Special to The Laker/Lutz News

By Suzanne Schmidt

Staff Writer

LAND O’ LAKES — Some of Rose Seltzer’s second-graders thought they were in trouble when Gary Raulerson walked into the room.

Raulerson, a deputy from the Pasco County Sheriff’s Office, was actually at Lake Myrtle Elementary School to read to the students and answer some questions through the Books and Badges program. He also had the added bonus of getting to read to his nephew’s class.

“Reading is an important life skill they will use until college and into their adult lives,” Raulerson said. “I enjoy having the opportunity to interact with children in a positive fashion. It is important because with the technology available today, children can get lost in it. It is good to get in some basic reading so they can use their imagination instead of relying on a game to do it for them.”

Toni Roach, another deputy, put together the event last year when she was the school’s resource officer.

“Last year this was a really great program,” Roach said. “The children loved it. It is a great opportunity to let the kids know how important reading is. Anytime we can have positive relations between law enforcement and the community, it is a good thing.”

Raulerson and the other five volunteer deputies picked their own books.

“They wanted to pick out books that the children would enjoy and that the deputies would like reading to them,” Roach said.

Rose Seltzer, second grade teacher, said she appreciates it any time an adult will come to read to the students.

“Anytime the kids see an adult other than their teacher reading, it helps them to see the value of reading,” Seltzer said. “I think this is very appropriate because it lets the children see the police in a different light. They are not just out catching bad guys, it helps them to see there is a real human being.”

Alana Blackstock, 8, said she loved having the deputy in her classroom.

“I liked the book he read,” Blackstock said. “He showed us his gear and gave us a sticker. I like it when adults come to read because it makes me want to read more books.”

Wade Raulerson, 7, only found out that his uncle would be reading to his class at the moment he saw him in the front office. He said he learned to stay away from guns and had a lot of fun.

“I was really surprised and excited to see him,” Wade said. “I liked the book he read because it was pretty funny.”

Dawn Raulerson, Wade’s mother, volunteers at the school three days a week. She said the students in the class were better behaved than normal.

“They were so quiet when he was reading,” Dawn Raulerson said. “I think they respect the law.”

By Kyle LoJacono

Staff Writer

ZEPHYRHILLS — Each year crowds of thousands from across the state attend the Zephyrhills Celtic Festival and Highland Games to celebrate their culture.

“It’s great for people familiar with the culture or for those just learning about it,” said Steve Serneels, president and founder of the event. “I can’t think of any other place I’d rather be on the first Saturday in March each year.”

The 2010 festival, which is 9 a.m. to 8 p.m. March 6 and 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. March 7, will be celebrating its 10th anniversary and organizers are planning something different for the occasion. The event’s parade, which was traditionally on Saturday, will now be Friday March 5.

“That is a special treat to everyone who has come out and supported us for the first nine years of doing the festival,” said Rhonda Taylor, festival coordinator. “We thought it would be easier for people to enjoy all the festivities of the weekend if we had the parade the day before. It’s also a nice change of pace.”

Taylor has coordinated the event for the past few years.

“The parade will start at 7 p.m. on Fifth Avenue and go from 12th Street to Seventh Street,” Serneels said. “Afterward we’ll be having a street party with some Celtic rock bands and food and drinks in downtown at the Times Square pavilion.”

Serneels said about 6,000 people will attend the two-day festival at Zephyr Park.

“It’s in Zephyrhills, but I’d say more people come from out of town than from in town,” he said. “These kinds of Celtic festivals draw people from around the country.”

The weekend event will include attractions ranging from children’s games to a highland dance competition.

“I think the highlight of the festival is the highland games,” Serneels said. “I really like the sheaf toss where they throw sacks of straw over a bar. The caber toss is also very interesting. They take a huge log and try and flip them straight over so that it doesn’t turn at all.”

For a complete list of the highland games, visit www.zephyrhillscelticfestival.com and click the athletics link.

There will also be a British and European car show with between 100 and 200 cars of all ages.

“I personally like the band competition because I just love bagpipe music,” Taylor said. “I loved bagpipes the first time I heard them.”

Serneels is the founder of the Tampa Bay Pipes & Drums group that will be playing at the festival. Taylor’s three children are members of the band.

