Special to The Laker/Lutz News

 Area residents reflect on 9/11 anniversary

By B.C. Manion

As the nation pauses to honor the 10th anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks, Rich Diehl will be in New York to honor the memory of his brother.

The Land O’ Lakes man was selected by lottery to be among about 200 people reading the names of those who died from the attacks on that fateful day.

He and his wife, Eileen, will join Rich’s brothers and their families as they gather to honor his late brother, Michael, and others who died in the worst attack on American soil since Pearl Harbor.

Here are some recollections from the Diehls and other local residents who had a personal connection to the Sept. 11 attacks.

 

Rich and Eileen Diehl

Rich Diehl was on his way to work when an airliner plowed into the North Tower of the World Trade Center at 8:46 a.m. on Sept. 11, 2001.

Diehl didn’t know what the receptionist was talking about when he walked into his office in St. Petersburg and the receptionist told him his brother was OK.

“I learned almost immediately thereafter that a plane had hit the World Trade Center,” the Land O’ Lakes man recalls.

The family thought everything was fine because Rich’s mom had talked to Michael and he had told her he was fine.

That was before another airliner slammed into the South Tower at 9:03 a.m.

Rich saw the second plane hit.

“We were actually gathering in a meeting room and watching this all transpire on TV,” said Rich, who was working at JSA Healthcare.

As the day wore on, no one could get in touch with Michael. So, the Land O’ Lakes couple packed up the car and headed to New York the next day.

They didn’t know whether Michael was dead or alive, Rich said.

“We thought he might still be missing. We drove up there, then – thinking that maybe he would be found – hopefully found alive,” Rich said.

“Our daughter contacted the Red Cross. At one point, they said they had heard of a Michael Diehl,” Eileen said.

There was a Michael Diehl in a hospital on Staten Island, but it turned out that it wasn’t their Michael.

The couple was up in New York for about 10 days.

Authorities found Michael’s wallet and then some of his remains, said Rich, the oldest of the family’s four brothers.

There’s still pain in his eyes as Rich thinks about his brother, who was married and had two children.

“Michael and I were best friends,” said Rich, who frequently talked to his brother. “He was a great family man,” Rich said. “He valued his relationship with his mother, his wife and kids and with us.”

Eileen said Michael once told her, “You’re the sister I never had.”

 

Arthur “Fitz” Foster

“I was working in New York at 55 Water Street, which as the crow flies, is about seven blocks from the World Trade Center,” recalls Arthur “Fitz” Foster.

“I was a little late getting to work that morning. As I got out of the subway, everybody started looking up. We just saw debris just floating across. A lot of paper debris. Everyone was wondering,  ‘What happened?’”

He walked to his office and was at his desk on the 27th floor of the building.

“I had a window and looked toward where I saw the debris coming and I saw this big gash in the side of the North Tower. I noticed a lot of other people were at the windows, as well.”

Foster said he called his wife, who was at work in Long Island and asked if she’d heard about any problems at the World Trade Center. She told him she’d heard an airplane had crashed into one of the towers.

Foster said he couldn’t figure out how that could have happened on such a clear day.

Then, when he looked out his window, he saw the blur of an airplane going by and it struck the South Tower.

After the second plane hit, it became clear the country was under attack, Foster said. His office was evacuated.

Foster and a colleague later went back to the building to find out whether to return to work.

“Then we heard this “whooom” at ground level, we couldn’t see anymore the World Trade Center. All we knew was that this big debris field was making its way toward us. “We thought it was a bomb. It came down with such a force.”

He and a colleague put handkerchiefs over their faces and sought refuge beneath an elevated highway.

“Even when we heard the F-15s coming into town, we couldn’t see anything because of the cloud of debris, so we thought, ‘Maybe it’s enemies.’”

“You could see nothing. So, we decided to keep walking north. Largely to get out of the debris field, and also to find out what was happening.

“We saw people walking across the Brooklyn Bridge and I said, ‘I’m not walking across the bridge. I don’t know how I’m going to get transport (back home) from there or whether the bridge would get blown up.’

“You just didn’t know what was happening at all,” Foster said. “We walked to the South Street Seaport.”

