Blue Heron Senior Living’s New Wing Is Just Part Of The Community’s Appeal

Chris Tomko of Senior Helpers (left) explains how the Virtual Dementia Tour works to Christopher Dobard at Blue Heron Senior Living in Wesley Chapel. 

Although my mom isn’t suffering from any of the 180 different forms of dementia, I was happy to attend the “Virtual Dementia Tour” put on by Senior Helpers at Blue Heron Senior Living in Wesley Chapel on July 16. 

I honestly believe that whether you know or think someone you love has Alzheimer’s disease or any other type of dementia, the Virtual Dementia Tour will give you a new perspective on the diverse variety of problems most of us will deal with as we age, regardless of our whether or not our mental faculties ever diminish (more on this event below). 

I also know that Blue Heron, owned and managed by TLC Management, is the only assisted living and memory care facility in New Tampa or Wesley Chapel that also offers skilled nursing for rehab or long-term care. Hosting events like the Virtual Dementia Tour just adds to the appeal of this 159,000-sq.-ft. residence where the opportunity to “age in place” has kept it near capacity since it first opened in 2021. 

The new dining area in the newly expanded skilled nursing wing at Blue Heron. 

“Our current occupancy is 100% in both long-term care and memory care and 90% in rehab,” says Blue Heron’s executive director Meagan Kopstad, “but we do have a couple of rooms available right now on the assisted living side.” 

Blue Heron’s skilled nursing area added a new wing last year, “with 37 additional patient beds, bringing us up to 141 total,” says community relations director Lilly Gonzalez. “Those new beds are divided between the first and second floor — 18 on the first floor (for rehab) and 19 on the second floor (for long-term care).” 

She adds, “We couldn’t hold our planned Grand Opening of the new wing last October because of the hurricanes that hit the area. In other words, your readers have never seen the new wing in print before.” 

The new wing also includes a new dining area (photo above), a new patient lounge and a new nurses’ station. 

With the expansion, Blue Heron Wesley Chapel now has a total of 248 residential units — 95 assisted living, 22 private memory care and the 141 skilled nursing units. 

About The Virtual Dementia Tour 
Neighborhood News editor Gary Nager admits that he failed the VDT miserably & got a better understanding of the lives of our elderly.

Blue Heron brought in Senior Helpers, the nation’s leading provider of in-home senior care, with more than 400 locations across the U.S., including a local location serving New Tampa and Wesley Chapel, to host the Virtual Dementia Tour (VDT). Senior Helpers is certified to bring the VDT to Blue Heron and other assisted living facilities and, in just a few minutes, the tour definitely gave me new insight into the lives of the elderly. 

VDT participants put provided inserts in their shoes with plastic pegs that push into your feet to simulate painful neuropathies. 

You also put on glasses that blur your vision, similar to how cataracts affect your eyes. You also have to put on thick, heavy work gloves that significantly reduce your manual dexterity. And finally, you put on headphones that make it a lot more difficult to hear. Anyone you know have any of these issues? 

You are then led into a room and given two tasks to do that would be simple for the average person to complete, but you are only given the instructions once, all while wearing the headphones. Pretty much everyone, including yours truly, fails the VDT miserably. But in doing so, you can clearly see (once you take off the glasses, that is) how difficult the most mundane tasks can become. 

This five-minute test is pretty much guaranteed to help you become more empathetic to your elderly loved ones — I know it’s helped me better understand some of the things my mom is dealing with — and the VDT is just one of many free programs Blue Heron brings in for both its residents and members of the community. 

One of the spacious private bathrooms in the newly expanded skilled nursing wing at Blue Heron. 

The next such free event is being held on Wednesday, August 27, 10:30 a.m.- noon, and is called “Charting Your Course: Protecting Yourself, Your Loved Ones & Your Legacy.” Board-Certified Elder Law attorney Ed Spinks, a partner with Florida Elder Law & Legacy Planning, will lead the discussion so you can learn how to legally protect yourself, your family and your assets. “This is an essential first step in the estate-planning process and will help you take control of your future with confidence.” 

Blue Heron also offers amazing amenities for all of its residents, like beautiful, enclosed courtyards and gardens, lounges, family rooms & dining rooms with delicious meals, a pub, a theater, a salon/spa, computers, internet and cable TV, a private dining room for family gatherings, an art studio and a wonderful life enrichment center with fun programs. 

There’s always something to do for Blue Heron residents, where your loved ones can find compassion, companionship and care. 

For more information about Blue Heron Senior Living (5071 Eagleston Blvd., Wesley Chapel), call (813) 454-0513, or visit SeniorLivingAtBlueHeron.com. 

GEICO Wesley Chapel — Where You Can ‘Shop Local’ For Insurance!

