Special to The Laker/Lutz News

John Long students take second

The sixth-grade advanced math team from John Long Middle School finished in second place at the Pasco County District Mathematics competition May 2 at Saint Leo University. Justin King finished first in the individual awards for sixth-grade advanced math. Pictured from left to right are Andrew Arnold, Daniel Gonzalez, Justin King and Lisa Grey, the sixth-grade math bowl coach. (Photo courtesy of Christie Zimmer)

 

Scott appoints trustees to PHCC board

Gov. Rick Scott has announced the appointment of Edward C. Blommel to the District Board of Trustees for Pasco-Hernando Community College. Scott also reappointed Judy R. Parker, who has served on the board since February 1999.

Blommel, 64, of Dade City, is a retired regional manager for the Tampa Electric Company and had served in the Florida National Guard. His appointment as a trustee began May 21 and ends May 31, 2015.

Parker, 64, of New Port Richey, is District Office Manager for Sen. Wilton Simpson. She is a member of the Association of Florida College Trustees, the Association of Community College Trustees and the American Association of Community Colleges. She is reappointed for a term that ends May 10, 2014.

The appointments are subject to confirmation by the Florida Senate.

 

PHCC open houses

Pasco-Hernando Community College will host an open house at each of its four campuses in June.

Visitors considering attending PHCC in the fall will learn more about admissions, financial aid and student support services.

Tours of campus grounds, classrooms, the Teaching-Learning Centers, libraries and computer labs will be available. Activities vary at each campus event. Open house dates and locations include:

–June 18 at West Campus, New Port Richey, 10230 Ridge Road, R-151, from 1 to 4 p.m.

–June 18 at East Campus, Dade City, 36727 Blanton Road, A-240, from 3:30 to 6:30 p.m.

–June 20 at North Campus, Brooksville, 11415 Ponce de Leon Blvd., B-104, from 3 to 6 p.m.

–June 27 at Spring Hill Campus, 450 Beverly Court, Building B, from 3:30 to 5:30 p.m.

For details, visit phcc.edu/openhouse or call (877) TRY-PHCC.

 

Corbett Prep donates shirts to Haiti students

Corbett Preparatory School of IDS, formerly known as Independent Day School, sent the first of several planned shipments of school shirts last month to students in L’Ecole du Village in Haiti.

L’ Ecole du Village is a small community school on Ile-A-Vache, a small primitive island south of the mainland of Haiti that serves prekindergarten through fifth-grade.

Ile-A-Vache is accessible only by a half-hour’s ride in a small motorboat, so supplies are scarce and the school system struggles to meet students’ needs.

 

Land O’ Lakes band scholarships

Rene Van Hout, owner of LOL Transport & Moving, surprised some graduating seniors in the Land O’ Lakes High School Band program during the band’s annual banquet.

Van Hout presented checks to all the seniors who will be majoring in music education in college.

 

Education Foundation honors co-chairs of Cinderella Ball

The Pasco Education Foundation recently honored Diane Heiler and Kathryn Starkey, members of the foundation’s board and co-chairs of the Cinderella Ball since 2006. For the past eight years, Diane and Kathryn have dedicated countless hours to lead the Foundation’s annual signature event, The Cinderella Ball. This black tie gala is in March each year and has become the premier event in Pasco County.

 

Anti-Bullying T-shirt Contest

Submit the Documentary is taking action to raise awareness about cyberbullying, and is sponsoring a T-shirt contest to help spread the word.

The shirt will be spread across the world in conjunction with promotion of the film, “Submit the Documentary,” which offers solutions to the increasing trend of cyberbullying.

The design must emulate antibullying or cyberbullying. It does not need to be literal. The design can be conceptual, but must make the connection that the concept is standing up to bullies.

The prize includes contest winner’s bio and picture featured on the website and promoted on social media networks. Have your design featured worldwide at our film screenings and film festivals.