That was less than a half-mile, and that’s where they watched a television report to find out what was happening.

“We moved further north and when we reached Chinatown, we were able to get phone signal and I was able to call my wife.”

When they were in Chinatown, he said, they saw the second tower coming down.

“I will never forget something like that. It was like in slow motion, but the whole thing, I guess, came down in maybe 30 seconds. It just pancaked all of the way down.”

Foster said one of his friends, who worked on the 84th floor of the first tower, was late to work that day – sparing his life.

Another friend, who occasionally worked in the building to help set up technology for conferences, happened to be there that day, setting up equipment for a conference at Windows on the World.

That man, Wade B. Green, was never found.

Shortly after the attacks, Foster said his department was moved from the 27th floor of his building up to the 50th floor.

“You had people who resigned because they didn’t want to go that far up,” he said.

 

Jim Chalker

Jim Chalker was working at a hotel about two miles of the World Trade Center at the time of the attacks.

“I had just got done on my coffee break,” said the 67-year-old, who now lives at Westbrooke Manor and Assisted Memory Support in Zephyrhills.

He had heard the news about the first plane striking the North Tower and knew immediately that America was under attack.

Right after the airplane hit, there was soot a couple of inches thick on the cars, Chalker said.

“I went outside and I saw the second plane,” he said. “You could see the second plane aim at the second building. You knew it was deliberate.”

Chalker said he didn’t know what to do, but heard reports that the first responders needed dry clothing.

“We got involved with that. We went to Kmart. We basically bought them out,” said Chalker, who still wears the now-faded T-shirt he got from the fire department for his help after the attacks.

He saw televised reports of people leaping to their deaths.

“They were 90 floors up. You had one of two choices: You could burn or you could jump.”

He also recalled seeing people walking around, carrying fliers containing photos and descriptions of loved ones they were trying to find.

“It was terrible,” Chalker said.

Alyson Stanina

Alyson Stanina, who now works at Westbrooke Manor and Assisted Memory Support in Zephyrhills, said she went to New York the summer after the attacks to work at a summer camp for children.

The New Ground Day Camp was basically for children who lost a family member or witnessed the horror of the attacks, Stanina said.

“There were a lot of kids that saw people jumping, unfortunately.”

She said psychiatrists and counselors worked with the children.

The children drew pictures to express their feelings, Stanina said. While many of the children seemed to be coping well, some of the drawings were heartbreaking, Stanina said. She recalled one drawing, in particular. A child had drawn “a picture of daddy with wings.”

 

Melisa Rodriguez

Melisa Rodriguez was living in New Jersey on the day of the attacks. She shared her recollections in an email to The Laker/Lutz News.

“That day happened to be my parents’ 25th wedding anniversary,” Rodriguez wrote, noting she and her husband had just dropped off their 1-year-old daughter at her mother’s to go to a dental appointment.

Her husband was in the dentist’s chair when he heard the country was under attack and rushed out to tell his wife. When the couple arrived home, they watched the towers fall.

Rodriguez said her husband, who was in the New Jersey Army National Guard was deployed to help guard the Holland Tunnel.

“At home, I had a feeling of dread, wondering if we would be bombed, if our water would be poisoned, or if a bioterrorism attack would occur,” Rodriguez writes.

“Our towns were filled with people wondering about their loved ones who worked in Manhattan that they could not reach because cell phone service was so poor,” she recalls.

Meanwhile, her father — a battalion chief with a fire department in New Jersey – returned home early from training exercises in Texas to help secure the area where search and rescue teams were working.

“They (rescue teams) mostly recovered the poor souls who were either doing their jobs as business men or women, or doing their jobs as police officers and firefighters,” she noted.

“Soon after 9/11, we attended a memorial service at Battery Park, in which Christopher and Dana Reeve spoke and Ray Charles sang “America the Beautiful.”

“Our New Jersey towns started filling with makeshift memorials, as local commuters were discovered dead.

“When I walk up a stairwell in an office building, I think of the firefighters who went up many, many stairwells, never to come back down.

“I think of the people running from the buildings with soot covering their faces.  I think of the monsignor who was killed by a falling body while performing the anointing of the sick to another dying soul.