Jaime Bryant (in white shirt) & his friendly staff at the GEICO local office on BBD Blvd. in Wesley Chapel can help you with many types of insurance without having to call a 1-800 number. (Photos by Charmaine George)

If you’re like most people, you probably know GEICO Insurance from the company’s countless television commercials offering low rates with a 1-800 phone number. 

What you might not know is that you can get the same GEICO products — and much more personalized service — by calling the local GEICO office, where real people who live and work in our community answer the phone. You can work with an agent who knows your name, understands local insurance issues and wants to help you navigate the complicated world of insurance to find what’s best for you. 

The Wesley Chapel local office of GEICO is owned by Jaime Bryant and is located in the Northwoods shopping center, which is anchored by Super Target just north of County Line Rd., on Bruce B. Downs (BBD) Blvd.

While GEICO is mostly known for its auto insurance — insuring close to 30 million vehicles — the company also offers insurance for homes, condos, rental apartments, boats/watercrafts, jewelry, floods, mobile homes/RVs, motorcycles and umbrella policies, which provide extended liability coverage for people with a lot of assets. 

With hurricane season fast approaching, Jaime says it’s important to be prepared. 

“Last year was a busy year, and this season is expected to be slightly above average,” he says. 

Jaime also says that one thing many people are unaware of is that if their home is damaged by a hurricane or tropical storm, the policy has different terms than if the damage is caused by wind unrelated to a named storm. 

“People don’t realize it’s a higher deductible,” he explains. “Ideally before storm season, but definitely before you contact anyone to repair the damage at your home, be sure you know what your out-of-pocket cost will be.” 

After a storm, you may have companies offering to replace your roof. To know whether or not you should move forward with the replacement, you need to know how much of that cost will be your responsibility. 

“For example,” Jaime says, “a roofer will file a claim, the insured will get paid, but insurance only covers half because of the deductible. It’s really important to know what your deductible is and make sure you can pay that deductible before moving forward with those repairs.” 

And, he says, now is the time to shop for new homeowner’s insurance. If you’re thinking of changing policies, or if your policy renews during hurricane season, sometimes a storm comes through and companies pause writing new policies for 30 to 45 days. In that case, you can’t get immediate coverage. “You need to be proactive with homeowner’s insurance during hurricane season,” Jaime says. “Time is not your friend.” 

He adds that right now is a good time to shop for new auto insurance, too. 

“Rates have stabilized and a lot of people are finding lower prices now,” Jaime says. 

Jaime’s office has 10 agents, all of whom are experienced and trained to help you get the right insurance for you and your needs. Each person’s situation is unique, so a local agent can be sure to ask you the right questions to get the right policies in place. 

Jaime has lived in the Tampa Bay area for more than 20 years and is a University of South Florida graduate with a Master of Business Administration (MBA) degree. He worked for GEICO in Lakeland for 16 years, prior to opening the Wesley Chapel office. 

He says calling his office, instead of the 1-800 number, ensures that you’re talking with someone who understands Florida and the New Tampa/Wesley Chapel area specifically. 

“We want to make sure you don’t have too much or too little insurance for your situation,” he says. “Nothing’s ever one-size-fits-all.” 

Andrea Shank is a long-time GEICO customer who was comfortable using GEICO’s online tools and never considered working with a local agent. When her brother recently passed away, her mom was dealing with a probate process and needed to insure vehicles that weren’t registered in her name yet. Andrea’s mom had previously worked with someone in the Wesley Chapel office, so they reached out and connected with George, one of Jaime’s local agents. 

Andrea says George spent most of that entire day serving them — answering questions, getting verification on complicated questions, researching answers, calling back, sending forms for them to fill out, etc. – but she says that what stood out was the compassionate way George treated her mom during the difficult loss of her son, which was completely unexpected. 

“He was so patient with her,” Andrea says. “He was funny, and made my mom laugh, which was pretty wonderful in that circumstance.” 

Andrea adds that he also took the time to share a personal recommendation for a company that could help her mom modify the vehicles to adjust the pedals, even emailing her contact information after business hours. 

“He went so far above and beyond, it was amazing to me,” Andrea says. “The level of customer service he provided is a startling contrast from what we’ve come to expect.” 

In fact, she says, she’s already referred her nephew, sister and best friend to the office. 

“No doubt,” she says, “I will not go back to an online situation. We all get used to what we buy and don’t think about making changes, even when our circumstances change. That’s something we should look at. I will definitely continue to call George, because it was such a nice experience.” 

The GEICO-Wesley Chapel local office is located at 1227 Bruce B. Downs Blvd. It is open Mon.-Fri., 9 a.m.-6:30 p.m., and 10 a.m.-5 p.m. on Sat. For more information, visit GEICO.com/Wesley-Chapel-Bryant or call (813) 953-4200.

The Search For Wesley Chapel’s Favorite Fried Chicken Is Over! Well, Sort Of!