The contest is open to all age 16 and older. The contest ends at midnight on July 1.

For more information, visit www.submitthedocumentary.com/antibullycontest

 

Early Learning Coalition finalist in nonprofit of the year

The Early Learning Coalition of Pasco and Hernando Counties, Inc., is a finalist in the 2013 “Nonprofit of the Year Awards” sponsored by the Tampa Bay Business Journal.

The coalition is competing against a number of other local organizations for the education award, including the Hillsborough Education Foundation.

For more information about this award, including a list of finalists, please visit the TBBJ website at http://www.bizjournals.com/Tampabay. For more information about the learning coalition and its services, visit www.phelc.org or call (727) 233-8291.

 

Saint Leo online program honored

Saint Leo University’s Master of Business Administration degree with a specialization in Sport Business has again been ranked an international leader by the London-based publication Sport Business International.

The current issue of the trade publication lists Saint Leo’s M.B.A. with a Sport Business specialization among the top online programs globally.

 

 

 

Huge Powerball win in Zephyrhills creates buzz

 

 

By B.C. Manion

 

 

The sale of the winning $590.5 million Florida Powerball ticket at a Publix in Zephyrhills created quite a stir – but experts say that such instantaneous wealth comes with its own set of problems.

As of press time, the winner of the single largest Powerball prize in U.S. history had not stepped forward to claim the winnings, but that is expected at any time. Florida law requires the winner to file a claim within 60 days of winning, in order to receive a lump-sum cash payment.

When the winner comes forward, he or she will be stepping out of the shadows because once the claim is made, the winner’s identity is public record.

Winning such a huge financial windfall is like flipping a switch in life, said Rhonda Cameron, a psychologist at Premier Community Healthcare Group, Inc., in Dade City.

“It’s the old, ‘Be careful what you wish for,’” Cameron said.

“All of us have fantasies,” Cameron said, but becoming instantly wealthy won’t solve all of life’s problems and, indeed, it creates some new challenges.

Suddenly, the winner’s privacy will be gone, the psychologist said.

“Their picture is going to be emblazoned across every newspaper,” Cameron said, not only in the U.S., but in other countries, too.

An ordinary trip to the grocery store will be a thing of the past, she said. “People will pay attention to you. … They’ll point at you and talk about you.”

 

Some winners wind up moving to a new locale, changing their way of life and going underground, she said.

It’s not unusual for people who encounter such a major change in life to undergo a range of emotions, the psychologist said.

In some cases, Cameron said, “They’re grieving their former life, when they were just a regular, normal Joe.”

In other cases, they encounter hostility from people who are not happy that they won the huge cash prize.

“Some people are going to hate your guts,” Cameron said. “It’s the envy turned into anger (response). Maybe they don’t view you as a good person,” she said. They’ll wonder: “Why did it happen to you and not me?”

Winners will also find themselves viewing people in a different way than they did before, Cameron said. They’ll have to be more guarded to make sure that people who are interested in being close to them are interested in them, not just their money.

“Your phone is going to ring off the hook,” Cameron said. The calls asking for help will come from family, friends and strangers, alike. People will line up, vying for a piece of the action.

“You are going to have to figure out a way to protect yourself,” Cameron said. “There are gold diggers of every stripe.”

There are also those who will feel guilty about coming into so much money, Cameron said. “They’ll ask, ‘Why me?’”

They can address that guilt by sharing their wealth, but then the question becomes with whom do you share your fortune, and how much should you give?

The winner will have to think about the consequences of actions in virtually every arena of life, including emotional, spiritual, financial and legal, Cameron said.

“How do you deal with your kids? How do you deal with your grandkids?’

“The ones who do the worst are the ones who are very impulsive. They have no game plan. They go out and buy five cars. They fritter it away. They end up worse than they were before,” Cameron said.

Cameron’s No. 1 piece of advice? “Come up with a game plan.”