Besides the planned events, the festival acts as a way for people to connect with their traditional Celtic background. One famous Zephyrhills resident who will be a part of the gathering is Mayor Cliff McDuffie, who is the Macfie Clan coordinator for the entire southeastern United States.

“I was on the festival’s committee before I became mayor eight years ago and I love going to it each year,” McDuffie said. “We’ll have a tent set up and we’ll be answering questions about the clan.”

McDuffie said there are about 20 or 30 different Celtic names associated with his clan. There were traditionally seven Celtic nations, which included: Scotland, Wales, Ireland, Cornwall, Galicia and Asturias, Isle of Man and Brittany. Today the term Celtic generally applies to anyone from Scotland, Wales and Ireland.

The cost for adults at the festival is $7 a day and children 12-years-old or younger get in for free. Parking is also free and a shuttle will be available to accommodate the crowds.

“I think the festival is something anyone can enjoy regardless of heritage,” Serneels said. “I’m mostly Scottish and Irish, but I have other European heritage too. Even though I’m not 100 percent Celtic, I still love the culture. The festival gives people a new look at Celtic heritage they won’t get in traditional media.”

IF YOU GO

What 10th annual Zephyrhills Celtic Festival and Highland Games

• When March 6 and 7
• Where Zephyr Park in Zephyrhills
• Admission Adults $7, kids 12 and younger free
• www.zephyrhillscelticfestival.com

By Kyle LoJacono

Staff Writer

LUTZ — St. Joseph’s Hospital-North is bringing more than just healing to patients, it is changing the way people look at hospital care.

“I can’t say enough about the new hospital,” said Frank Ferlita, the second patient to be admitted to the hospital. “That goes from top to bottom from the management to the nurses to the kitchen and cleaning crew. I can’t find anything wrong with the hospital.”

Ferlita was hospitalized for eight days for foot surgery resulting from diabetes.

“I’ve had bad experiences with hospitals in the past, but this place is the best I’ve ever seen,” said Ferlita, of Carrollwood. “I’m thrilled to have it here in north Hillsborough and I haven’t been able to stop talking about the place.”

The hospital was built with more than basic medical treatment in mind. Architects used what is called evidence-based design to create a soothing atmosphere.

“What that means is the patient’s comfort and needs were the most important thing during the design and building of the new hospital,” said hospital spokesperson Jacqueline Farruggio. “Everything from the lights overhead to the floor was chosen with the patient in mind.”

Most of the lights in the new hospital face upward and a visor directs the light to the sides of the rooms to keep it out of patients’ eyes while being moved on gurneys.

The type of carpet and wood flooring used reduce noise, which gives patients a more peaceful stay.

“Those are just the most obvious things when you walk in, but everything was designed that way,” Farruggio said. “Each room is a private suite with chairs and a pull-out bed for family members to stay comfortably with a patient before and after their procedure.”

Keeping the family a part of the process is important at St. Joseph’s.

“It’s all about family-centered care,” said Kristi Greene, pre-operations nurse. “The more you keep the whole family involved, the better the outcome for the patient.”

Another element of the hospital’s design is the Healing Garden located outside on the first floor. The garden has fountains, rock formations and plants where people can relax while visiting family or friends.

All patient and operating rooms are at least 100 square feet, giving room for medical staff to work and space for visitors to move around in.

“That’s also part of the evidence-based design,” said Cheryl Brown, night charge nurse. “There’s nothing different for the doctors or staff to have to remember about specific rooms because they are all exactly the same. No surprises here.”

All wires and tubes are hidden from patient view so that the suites looks less like a hospital room and more like a hotel.

The largest rooms are for labor and delivery, which are 418 square feet.

“You need a lot of room to deliver a baby while keeping the mother calm and relaxed,” Brown said. “We can even control the lights with a wand, which I call the ‘magic wand,’ so we have the overhead lights directed right where we need them during delivery.”

The hospital keeps the mother and baby together as much as possible.

“The babies spend a little time in the nursery behind the viewing window,” said Donna Quinones, neonatal nurse. “They’re here for a bath and little things like that. People can see in most of the time, but we can frost over the glass in case a baby needs to have a minor procedure or is sick.”

Quinones said there is a neonatal nurse at the hospital at all times.

“We are very excited to be opening,” said Lisa Patterson, communications manager. “The hospital will give necessary healthcare and a closer location to northwest Hillsborough and southern Pasco counties.”