So, which is our readers’ favorite fried chick- lace in the Wesley Chapel area?

The answer I have for you is certainly not definitive, although the nine judges yours truly picked from amongst nearly 50 of our readers in both of our distribution areas definitely were in agreement on their favorites…well, mostly anyway.

Picking those nine judges was not an easy task. Of the 50 people who volunteered, I originally planned to only have five judges. But then, I thought, what would happen if more than one of the people we picked ended up not being able to be there for all three rounds? I decided that having at least a couple more couldn’t hurt — it would even allow us to employ Olympic-style scoring, if necessary (it wasn’t), where we could throw out the high and the low and just use the other seven scores for each restaurant.

At any rate, the nine people selected, from left to right in the top left photo, were: Bill Johnston (aka Colonel Sanders himself!) and his wife Suzanne Reno of Quail Hollow, Aaron “Dion” Rocha of New River Township, Cindy Cooley of Tampa Palms, Dion’s wife Suzanne Rocha, the father-daughter duo of Joshua & Zoe Paine of Heritage Isles and the son-&-father team of Karson (the self-proclaimed & costumed “King Chicken Wing” and Jason Centeno of Live Oak Preserve (and yes, a certain editor is in there, too).

All three rounds of judging were a blast for yours truly, the judges and even for Jannah, whose unenviable job it was to go and pick up the chicken from each of the restaurants, cut each tender into bite-sized pieces and plate them for me to bring to the judges.

I originally thought we were going to split the number of places into one group of 5 for Round 1 and one group of 6 for Round 2, but after Round 1, I realized that one Wesley Chapel chicken place (Wing Stop) had recently added tenders to its menu, so Round 2 ended up having the Mild and Spicy chicken tenders from seven places.

A few other things I have to mention:

  1. Because we bought and had to bring the chicken from multiple places to one central location, the judges knew beforehand that none of the chicken would ever be as hot or as moist as it would be at each of the actual restaurants.
  2. None of the chicken was served with sauces for fear that the judges would figure out whose chicken was whose too easily. But again, it also kept each place’s chicken from tasting its best.
  3. I have to thank president & CEO Hope Kennedy and office administrator Darlene Hill of the North Tampa Bay Chamber for allowing us to use the board room in the Chamber’s beautiful, new office in The Shops at Wiregrass for all three rounds of the contest.
  4. I also have to thank our photographer/ videographer Charmaine George for not only shooting still pictures, but also videotaping all of the proceedings. Although we are announcing the winners in this issue, we also will show video highlights from all three rounds as the premiere episode of our “Neighborhood Newsmakers” podcast. Look for updates about that first podcast on our “Neighborhood News” Facebook page.
  5. Yours truly didn’t sample all of the chicken nor did I try to influence the judges in any way.

Here’s how the judging went for the first two nds of the contest, as each chicken tender was judged based on its Crispness, Moistness, Seasoning (for Mild) and Heat (for Spicy), but only the Overall score given for each restaurant counted:

Round 1 (July 23) —There were five Mild but only four spicy chicken tenders in this round, because Raising Cane’s is the only one of the 12 total restaurants that doesn’t sell spicy tenders.

The Mild tenders were from PDQ, Chicken Guy, Zaxby’s, Raising Cane’s and Dave’s Hot Chicken. The favorite of these five was Chicken Guy, with PDQ second (both of which advanced to the Finals) and Raising Cane’s third, with Zaxby’s fourth and Dave’s fifth.

On the Spicy side this round, Zaxby’s was the clear-cut winner by average score, but Chicken Guy was the #1 choice of more of the judges, so both advanced to the Finals, with PDQ and Dave’s not advancing.

Round 2 (July 30) — Chick-fil-A and Slim Chickens finished solidly as #s 1 and 2 (in that order) to advance to the Mild Finals, and they were followed by Popeye’s,Wing Stop,Chick’n Fun, Hangry Joe’s and Sweet Krunch, in that order.

The same seven restaurants competed for Favorite Spicy, with Chick-fil-A and Slim Chickens again finishing in the top two spots, followed (in order) by Chick’n Fun, Popeye’s,Wing Stop, Hangry Joe’s & Sweet Krunch.

Finals (Aug. 4) — The judges were never told which four Mild and which four Spicy tenders advanced to the Finals, but several recognized PDQ & Chick-fil-A from the first two rounds and one judge identified Chicken Guy from Round 1.

For the Finals, each judge was asked to put the four Finalists in each category from their overall #1 Favorite down to #4.

For Favorite Mild Tenders, PDQand Chick-fil-A finished in a flat-footed tie for first place, with each receiving 3 first-place, 3 second-place and 3 third-place votes. But, since five of the judges had PDQ finishing higher than Chick-fil-A, PDQ won for Favorite Mild Tenders. Chick-fil-A was second and Chicken Guy finished third (with 2 first-place votes), and Slim Chickens was fourth, with only 1 first-place vote.

