Local News

PINELLAS PARK – More than 150 riders got on their bikes and rode 11 miles Aug. 28 throughout Pinellas Park in support of the Wounded Warriors Abilities Ranch’s ninth annual Alive Ride. 

The race began and ended at Quaker Steak & Lube on 49th Street. Riders received a police escort courtesy of the Pinellas Park Police Department with assistance from the Pinellas Park Fire Department. 

Stops included Pinellas Park Fire Station 33, Pinellas Park Elementary, Morgan Fitzgerald Middle School and Pinellas Park High School.

Mike Delancey Jr. began the Wounded Warriors Abilities Ranch in 2015 in Pinellas Park. The nonprofit was inspired by his desire to help other wounded veterans get out and get active in the community. 

While on tour in Iraq as a Marine on Sept. 1, 2006, Delancey was shot by an enemy sniper. Delancey became paralyzed from the chest down. 

Delancey and his family refused to let this be his defining moment. It would be a launching point to a whole new outlook on life. 

The City of Pinellas Park helped Delancey start Wounded Warriors Abilities Ranch with available land in the city. Delancey uses every day to help those who feel lost and forgotten after sacrificing so much for their country.

“I talked to one woman whose husband was in Vietnam and she told me he hadn’t left the house in over 20 years,” Delancey said. “We started this foundation mainly to get veterans out of the house and just doing something. Don’t stare at a wall. Don’t get in your own head. Go out and meet friends and get reintegrated back in the community.”

Delancey and his family believe their foundation is thriving because of the community support from the people in Pinellas Park and the efforts from businesses and the city to help make the Alive Ride a can’t-miss event. 

“It means a lot to have people from public works, the city manager, the police and fire departments,” Delancey said. “This area is extremely patriotic and seeing all of us ride by schools and the kids are all chanting ‘USA.’ It’s a cool feeling and the message is you can accomplish a lot when you have great support.”

TAMPA – The Glazer Children’s Museum is marking a milestone this month: 15 Years of Play. To celebrate, Florida residents can get in with $15 admission all September long. Families are invited to join in a month packed with birthday-themed activities, special performances and a giant free Birthday Bash in Curtis Hixon Waterfront Park on Sept. 27.

“Play is the foundation for curiosity, confidence and lifelong learning,” said Sarah Cole, president and CEO of the Glazer Children’s Museum. “When a child plays, they’re not just having fun, they’re discovering new skills and building imagination that will carry them into the future. More than three million children and families have discovered that joy within our walls, each experiencing the growth and connection that play makes possible. That’s the true impact of play, and it’s what makes this milestone so meaningful to celebrate with our community.”

Throughout September, families can:

• Get creative making party headbands and glasses in Make Space Craft; the perfect accessories to wear to the big Birthday Bash.
• Cozy up for birthday-themed story times.
• Play together with classic games like Pin the Cherry on the Cupcake, limbo, charades and dance parties.
• Experience live theater, including special performances of Quince by Victoria Rios on Sept. 20, 21 and 28, at 11 a.m. and 1 p.m.

The Big Birthday Bash

This year’s Birthday Bash is extra special. It’s part of Nickelodeon’s Worldwide Day of Play, a global initiative encouraging kids and families to step away from screens, head outdoors and discover the joy of play. 

The free community celebration will be held from 9:30 a.m. to 2 p.m. Sept. 27 at Curtis Hixon Waterfront Park. 

Activities include live performances, touch-a-truck experiences, bounce houses, local artisans and kid-run vendor booths, costumed characters and food trucks.

TAMPA – Members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, along with government, interfaith and community leaders, gathered Aug. 23 for the groundbreaking ceremony of the Tampa Florida Temple. Elder Neil L. Andersen of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, presided at the event and Elder Brook P. Hales, General Authority Seventy, conducted. The Apostle and longtime Tampa resident offered a dedicatory prayer over the land and all who will be influenced by it.

“We ask that Thou might bless this land and this sacred house once constructed, that it might be a light and strength to the Latter-day Saints and to all the community,” Elder Andersen prayed. “Let our friends and neighbors feel Thy Spirit and increase their faith in Thy Son as they sense what has come to this place.”

The Andersens have deep roots in the Tampa area. Elder Andersen’s wife, Kathy, was born and raised in Florida, much of it in Hillsborough County. They lived in the Tampa area from 1977 to 1993 raising their family, until church service moved them elsewhere.

Sister Andersen reflected on the growth of the church in the Tampa area since she was a young girl where she was taught about Jesus Christ. “I love my Savior, Jesus Christ. I love to listen to His words. ‘Come follow me,’ he said.”

Five hundred members and friends gathered at the 12-acre site at 9445 Camden Field Parkway in Riverview. Among the honored guests were Florida State Representative Michele Rayner, the Rev. Glenn Dames of AME Church and leaders from Metropolitan Ministries.

“The temple is going to touch the lives of tens of thousands of people,” said Patrick Davis, Associate Director of Development at Metropolitan Ministries. “I understand the importance of the temple in the community. I do feel very blessed, because we all bring our blessings to this temple.”

Florida is currently home to more than 176,000 Latter-day Saints in nearly 280 congregations. The first congregation of the Church of Jesus Christ was created in 1897. The Tampa Florida Temple will serve more than 27,000 members in and around the Southwest Florida Gulf Coast.

Local members Ikwo and Dinah Ibiam explained that having a temple in the area sends a message that this is a place where people strive to be good.

Latter-day Saints consider each temple a house of the Lord and the most sacred place of worship on earth. Temples differ from the Church’s meetinghouses (chapels). All are welcome to attend Sunday worship services and other weekday activities at local meetinghouses. The primary purpose of temples is for faithful members of the Church of Jesus Christ to participate in sacred ceremonies, such as marriages, which unite families forever, and proxy baptisms on behalf of deceased ancestors who did not have the opportunity to be baptized while living.

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LUTZ – St. Joseph’s Hospital-North is performing an innovative procedure that can lower patients’ blood pressure with less medication or no medication at all.

The procedure is called a “renal denervation” and performed by a specialist in cardiovascular disease and interventional cardiology.

“Patients with resistant hypertension defined as blood pressure over 130 systolic or 80 diastolic on three medications or higher are candidates for renal denervation,” said Dr. Muthusamy Velusamy, a cardiologist who performs the procedure at the Lutz hospital.

Renal denervation is a one-time procedure that targets nerves near the kidneys that can become overactive and cause elevated blood pressure. During the minimally invasive procedure, the doctor inserts a thin tube into the renal arteries and applies thermal energy to disrupt the nerves. The tube is removed, leaving no implant behind. The patient is under mild sedation during the procedure and expected to go home the same day.

“Renal denervation can be very effective, the outcomes can be good in managing blood pressure resulting in less medications or no medications for some patients,” Velusamy said. “It is nice to have this treatment locally and make it available to patients to help achieve good control of blood pressure.”

High blood pressure is a common condition. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, nearly half of all adults in the U.S. have high blood pressure and only about one in four have it under control.

The prevalence of the condition makes the innovative solution of renal denervation all the more compelling.

“Renal denervation is a proven approach to lower blood pressure and reduce the amount of medications patients need to have,” said Kimberly Wright, manager of interventional services and noninvasive cardiology at St. Joseph’s Hospital-North.

Clearwater’s Morton Plant Hospital, Safety Harbor’s Mease Countryside Hospital, Tampa’s St. 

Joseph’s Hospital and Winter Haven Hospital are also performing this procedure. 

Other BayCare hospitals will offer renal denervation in the future.