WC Rotary On Hand For Spelling Bee Check Presentation

The Wesley Chapel Rotary Club’s team that finished third at the West Pasco Chamber of Commerce (WPCC)’s 13th annual ‘Catch the Buzz’ Spelling Bee on Sept. 15 was well-represented at the Chamber’s Ambassadors Luncheon today, where the WPCC presented a check for $4,700 to the Pepin Academies-Pasco (located in New Port Richey), which was the primary recipient of the net proceeds of the event.   

New Tampa & Wesley Chapel Neighborhood News publisher & editor Gary Nager, was joined at the luncheon by fellow WC Rotarians and team members Robyn Liska (of the American Cancer Society) and Jannah McDonald (of the Pasco Education Foundation). Current WC Rotary president Erin Meyer was unable to attend

Pepin Academies-Pasco, which is a tuition-free Pasco charter school in its second year of serving autistic and other special needs students (currently more than 200) with learning disabilities in grades 3-11, needs to add a senior class next year and is maxed out in its current 23,000-sq.-ft. space on Little Rd. in New Port Richey.

The Pepin Academies, all of which are committed to creating professional learning communities through innovative practices to meet the needs of students with learning disabilities, has two other hugely successful campuses, now serving more than 700 students between grades 3-12, as well as young adults 18-22. The Tampa campus, which has been in existence for 15 years, is on E. Hillsborough Ave., and the newer Riverview campus is located off U.S. 301.

Lauren Pepin, of the Pepin Family Foundation (which started the Pepin Academies), also was on hand at the luncheon, where she announced that the Foundation was going to match the $4,700 donated by the West Pasco Chamber to the Pepin Academies-Pasco. Accepting the Chamber’s check from Board chair Victoria Barley was Pasco Acemies-Pasco principal Celeste Kellar and one of the school’s Board members DeLynn Gaston, whose son Cage is a student at the New Port Richey campus.

For more info, visit PepinAcademies.com or WestPasco.com.