For more information, call

About St. Joseph’s

• 43,000 patients expect in 2010
• 28,000 emergency room visits in 2010
• 108 private suites
• 500 employees
• 1,000 free parking spaces
• Cost of more than $225 million to build
• (813) 443-7000
• www.stjosephsnorth.com

By Suzanne Schmidt

Staff Writer

PASCO — Through the new Arts In Motion educational workshops, school-aged children will be able to learn skills that will carry over for the rest of their lives.

The topics for the new workshops include puppet making, drawing with the grid, stage management, creative movement, from the page to the stage, and stage combat.

Cindy Ross, board member of AIM, said the workshops are a great way to provide additional educational opportunities for the children in Pasco. AIM also puts on plays with children ages k-12 in the area.

“We want to give as many kids as many opportunities as we can,” Ross said. “There can only be so many kids in the production because we can’t have 100 kids on stage. It is good experience for them. They will be able to take the lessons they learn here with them for the rest of their lives.”

Connie LaMarca-Frankel is the new education director for AIM.

“In the past we have had occasional workshops,” LaMarca-Frankel said. “We wanted to shift the focus back to the educational aspect of AIM. Many schools don’t get art programs. Art is important because it feeds creativity and the children can learn to work well with each other.”

Originally the organization started putting on plays 15 years ago because there were not many theater programs in Pasco County.

“It is our mission to fill the void of arts education that is lacking in the county,” Ross said. “Children can learn about being on stage and can even work behind the scenes on things like props, costumes and set design. We want to give them the opportunity to learn and hone the craft.”

In the stage management class, children will have the chance to learn what it is like to produce a play from beginning to end.

“They will be taking a one-act play and looking at how to produce it,” LaMarca-Frankel said. “They will break into groups and research the cost, the set design and the prop design. In the end the kids will have kids do a poster board display and they will do a performance.”

LaMarca-Frankel will bring her experience as a humanities and theater instructor at Pasco-Hernando Community College to teach the play to stage workshop.

“If kids are really interested in the theater, this class will help them to understand all the different aspects of producing,” LaMarca-Frankel said. “The kids will have a chance to get a little taste of everything.”

The puppet-making workshop gives children the opportunity not only to create puppets but also to make up scenes.

“It promotes healthy social skills,” LaMarca-Frankel said. “In addition to learning about the arts, they learn about themselves.”

For those who like a little more action, the stage combat class will teach children how to play fight.

“In the stage combat class they will learn how to fall, slap and do hand-to-hand combat on stage,” Ross said.

The next Arts In Motion performances will be “Honk Jr.” at 7 p.m. May 7 and 2 a.m. May 8 and “A Night at the Wax Museum” at 7 p.m. May 8 and 2 p.m. May 9. The performances will be at the Eleanor Dempsey Performing Arts Center at Bishop McLaughlin High School, 13651 Hays Road in Hudson.

The information for the workshops and the forms to sign up are on the site, www.artsinmotionpasco.org or call (352) 834-1246.

By Sarah Whitman

Senior staff writer

When a child opens a book, a door to a whole new world is opened.

Now through the end of April, Goodwill-Suncoast will host a book drive to benefit the BookWorks childhood literacy program.  The program promotes childhood literacy by delivering books to children at Head Start programs in low-income areas.

“BookWorks gives books to children who otherwise might not be able to afford them,” said Chris Ward, marketing manager for Goodwill-Suncoast. “We send volunteers to read in Head Start preschool classrooms and when story time is over, we give each child a book of their own to take home.”

More than a thousand children throughout Hillsborough, Pasco, Polk and Pinellas counties receive books each year. In order to expand the program into more classrooms, people need to donate books. Donations are now being collected at all Goodwill-Suncoast stores and donation centers, including the new Cypress Creek location in Wesley Chapel, now the Pasco County headquarters for BookWorks.

“Books should be new or like-new storybooks geared toward children age three to five,” Ward said. “Illustrated books are great but there should be a story too.”

No used or religious-themed books will be accepted. Some favorite books include “Thomas the Train” and fairy princess stories. Children also love books about animals.

Carolyn Duffy, lead teacher for Head Start in New Port Richey, said her students can hardly contain their excitement when it comes to BookWorks. A volunteer from the program visits her classroom twice a month.

“They are so excited the morning they know a storyteller is coming to read a book to the class,” Duffy said. “Then, they get to go home with a book.”