“I think of the NYC skyline that will forever be altered. I think of Lisa Beamer, and her now 10-year-old child that never met his father.

“I think of all the heroes and their families.

“I think of the troops and their families who are still sacrificing.

“And I think of the terrorists that are surely living amongst us, waiting to attack us again.  “I think of how patriotic our country was soon after 9/11, and how divided we are now.  “We will never be the same after 9/11.

“We should never forget this day and all those we lost.”

By Kyle LoJacono

 

Like most people in the United States, Sylla Hanger was devastated by what happened on Sept. 11, 2001.

For the Lutz resident, it wasn’t enough to send some supplies or money. She needed to get out and give back with all her skills to try and help the emergency workers around ground zero.

Sylla decided to use her knowledge of massage and aromatherapy to help make working in the devastated area a little easier. She became a licensed massage therapist in 1979 and has been using essential oils for decades.

“In the early ’80s I was making my own perfumes from oils at the health food stores,” Sylla said. “I realized that there was more relaxation from the massage with a nice scented oil. I thought I’d invented something, but I found that aromatherapy was being taught in England.”

Sylla helped form the first aromatherapy organization in the United States, which eventually led to the creation of the National Association of Holistic Aromatherapy (NAHA). When 9/11 happened it was natural for her to give back using her expertise.

“My friend Doug started a massage team called North Carolina Emergency Response Massage Team, or CERMT,” Sylla said. “He was taking care of flood victims in Carolina before 9/11. I knew our skills could do some good. It actually came to me while I was doing a massage treatment and I knew we had to aromatize Manhattan. There was all that smoke in the air. I knew we had to get these oils there.”

Sylla and the team first went in November 2001 and returned during Christmas, Valentine’s Day and St. Patrick’s Day. The trips were one to two weeks long.

Sylla said people sent her $10,000 worth of aromatherapy products for the first trip. Significantly more came for the last three trips. During the second trip the group developed the name United Aromatherapy Effort (UAE), an official nonprofit group.

“We worked at the stations, at the chapel by ground zero, at the landfill on Staten Island and in the temporary morgues,” Sylla said. “Mostly we did the chair massage, which is about 15 minutes long. It’s mostly head, neck and shoulders and it’s very relaxing. It leaves people very refreshed. Then we’d give them some product with them. Often it was sprays, lotions and breathing potions.”

They would also give the workers cotton swabs with oils on it to put in their respirator.

“They loved that because the masks smelled horrible and it was hard to breath,” Sylla said. “A lot of them told us they wouldn’t use them without the oils.”

Sylla and the team started adopting fire stations during the second trip. In total, UAE adopted 22 stations, which received oils, a diffuser and a vaporizer.

“They couldn’t get over that we came from out of town to help them, and paid our own way to do it,” Sylla said. “It made them feel really good, which made us feel really good. A lot of them had survivor guilt and didn’t want to relax after so many of their friends died. We told them to let us help. Let us help you because that’s all the thanks we need.”

Sylla’s daughter Nyssa Hanger, who was in high school at the time, went on two of the trips.

“I didn’t decide to go until my mom came home from her trip in November and said she was going back for Christmas,” Nyssa said. “I wasn’t able to see it until years later, but my mother has instilled in me a deep drive for helping others. Seeing what she gained through helping, I wanted to go as well. I knew that there were many people hurting up there and it was consoling to know I might be able to help.”

Nyssa, who attended Gaither High her first two and then went to Blake High for its magnet program, was picked as one of the “20 Coolest Teens in America” by YM magazine in November 2002 because of her work after 9/11. Those trips also helped her decide to become a physical therapist.

“Though I wasn’t doing massage formally, I spent three weeks working side-by-side with other massage therapists and saw the amazing effects of loving touch,” Nyssa said.  She then added, “Though Sept 11, 2001 will be a day remembered as a national tragedy, I can say that it actually changed my life in a profound and surprisingly positive way.”

The experience has changed Sylla’s life as well, and she still can’t help but get emotional while recalling the trips.

“I learned you can’t care too much,” Sylla said, choked up with the memory. “I had a lot of post-traumatic stress when I left because it felt so good to help that I wanted to keep going back. It’s the greatest thing I’ve ever done, and when it was over it was like a hole in my life even though it cost me a fortune to do it. … I wanted to do it again and again, and I knew that I could do it.”