Planning is essential, agreed Christine B. Cooper, a retirement income planner, who has practiced in Tampa Bay for 19 years.

Cooper, who is president and owner of Cooper Financial Services in Land O’ Lakes, said she routinely tells clients to call her cell phone or text her within the first five minutes of learning they have received a financial windfall.

She wants to make sure they take steps to protect their best interests.

“You need to have the right kind of specialists on your team,” Cooper said, noting in that case it would likely include a financial planner, an attorney and a tax specialist.

The winner will have to pay taxes when he or she claims the prize, but the idea is to take steps to pay no more than legally required, Cooper said.

The specialist’s role is to help the client achieve his or her dreams, Cooper said.

To use a football analogy, she sad: “We’re the coaches on the sideline. You’re the quarterback.”

When the winner works out a plan, he or she should be addressing such questions as:  “Why are we doing this? What is our goal? How are we going to get there?”

Most people don’t even consider the possibility of needing to have a plan for handling millions of dollars, Cooper said.

She thinks one reason many people who come into sudden wealth wind up losing it is because they lack a plan.

It’s also hard to resist helping others, Cooper said.

“It’s human nature to give,” Cooper said. “We all, deep down underneath, we want to help one another,” she said. “We put everyone else’s needs before our own.”

Jeff Aman, an attorney in Lutz, said he wouldn’t rely entirely upon himself if he won a huge cash windfall. “I wouldn’t want to try to figure it all out,” said Aman, who specializes in estates, trusts and real estate.

What the winner should do depends on the winner’s goals and desires, Aman said.

“It’s a very individual kind of thing,” Aman said.

It’s important to understand tax consequences and to protect assets, Aman said.

“If you’re doing serious tax planning, you’re also doing asset protection. It goes hand in hand,” Aman said.

Hiring a team of experts is important, but requiring that team to be accountable is essential, too, Aman said. “You still need to maintain your personal sense of responsibility.”

Stories abound about lottery winners who go broke.

Aman doubts they had a team of specialists helping them manage their money.

 

Class of 2013 heads into future

 

By B.C. Manion

 

One thing is a constant for the members of the Class of 2013: The technology of their lives is continuously evolving.

Graduates of today tweet highlights of the ceremony, take pictures with their cell phones and post videos on YouTube – hoping they’ll go viral.

Tools of communication may be radically different than for previous generations of graduates, but one thing is the same: Receiving a high school diploma remains one of life’s big moments.

And, thousands of graduates are lining up now, as commencement season is in full swing in Pasco and Hillsborough counties. Some schools have had their ceremonies, and others are gearing up.

Roughly 4,000 students from area public and private high schools will complete this rite of passage this year, stepping over the threshold to adult life.

Seniors from Gaither, Steinbrenner, Freedom and Wharton in northern Hillsborough County will accept their diplomas at ceremonies for Hillsborough County public schools.

And, graduates from Sunlake, Land O’ Lakes, Wesley Chapel, Wiregrass Ranch, Pasco and Zephyrhills high schools will shift the tassels on their caps at commencement ceremonies for Central Pasco and East Pasco schools.

Ceremonies are also planned or have been concluded for private high schools serving the communities of Trinity, Odessa, Lutz, Land O’ Lakes, Wesley Chapel, New Tampa, Dade City and Zephyrhills.

Bishop McLaughlin Catholic High School in Spring Hill held its graduation on May 14, with 60 graduates receiving their diplomas during a ceremony in the school’s auditorium.

Forty-five graduates received their diplomas during a May 19 ceremony in the theater at Carrollwood Day School. This was the fifth crop of seniors to graduate from the school in North Tampa, and it was the final graduation ceremony for Mary Kanter, who is retiring in June, after being of head of the school since 1998.

While CDS has concluded its festivities, Academy at the Lakes and Land O’ Lakes Christian School are preparing for their events.