The judges agreed that the four Mild Finalists were their four favorites from the first two rounds.

For Favorite Spicy Tenders, Chick-fil-A and Slim Chickens each had 3 first-place votes, but Chick-fil-A also had 4 second-place votes to Slim Chickens’ 1, so Chick-fil-A was named the Favorite Spicy Tenders winner, followed by Slim Chickens. Zaxby’s just beat out Chicken Guy to finish third.

Looking Back

The contest was certainly not scientific and I know it really doesn’t “prove” anything. I’m also quite certain that many, if not most, of our readers will disagree with the results.

But, what it did accomplish was to bring together a diverse group of our readers for a fun and interesting cause and there’s no doubt that these nine previous strangers — two couples, two father-&-child combos and one not-partnered judge — all became friends and took their “jobs” very seriously, but not too seriously.

There were comments like, “I can’t taste the chicken,” “Dill pickle undertones,” “Only one I didn’t finish,” “Needs sauce,” “Tastes like Publix” and “Heavy vinegar flavor” — and a lot of laughs.

All nine judges also want to try judging the Best Steaks, Best Fries, Best Burgers and a couple that I might actually try to put together — Best Pizza and Best Tacos, but I probably will have to select a whole new crew of judges next time.

Look for the podcast on our Facebook page!

Attorney Ron Weaver Talks…Nudists? 

Retired land use & zoning attorney Ron Weaver (with mic in above photo), formerly with the Tampa-based firm of Stearns Weaver Miller, was the featured speaker at the Aug. 5 North Tampa Bay Chamber Business Breakfast held at Pasco Hernando State College’s Porter Campus at Wiregrass Ranch. 

Weaver, showed off his encyclopedic knowledge of how both Hillsborough and Pasco counties developed. He began his presentation with an attention-grabbing look at some of the famous Tampa Bay-area “nudists,” because, he said, “Since 1941, we have been the nudist capital of the world.” He mentioned actress Lauren Hutton, actor Channing Tatum and pro wrestler/ actor John Cena, all of whom have done nude scenes on film, as among our area’s nudists. 

Weaver also talked about how both Hillsborough and Pasco counties were named for British citizens. Wills Hill, the 1st Earl of (or “Lord”) Hillsborough, who was the Secretary of State for the Colonies prior to the American Revolution, which Weaver said Lord Hillsborough caused by ignoring the protests of the Colonists. 

More than 100 years later, Samuel Pasco, who also was born in London but attended Harvard University across the pond, was recruited to help expand education opportunities in north Florida and ended up having a county spun off from Hernando County named for him after he served as Florida’s Speaker of the House. — GN 

Recapping The Hyatt Place’s ‘Jingle Mingle’ 

A lot of local businesses offer “Christmas in July” events, but very few that I’ve been to can match the free “Jingle Mingle” event hosted by the Hyatt Place Tampa-Wesley Chapel hotel (located at 26000 Sierra Center Blvd., just north and west of the S.R. 56 exit off I-75, Lutz) on July 31. 

Sure, lots of places have had Santa Claus himself (bottom photo) on hand and available for free pictures at their events, and some may even have had some free food available, but the Hyatt Place management saw this as an opportunity to introduce the local community to the beautiful ballroom and delicious catering available at the hotel — in case you or someone you know wants to host a holiday event there. 

Among the tasty treats served at the Jingle Mingle were small, plated samples of holiday-inspired dishes — like grilled orange salmon on a bed of tasty rice with fresh asparagus (top), oven-roasted chicken with house-made cranberry sauce and an addictive sweet potato mash and braised short ribs with red wine sauce, accompanied by a baby carrot medley and mashed potatoes. And, all of them were actually as appealing to the palette as they were to the eyes. 

But of course, for yours truly, the highlight was the full-on s’mores station (above left), complete with graham crackers, Hershey’s chocolate bars and your choice of mini or huge marshmallows, plus skewers and “hot flames” to toast those marshmallows. Absolutely decadent! 

Each adult attendee also received a ticket for a free holiday-themed cocktail (e.g., a “White Christmas Margarita,” “Tipsy Reindeer” and more), plus vendors like Florida Ave. Brewing Co. and Thirsty Buffalo gave away free beer samples. And, PopStroke, Main Event and Metro Lagoons were on hand, and there was a free photo booth, other desserts and more. 

The event also helped remind attendees that the hotel also will again host a full-on Thanksgiving buffet and this year, a New Year’s Eve gala that hotel director of sales Lorna Petchey promises will not be cancelled this time. 

For more information about the Hyatt Place, call (813) 803-5600, visit Hyatt.com or email Lorna.Petchey@Hyatt.com to book your own holiday party ASAP. — GN