Sylla and UAE also went up the Gulf Coast to help after Hurricane Katrina in 2005. Now the group is focusing on sending aromatherapy products to U.S. soldiers serving overseas in places like Afghanistan. Sylla also goes to the VA hospital in Tampa to give the massage therapy treatments to veterans.

“We’ll put the supplies where they’re needed,” Sylla said. “The best thing is if anyone has money to help with shipping. We have product, but not the money to ship it.”

How to help 

To help UAE, visit unitedaromatherapy.org. From there people can find phone numbers and addresses if they want to donate money, supplies or their time and expertise in aromatherapy. People can also email .

 

Lightning strike deal to run public facility

By Kyle LoJacono

 

The Pasco County Commission has reached an agreement with the Land O’ Lakes Lightning swimming club to keep the public pool at the Land O’ Lakes Recreation Complex open.

Commissioners and the county’s Parks and Recreation Department director Rick Buckman had all but decided to close the pool, along with another facility in Hudson, to help meet the county budget for the next fiscal year.

However, the Lightning reached a deal to take over much of the operating costs of the pool, pledging about $100,000 per year.

“That’s about what it takes to run a pool,” said club president Brett Ewald. “That’s a workable amount. We haven’t raised fees for our team and I know from doing this for more than a year we can handle that. I would stress that you need a team of this size to take on something like this. A 150-kid team does generate enough revenue to operate a pool. You need a big group.”

Ewald said the 16-year-old club has swimmers from Land O’ Lakes, Lutz, Odessa and as far east as Wesley Chapel and Zephyrhills. Ewald didn’t want to see budget concerns drain away an opportunity for young swimmers, as well as those just looking to cool off.

“It started out as a way to keep it opened for our swim team and for the two high school teams that use it,” Ewald said. “It’s pretty important for all the neighborhoods around there to have the pool running. I’d hate to have seen it just disappear.”

The deal allows both Sunlake and Land O’ Lakes high schools to continue using the facility for practices and home swimming meets. Buckman said public use will also remain, but with an increase in admission costs from $2 to $3 for children and from $3 to $4 for adults per day. He added operating hours will likely be cut slightly.

“We’ll be doing the lessons now instead of the county, but other than that everything else stays intact,” Ewald said. “We will be handling the maintenance, water quality and repairs to the pool less than $2,500.”

The county will handle any repairs that cost more than $2,500.

The commission narrowly agreed to keep the Hudson pool open by a 3-2 vote, but there is no similar organization that has stepped forward to run the west Pasco site.

The parks department has already had to close two county pools in the last year, one in New Port Richey and the other, the Hercules Aquatic Center, in Zephyrhills.

The Zephyrhills Police Athletic League (ZPAL) agreed to run the east Pasco facility, but the county reversed that deal after the organization racked up thousands of dollars in debt.

Ewald said he has seen what the operating costs are and, along with funding from the county, will be able to keep the Land O’ Lakes pool open without the issues that arose in Zephyrhills.

Buckman said he is confident about the deal with the Lightning.

“We’ve learned a lot since what happened in Zephyrhills,” Buckman said. “We saw what happened there, and we’re going to do everything we can to make sure this is successful. Plus the Lightning are in a much better situation than ZPAL was a year ago.”

For more information on the Lightning, visit www.lollightning.org.

 

 

Even after Labor Day, it still sizzles here

By Eugenio Torrens

 

After every drill in practice, Academy at the Lakes football coach John Castelamare lets his students go to “heaven” and immerse themselves in it.

“Heaven” is the name for the 12 water fountains where players go for a respite from the grueling heat and demanding practices.

Castelamare, who is in his second year coaching the private school’s six-man team, tells his kids to do more than drink water. He tells them to wet everything.

“Most of the time, you keep drinking water, it’s not the greatest thing,” he said. “You wet yourself, wet your head, wet your shoulders. Just don’t get my helmets wet.”