Land O’ Lakes Christian School will confer diplomas to eight graduates during an evening ceremony on May 31 in the sanctuary of First Baptist Church of Land O’ Lakes.

Academy at the Lakes will have its graduation exercises in the school’s gymnasium on June 2. In addition to the Class of 2013’s academic achievements, which garnered $2.4 million in scholarship offers, seven of the 39 graduates have been recruited by collegiate athletic teams.

Other settings for upcoming commencement ceremonies for area public schools are at the W.F. Edwards Stadium in Dade City, the University of South Florida Sun Dome in northeast Tampa  and the Florida State Fairgrounds Expo Hall in east Tampa.

Many graduates have gone far beyond the call of duty, demonstrating their commitment to learning by achieving grade point averages well beyond the 4.0 that comes from earning straight As in traditional courses.

Those students embraced more rigorous courses, including Advanced Placement and dual enrollment courses that can earn them college credit during high school.

Jackie Lawson of Gaither High, had the highest grade point average across The Laker/Lutz News’ coverage area and the highest in Gaither High history, exceeding 8.71 on a 4.0 scale.

As graduates wrap up their high school academic career, these students see themselves playing varied roles in their future careers. Some will continue their studies at prestigious schools in far away places, while others will stick closer to home.

For now, though, it’s time to savor their accomplishments, pose for pictures, send texts or tweets and enjoy the moment – before setting off on their new adventures.

Networking on tap at EPNG

Mary Adele Cluck, the executive director of the Greater Wesley Chapel Chamber of Commerce, and Hope Allen, the chamber’s sales and marketing manager, will be the featured speakers at the June 11 meeting of the East Pasco Networking Group.

The group meets at the Village Inn at 5214 Gall Blvd. Networking begins at 8 a.m. followed by the meeting, which starts at 8:30 a.m.

 

SWFMD elects officers

The governing board of the Southwest Florida Water Management has elected new officers, including Carlos M. Beruff, of Manatee County, as board chairman; Michael A. Babb, of Hillsborough County, as vice-chair; Randall S. “Randy” Maggard, of Pasco County, as secretary; and, Jeffery M. Adams, of Pinellas County, as treasurer.

Governing Board members are unpaid, citizen volunteers who are appointed by the governor and confirmed by the Florida Senate. The board sets policy for the district, which is responsible for managing water and related resources of west central Florida to meet the current and future water users’ needs, while protecting the environment.

 

ADA workshop for small businesses

Hillsborough County and the Alliance for Citizens with Disabilities-Hillsborough County will have a special event to update small businesses on the legal and technical requirements of the Americans with Disabilities Act.

The free workshop will be from 8:30 a.m. until noon and will feature experts helping business leaders avoid costly mistakes by reviewing the latest ADA needs and requirements.

A complimentary continental breakfast will be provided.

The workshop will be at the Children’s Board, 1002 E. Palm Ave. in Tampa.

Those interested in attended are asked to register online at https://sbic.hillsboroughcounty.org.

For more information, call the Hillsborough County Small Business Information Center at (813) 914-4028 or visit http://www.HillsboroughCounty.org.

 

Women-N-Charge grants

Women-N-Charge, whose mission, in part, is to support and assist professional women in managing their businesses more effectively, has awarded two $1,000 grants.

The grants were sponsored by Ierna’s Heating and Cooling and Foundation Repair Contractors, Inc.

Connie Blaney, of Liberty Manor For Veterans, received the business advancement grant.

Letoria Leiba, a licensed mental health counselor, received the career advancement grant.

Women-N-Charge meets on the first Friday of the month at Pebble Creek Country Club in New Tampa from 11:30 a.m. to 1 p.m.

To learn more about the group, visit www.women-n-charge.com.

 

Job Fair at The Shops at Wiregrass

A job fair is scheduled for 4 p.m. to 7 p.m. on June 5 at The Shops at Wiregrass, directly across from Dillard’s and next to Soma Intimates.

