Seniors in Service

When you think of volunteer work, you imagine teenagers and college-age students cleaning up parks, helping with after-school care programs, or befriending residents in nursing homes. For one community, though, when people think of volunteer work, the image that comes to mind is eighty-nine-year old Pete Gaumond.

Though he has no grandchildren of his own, Gaumond has been volunteering as a foster grandparent at Lowry Elementary for the past three years.

In addition to working in a special-needs classroom every week, he is a tutor and mentor to Lowry students. Whenever a student has a need, Gaumond drops what he’s doing to help them, and does what he can to make every student he helps feel special.

The Bank of America Charitable Foundation recognized the work Gaumond has done every weekday by awarding him the “Local Hero” Award, which includes a $5,000 grant to be given to the nonprofit organization of his choice.

He was nominated for the award by Seniors in Service of Tampa Bay, which runs the foster grandparent program. Over 100 volunteers work with the program, all of them over the age of sixty. They commit to 20 hours a week in schools, shelters, and non-profit day care centers.

High School EEE

Construction on a brand new high school will begin in three months in the Hudson area now that the construction plans have been approved by the Development Review Committee.

The high school, currently called High School “EEE,” has raised objections by residents who say it violates the long-range planning strategy for the county as well as damaging wells.

The Development Review Committee has explained that the high school is on a smaller site than typical high schools—41 acres as opposed to 70—and the school will use county water instead of wells. Some residents are concerned about traffic, but school officials plan to make improvements to the roads around the school to ease the transition into a high volume of school traffic in the area. They expect to use state funds for these improvements.

This project was approved in March 2007 with the condition that the construction plans needed to be approved.

The high school will be located near the junction of Chicago Avenue & State Road 52.

Project HOPE

Thanksgiving is a time when many people take time to volunteer at soup kitchens. These facilities ensure people are able to get a hot meal, particularly at Thanksgiving, and they are always happy to have more people volunteering to help.

Two years ago, a group of Brandon churches hosted a Thanksgiving dinner for the homeless at the Brandon Recreation Center, feeding more than 200 men, women, and children that day.

Since then, Project HOPE (an acronym for Helping Other People Excel) was created to meet the needs of the homeless. They provided hot meals, medical care, and social services, and began looking for a way to meet more long-term needs by building transitional housing in the Brandon area.

There is a new addition to Project HOPE this year. The I Am Hope Café, located at First Baptist Church of Mango, serves hot meals from 5:30 to 7:30 p.m. Mondays, Tuesdays, and Fridays, and from 9:00 to 11:00 a.m. on Saturdays.

The café, which uses volunteers to serve people seated at tables rather than offering buffet lines, is the 22nd soup kitchen supported by the non-profit Metropolitan Ministries anti-hunger organization in the Tampa Bay area.

DVAM

October is National Domestic Violence Awareness Month, and in an attempt to bring attention to the issue, as well as healing to victims, Pasco County’s Sunrise Domestic Violence and Sexual Assault Center hosted its 12th Annual Domestic Violence Candelight Vigil on October 23rd in Zephyrhills.

The purpose of the vigil was to give survivors a chance to heal through the telling of their stories. By sharing their stories, survivors also helped educate people about domestic violence.

In addition to the vigil, the event featured The Clothesline Project, which is a project that further raises awareness of domestic violence. Survivors, as well as their friends and families, can create tee shirts to tell their stories through words and art. These shirts are then displayed at events like the vigil to give people a sense of the experiences of survivors and their friends and families.

Events like this vigil are hosted across the nation in October for Domestic Violence Awareness Month. This event was held on the west lawn of Florida Hospital Zephyrhills.

Rayhawk!

Baseball fans of Tampa Bay show their pride for their team. And one of the ways to do that is with the Rayhawk. For 12-year-old Zachary Sharples, though, a Rayhawk that started as pride in the home team led to much more.

Sharples was suspended from a Manatee County middle school because of his hairdo, and after moving to St. Petersburg, received a call from ESPN, who wanted to feature him on its “First Take” show.

The call from ESPN was the conclusion of an exciting week for Sharples and his family. He has gained widespread fame for his Rayhawk, and even got the opportunity to meet Rays players and coaches at Tropicana Field prior to a game in early October. Jonny Gomes read about Sharples and had the team invite him onto the field, where he received an autographed baseball bat.

It's a Lot to Consider

Ybor residents on or near Sixth Avenue have had to endure the rowdiness of nightclub patrons continuing their fun in dimly lit grassy fields that serve as parking lots in Ybor City. The lots were originally intended to be temporary solutions to a parking problem about a decade ago.

The city can’t simply shut down the lots, since the business owners have a right to use them as parking, but there is a plan to improve the safety and appearance of the lots in an attempt to alleviate the complaints of residents.

There is a new set of regulations that will force owners to maintain landscaping and lighting, pavement in common areas, security, and signs with rates and contact numbers for emergencies. Tampa police have also increased their presence in the neighborhood on weekends.

Magnets Attract

Hillsborough County School District has expanded students’ academic options through magnet schools, which receive federal funding to offer specialized programs or advanced curricula.

According to the Hillsborough County School District’s website, “Magnet school teachers are specially trained not only in theme integration but also in innovative and rigorous academic instructional methods.”

Originally these schools were created in an effort to encourage voluntary desegregation, but have become popular for students who develop talents and interests in a specialized area of study.

The demand for magnet schools is high, and even after applying to specific programs, many students are put on waiting lists.

For more information about the Hillsborough County Magnet Programs, visit http://sdhc.k12.fl.us/magnet/index.asp or call 813-272-4811.