Spending time in, let alone practicing in the unforgiving Florida heat can be dangerous. Castelamare, who has been a coach for 40 years and coached at Wesley Chapel from 1999-2009, knows it and advises his players accordingly. He had a nutritionist speak to the team who stressed the importance of being well-fed — not just hydrated.

Staying hydrated and well nourished, in addition to staying well rested, are a few of the steps people can take to protect themselves from Florida’s infamous heat and humidy.

Although the calendar has flipped to September and fall weather has started to take hold of northern states, it is just another summer month to Florida. The thermometer may creep down a couple of degrees during the day, but it’s hardly autumnal weather.

With schools back in session, this is the time when children can still work up a dripping sweat outside for fall sports or in physical education (PE) class.

What makes children and adolescents that much more susceptible to the heat is the fact they may not be aware of the damage that can be done or of the symptoms that the heat is taking its toll.

As effective as the buddy system is — having athletes or kids and their peers pipe up if they notice something wrong — a large burden of responsibility lies with the adults who are in supervisory roles.

And at schools, that means teachers and coaches play the role.

Sean Brock, supervisor of physical education for Pasco County schools, said general guidelines are sent at the beginning of each school year to every teacher who deals with outdoor activities. The guidelines include being aware of the heat, symptoms of heat illness and first-aid type procedures.

Most of it, Brock said, is a common sense approach: frequent water breaks, limiting outdoor exposure during the hottest part of the day and taking advantage of covered shelters.

As a former PE teacher and football coach, Steve Vanoer knows the perils of overdoing it in hot environments.

Now the supervisor of PE and health of the Hillsborough County schools, Vanoer said teachers are urged to modify lesson plans if the heat seems overbearing.

“If you’re doing a track and field unit and it’s 98 degrees and the humidity is high, then what you want to do is change that lesson plan or modify it so that students aren’t engaging in an activity that is already strenuous and compounded by warm weather.”

He said teachers are well aware of the heat, because they are the ones that spend more time in it. Elementary school kids typically spend 20-30 minutes outside. Middle and high schoolers may be outdoors for 50 minutes.  Teachers can be outside for up to seven hours.

Most PE students won’t necessarily suffer any serious heat-related injuries, but kids participating in after-school athletics run a greater risk. This is where the buddy system is especially effective.

“The coaches have a lot of kids they have to watch, so they have to inform their athletes,” said Melanie Cole, an exercise physiologist and radio host on www.healthradio.net.

Unfortunately, kids playing sports sometimes aren’t as upfront about fatigue as they should be. There can be added pressure when kids are competing for playing time.

“If he’s your star athlete, he’s your star athlete — but he needs to take a break too,” Cole said.

As more knowledge about the dangers of heat exertion sprouts up, there is more of a willingness to nip the problem in the bud.

Michael Bergeron, director for the National Institute for Athletic Health and Performance at Sanford in South Dakota, said the risk of heat-related illnesses depends on the preparation of those out in the sun. Acclimating to the heat is a huge factor. He pointed out how a majority of heat-stroke deaths in sports occur early in the practice season.

“Clearly, they’re doing too much too soon,” Bergeron said. “There’s a lot of professionalization of youth sports these days. These kids are not professionals. There’s no reason to work them that hard and push them like they’re going to be professionals.

“It doesn’t mean you can’t work hard, but you’re not training Navy SEALs.”

This means not to have kids who spend a lot of time indoors over the summer go out the first day and play like they’re in mid-season form.

Another vital factor is the humidity. Florida heat isn’t necessarily the same as Arizona heat for example.

The high levels of humidity in Florida prevent efficient methods for the body to cool itself, including sweating. More humidity means there is more resistance to evaporation. So rather than sweat evaporating and cooling you, it just gathers.

The worst condition — a familiar scene for Floridians — is a hot, sunny, still day with no breeze and high humidity.

The Florida Office of Vital Statistics reported 24 deaths in the state during 2009 from exposure to excessive natural heat. According to natural hazard statistics from the National Weather Service, the United States averaged 115 heat-related deaths between 2001-2010.

Things to watch for suggesting the heat is getting to someone is profuse sweating, muscle cramps, nausea and overall lowered physical performance. These are signs the person needs to stop, be taken to a shaded area and hydrated. More severe signs are lack of sweating and flush-red skin.