 

Kellie Jo Carlucci is employee of the year

Kellie Jo Carlucci has been named the employee of the year at Regional Medical Center Bayonet Point.

The winner is selected by the Employee Advisory Group. Recipients are deemed to be the employee who best exemplifies employee excellence.

 

Tampa metro area has highest job growth in April

The Tampa-St. Petersburg-Clearwater Metropolitan Statistical Area led the state’s metropolitan areas in job creation during April, according to a news release from Gov. Rick Scott’s office.

The Tampa Bay metro area gained more than 35,400 private sector jobs. The area also experienced a 1.9 percent decline in its unemployment rate over last April.

Since December 2010, the metro area’s unemployment rate has declined 4.7 percentage points, dropping from 11.4 percent to 6.7 percent.

The Tampa-St. Petersburg-Clearwater MSA led the metro areas in gains in:

–Education and health services (+9,600 jobs)

–Professional and business services (+8,800 jobs)

–Trade, transportation and utilities (+7,700 jobs)

–Construction (+4,000 jobs)

 

Oak Hill Hospital adds V. Antoine Keller to staff

Oak Hill Hospital and Regional Medical Center Bayonet Point has added Dr. V. Antoine Keller, Fellow of the American College of Surgeons, to its medical staff.

Dr. Keller is board certified in cardiothoracic surgery, vascular and endovascular surgery.  He specializes in minimally invasive complex heart procedures such as valve repair and valve replacement. He also performs minimally invasive single coronary artery bypass grafting.

 

North Tampa Chamber meetings

The North Tampa Chamber of Commerce has several upcoming meetings:

–June 20: Networking luncheon: 11:30 a.m., Beef O’ Brady’s, 8810 N. Himes Ave. (Himes & Busch), Tampa. Order from lunchtime menu. Cost: $4.99 to $9.99/pp (does not include tax/gratuity), whether you eat or not. RSVP by June 18 to Kelly Winterling at or call Horizon Bay at Lutz at 909-9679. Directions? Call 936-2058.

–June 25: 66th Annual Installation & Awards Banquet – Doors open at 5 p.m. with adjournment at 9 p.m. Location: Emerald Greens Golf & Country Club, 13903 Clubhouse Drive, Tampa. Highlights: Welcoming the incoming board, celebrating accomplishments and honoring those who have been instrumental in the chamber’s success.

To RSVP, or for more banquet details, visit the North Tampa Chamber website at www.northtampachamber.com or phone (813) 961-2420. This event is open to the public.

–June 27: Networking luncheon, 11:30 a.m. Embassy Suites USF near Busch Gardens, 3705 Spectrum Blvd., Tampa (east of Bruce B. Downs/north side of Fowler Ave.). Order from select menu or buffet. Cost: $11 to $12.50 per person, includes tax and gratuity. Charge applies whether you eat or not. RSVP by June 25 to Jenn Beaumont at , or call AGLA-American General Life at 334-8998. Directions? Call (813) 977-7066.

 

Dr. Pariksith Singh receives entrepreneurship award

Indus Entrepreneurs of Tampa Bay has selected Dr. Parisksith Singh as its TiETaN of Healthcare Entrepreurship Award for 2013.

The Indus Entrepreneurs (TiE), was founded in 1992 in the Silicon Valley by a group of successful entrepreneurs, corporate executives and senior professionals in the Indus region. There are currently 11,000 members including over 2,500 charters in 60 chapters across 17 countries. TiE’s mission is to foster entrepreneurship globally through mentoring, networking and education. Dedicated to the virtuous cycle of wealth creation and giving back to the community, TiE’s focus is on generating and nurturing our next generation of entrepreneurs.

Singh is the founder and current CEO of Access Health Care, LLC, Access II, Integral Healthcare (an Accountable Care Corporation) and Auroveda Operating Foundation, LLC as well as numerous other entrepreneurial ventures.