. 15.
Jason Centeno saw a problem impacting local fathers. Under the relentless grind of work and parenting, he saw many fathers who let their mental and physical health slip, while others simply lost the time to build meaningful friendships. As a retired firefighter originally from Philadelphia and a father of six himself, Jason knew these challenges all too well.
“Fathers work, fathers provide,” he said at the Dad Skool’s Sept. 4 get-together at the Grand Oak Clubhouse in Jason’s Live Oak Preserve neighborhood off Bruce B. Downs Blvd. “They put themselves last. They have a lot of energy, but they don’t have a lot of renewal of that energy. Dads will pull up to their houses after work and sit in their cars and wait before they go in to collect themselves because they know they’re about to go into their second jobs.”
Jason started wondering, “What is there for dads? How do they get their batteries recharged?”
This inspired him a few years ago to begin reaching out to his neighboring dads in Live Oak Preserve, pitching the idea of doing a big street party in his cul-de-sac the day before Father’s Day. He put up water slides and had some party games so dads could blow off steam. This started a tradition in the neighborhood that eventually materialized into a larger Father’s Day event this year — with more than 300 people attending.
After the success of those events, Jason realized that dads needed more than just an annual party — they needed a dedicated community that would allow them to connect and share stories, swap advice and access real resources.
Jason says that this idea had already been smoldering in his mind, but the real spark came when his friend Michael Paskas called him up one day to attend a preview screening of the movie “Nobody 2.” Michael had already been running similar gatherings with dads in other parts of the Tampa Bay area and wanted to bounce ideas off of Jason about how they could formalize a “Dad Community” that they both believed the area desperately needed.
Jason Centeno, the New Tampa resident who founded the “Dad Skool” group, explains Hugh the crash dummy’s role to the group at the Sept. 4 Dads Next Door Club meeting at Live Oak Preserve.
This first “bro date,” as Jason describes it, served as the catalyst to launch “Dad Skool” in April 2026. The organization that started from just a handful of guys in the Live Oak neighborhood now boasts a membership of nearly 120 dads from New Tampa and Wesley Chapel, and has hosted a number of events, including their “Dad Next Door Club” monthly meetups, a movie night for dads and their families and a Labor Day BBQ.
“I’m gonna treat this like the (2003) movie ‘Old School’ (starring Will Ferrell, Luke Wilson and Vince Vaughn),” Jason says. “That movie was kinda the inspiration for all this. I’m just going to try to do all that for dads. I look at it like, what would it look like if we had a ‘fraternity’ of fatherhood?”
And, like any college fraternity, Jason says that while from the outside, it may look like it’s just a bunch of guys having fun and partying, he says Dad Skool is really much more than that.
“I say it’s a party in the front, business in the back,” Jason says, adding that he views it as a critical way for dads to meet up with other dads who are dealing with the same stressors — work, finances, marriage and kids — to give them all an outlet to vent and get advice from other dads.
This reporter had the opportunity to attend the Sept. 4 “Dad Next Door Club” event at Live Oak Preserve.
Guys started to trickle in with their beverage of choice while Jason was stacking up pizzas on a counter. Comedian Dave Chappelle was on the TV and a poker table was set up. In a corner, sitting in a chair, was a crash test dummy named Hugh with the words “You Here” on his chest.
“[Hugh] is the stand-in for every person who doesn’t show up to one of our events,” Jason explained. “If you missed it, it could have been you. So, Hugh is sitting there, taking these drinks in your honor.”
As the room filled up, Jason got everyone around to ask the roughly 15 dads in attendance about their “wins” this week. One dad announced a new business he had just started. Another joked that he won $300 in Las Vegas. Another announced he was being deployed the next day, prompting a round of applause and support for his safe return home.
Jason then gave the floor to Miguel DeLeon, the founder of the Dads Figure It Out Foundation (which we reported about last issue), to talk about his Game Day Experience program that seeks to help families facing financial or other life challenges experience a sporting event.
Jason even congratulated me about being a new dad myself to a five-month-old. The “party in the front, business in the back” moniker was on full display as these dads joked around, highlighted their successes and gave each other actual advice regarding issues many of them are facing.
“This is very simple,” said Jay Colley, Jason’s neighbor and one of the earliest supporters of Dad Skool. “It’s a community for dads, in a world where there aren’t enough (supportive) communities for us.”
Jason believes that his mission to connect dads can be expanded and replicated throughout Tampa Bay. He says he’s not interested in getting any credit — he just wants to put the focus on his fellow dads and help them connect and build relationships in their respective parenting journeys.
“I’m just putting together people with other people,” he says. “Similar to P.T. Barnum, I’m just the ringmaster and these guys are the show.” He adds that he hopes as this program grows, it can expand to reach more dads and provide additional resources, such as financial support to help uplift men who are homeless.
If you’re a dad interested in learning more about Dad Skool, visit DadSkool.org or find the group on Instagram or Facebook @dadsoftampaskool.
The cast of the Wesley Chapel Theater Group’s “The Odd Couple (Female Version) includes (seated, l.-r.) Jacob Guardado, Samantha Grahn, Allison Duque, Mackenzie Elliott, Jay Davis (standing, l.-r.) Janine Quarles Adkins, Leanne Green & Kelsey Mars.(Photos provided by Wesley Chapel Theater Group)
The familiar story of mismatched roommates gets a fresh perspective the weekend of October 17-18 when the Wesley Chapel Theater Group presents Neil Simon’s “The Odd Couple” (Female Version), directed by David Sparano.
The female version of Simon’s comedy follows Florence Unger and Olive Madison, two women whose personalities and approaches to everyday life could hardly be more different. When Florence, recently separated from her husband, moves in with Olive, the contrast between the meticulous Florence and the carefree Olive quickly leads to a series of hilarious situations.
The directors of “The Odd Couple” include assistant director Aline Huttie (left), director David Sparano (right) & stage manager Angelica Chirino (not pictured).
As their friendship is tested by the realities of sharing a home, audiences are treated to Simon’s trademark combination of sharp dialogue, memorable characters, and everyday situations that can turn into anything but ordinary.
The local production features Samantha Grahn as Olive Madison and Allison Duque as Florence Unger, with Janine Quarles Adkins as Mickey, Kelsey Mars as Sylvie, Mackenzie Elliott as Renee, and Leanne Green as Vera. Rounding out the cast are Jacob Guardado as Manolo Costazuela and Jay Davis as Manolo’s brother Jesus Costazuela.
While “The Odd Couple” (Female Version) is filled with laughs, the story also explores the importance of friendship and the unexpected ways people can become part of one another’s lives. The result is a comedy that remains relatable decades after Simon first introduced audiences to the world of “The Odd Couple.”
The Wesley Chapel Theater Group, a local nonprofit community theater troupe, continues its mission of bringing live performing arts to the community through productions featuring local performers and volunteers. Each production is made possible through the combined efforts of actors, directors, backstage crews and community supporters.
The production of “The Odd Couple” (Female Version) will take the stage at the Zephyrhills Lions Club (5827 Dean Dairy Rd., Zephyrhills 33541). Performances are scheduled for Saturday, October 17, at 7 p.m., and Sunday, October 18, at 2 p.m.
Tickets cost $20 for general admission and $15 for students and seniors and are available online at WesleyChapelTheaterGroup.org. For additional information, scan the QR code in the ad below or visit WesleyChapelTheaterGroup.org.