“That’s when it gets scary,” Cole said. “Their core temperature could be going up to 105 (degrees) or higher and if you don’t get them cooled down, things that could start to happen are nerve damage and brain problems, organ failure.”

This doesn’t mean kids aren’t safe outside.

“There is a lot of latitude that we give in essentially saying that healthy kids and adolescents can be safe, as long as the modifiable factors are modified,” Bergeron said. “You don’t want to push somebody to do something they’re not ready for.”

More information on heat-related illnesses and symptoms can be found at www.healthradio.net, www.cdc.gov, or www.sanfordresearch.org.

County may approve residential beekeeping

By Kyle LoJacono

 

The Hillsborough County Commission took a step toward approving residential beekeeping.

Commissioners voted to explore changing the county’s land-use plan, which would allow people with homes on a quarter-acre of land or less to have up to two beehives. Those with additional land could have more.

Gary Ranker, president of the Florida State Beekeepers Association, was pleased with the commissioners’ decision.

“I’m optimistic this whole process is looking forward to a resolution where people can put bees in their backyards and have a real nice hobby and also do something good for the county,” Ranker said.

Commissioners did say some measures would need to be added to the land-use change to make sure neighbors, especially those with young children, are safe from bees.

Jerry Hayes, chief of the apiary section of the Florida Department of Agriculture, said having more beekeepers could be a positive thing not only for those who crave honey, but also for the environment.

“Beekeepers raise European honeybees, not the more aggressive Africanized bees,” Hayes said.

Hayes explained European bees — which can have as many as 60,000 insects per hive — were domesticated hundreds of years ago, a process that breeds a very docile animal that produces a lot of honey.

District 2 Commissioner Victor Crist, who represents Lutz and much of northern Hillsborough, was especially concerned with how close the hives could be to neighbors.

“What if someone sprays the hive with something,” Crist said. “What could happen?”

Crist said he would like beekeeping to be limited to people who have at least 20,000 square feet of land, with the hives near the center to limit contact with other people. He also wants people in neighboring properties to be notified when bees are being kept near them.

Beekeeping proponents disagree with Crist’s proposal.

“Sizing the lot at 20,000 square feet would basically knock it out of most residential areas,” said association member Becky Weliczko.

Commissioners agreed to force those keeping bees in residential areas to register with the state and have their hives inspected, that is if they approve the land-use change. They would also have to keep beehives 25 feet from property lines, or just 10 feet if there is a 6-foot-high fence or hedge around the lot.

In neighboring Pasco, beekeeping can only be done in areas zoned for agriculture, according to county Extension Agnet BJ Jarvis. Ordinancies may change based on city governments.

Hayes said many people incorrectly believe all bees are overly aggressive, but only the Africanized variety have earned the nickname “killer bees.”

“Africanized bees originally lived in a portion of south Africa that had a lot of predators and other bugs that competed with them for food,” Hayes said. “Because of that, they are very, very aggressive.”

Africanized bees also produce much less honey because the colony eats more of the product to fuel their fast metabolism and aggressive behavior.

Africanized bees were first brought to South America in 1957 and later came to Florida via boats with fruit shipments, according to Hayes. The more aggressive variety, along with other environmental pressures, has effectively wiped out wild European bees.

“Having more people keeping European honeybees will give the Africanized bees competition, and that could keep their population in check,” Hayes said. “Also, if European drones (male bees) mate with queens from African hives, that could make them less aggressive. That might help bring some balance back and help pollinate natural and cultivated plants.”

Hayes said the number of beekeepers in the state has increased from 600 to 2,100 during the last five years, which produce 17 million pounds of honey annually.

County planners are asking for suggestions at a public hearing on Sept. 15. The commissioners would make a final vote at a Nov. 3 meeting.

Those interested in learning how to start their own beehives can find information on the Tampa Bay Beekeepers Association’s website, www.tampabaybeekeepers.com. Additional information is available at the state’s agriculture department’s website at www.freshfromflorida.com.

Holloway’s Farm Supply, 3030 US 41 in Land O’ Lakes, also has supplies to help people start beekeeping, as well as information for the novice honey enthusasit. For more information, call (813) 949-6809.