For many of the children in Head Start classrooms, a book from BookWorks is the first book that’s their very own.

“I’ve had parents ask when they have to return the book and when I tell them it’s to keep, they can’t believe it,” Duffy said.

Duffy said having a book to read at home is important.

“It encourages families to read together,” she said. “When parents read to their children, it is the beginning of a lifetime of reading.”

Ward hopes to collect enough books so that volunteers can visit more Head Start locations on a bi-weekly basis.

“The children in some of the classrooms have had volunteers coming to their schools for so long, they have started their own little libraries,” Ward said. “It’s wonderful.”

Ward said BookWorks is in sync with Goodwill’s overall mission.

“Our mission is to help people achieve their full potential through the power of work,” Ward said. “Literacy is an important factor in being successful in life and in the work force.”

For information on BookWorks or to find out how to volunteer as a storyteller, call (888) 279-1988.

Info

• Local Goodwill sites
• 2390 Willow Oak in Wesley Chapel
• 25013 Village Lakes Shopping Center Dr. in Land O’ Lakes.

By Suzanne Schmidt

Staff Writer

ZEPHYRHILLS — At an art studio in Zephyrhills, people gather to learn more than how to draw and paint, they gather to heal.

Cancer patients, survivors and their caregivers learn from volunteer Mary Sears in the weekly Art Therapy program provided through The Florida Medical Clinic Foundation of Caring.

“They come here and a lot of times they are withdrawn and timid,” Sears said. “That only lasts a short period of time. Everyone here is very warm and welcoming. There is no dissension here. Everyone shares their problems and their joys. We laugh together and cry together. They are my extended family.”

Sears has been teaching the art classes for five years at The Healing Arts Studio, 38135 Market Square. She said the payment she receives is worth more than any amount of money she could get.

“When I started teaching, a lady came to paint in a class,” Sears said. “When I was telling them time is up, she said that couldn’t be. She told me for two hours she had forgot about her cancer. That is my pay. I love to volunteer here.”

Ann Moyer, of Zephyrhills, started taking lessons through the program when she was taking care of her mother who had pancreatic cancer.

“Mary taught me how to do different mediums,” Moyer said. “I learned different techniques and what to do after you finish a painting like how to mat, frame and finalize with a sealer. I never thought I could draw until she taught me shapes and dimension.”

The positive attitude Sears brings to the class inspires students like Moyer.

“She made me more positive,” Moyer said. “Instead of saying I can’t do it, now I know I can.”

Sears and her students will display their work at a sidewalk art show from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. March 3 at the clinic. The show will include work from all mediums including pen and ink, acrylic, graphite, watercolor, pastel and oil.

“We mainly want everyone to come and see what we do,” Sears said. “It is such a boost for them to get to show off their work. In life there are so many things you can’t control, like cancer. When you have that brush in your hand, you can forget for a while about the chemo, the surgeries and losing your hair.”

Jack Taylor, of Zephyrhills, has been painting with the program since he was diagnosed with sarcoma cancer about three years ago.

“I find it to be relaxing to just get in here and forget about anything else,” Taylor said. “I like painting horses because I used to ride them. It reminds me of when I lived on a farm when I was a kid.”

Zephyrhills resident Mary Campbell is a breast cancer survivor with one more year of medication to go. She said she loves to come and paint on Wednesdays because she gets to socialize with Taylor and everyone else in the class.

“I don’t feel alone,” Campbell said. “It is good to be with people who have the same problem as you do. I feel like everybody here is all the same. You become so close to so many of them, you don’t want to stay home.”
Many of the artists never really knew they could paint before coming to Sears’ class, like Ellen Reid of Zephyrhills. Reid was a caretaker to her husband, Thomas, until he passed away last October.

“Mary just said you can do it, so I tried,” Reid said. “It is very calming. It can take me to a place I used to be. When I start to feel depressed, I just pull out my artwork and it makes me feel better. I have learned to just live in the moment.”

The class is so helpful that Paulette Richardson said she wishes she had something like this when she was diagnosed and treated for kidney cancer eight years ago.

“My quality of life would have been better because I wouldn’t have been sitting around thinking about it,” Richardson said. “This is the only social thing I do. We get to know each other, we are like a big family. We support each other and it means a lot.”

For information, visit www.floridamedicalclinic.com or call (813) 783-9932.