GFWC Lutz-Land O’ Lakes Woman’s Club president Annette Bellingar delivered 75 Christmas crackers, donated by club members, to a Tampa assisted living facility. Each cracker contained two pairs of socks for each facility resident. Bellingar also presented boxes of new shoes, accessories and toiletries provided by a generous donor friend of the woman’s club. Maryvette DeLeon, administrator of the assisted living facility, left, accepts the gifts from Bellingar.
Reasons To Smile
Creature encounters
Family friends that bring joy
A little comfort can go a long way
On behalf of the GFWC Lutz-Land O’ Lakes Woman’s Club, member Beth Nevel-Rader (right) delivered 17 stuffed animals to Hillsborough County Fire Rescue Station 40 in Lutz. The animals are intended to bring comfort and calm to children when the Fire Rescue team arrives at a home during a time of emergency, and/or stress and anxiety for the family. Firefighter EMT Tarel Peralta accepted the donations. For information on the woman’s club, visit GFWCLutzLandOLakesWomansClub.org.
Helping hands, caring hearts
The Labonte sisters from left: Katie, 13, and twins Jocie and Madie, 9, are being home-schooled by their grandmother, Tish Kunath, while their mother is an essential worker at Oak Hill Hospital. Due to the pandemic, the sisters have not been able to socialize with other kids, so they started a project to build packages of 8-Can Chicken Soup to help families in need. Each package contains all of the ingredients and a printed out recipe to make an easy and nutritious dinner in less than 20 minutes, for up to eight people. In early November, the sisters ordered, compiled and donated 100 bags of the soup packages to Pasco Kids First, to be distributed.
Elfers Cafe reopens, with a gift
Community Aging and Retirement Services Inc. (CARES) reached out to the public requesting an in-kind donation for the CARES Elfers Center. The organization was looking for an electric stove for the reopening of the Elfers Cafe.
Victor Attard, of Finishing Touches Collision, Auto Body Repair & Painting stepped up to the plate. With the delivery assistance of Mark Kenyon, the center received a brand new electric stove.
CARES cannot help save critical resources in demand from vulnerable and at-risk seniors without the help of donors.
Dignity bags presented to family program
The Elevation Church Outreach group in Zephyrhills recently collected, organized and donated 100 Dignity Bags to Pasco Kids First’s Healthy Families Program. The bags were filled with personal hygiene products for women and girls. Last year, Healthy Families Pasco- Hernando served 262 families who were expecting or had a newborn, through positive-parenting home visit services to assist with resources and increase self-sufficiency.
Another Gronk for Tampa Bay
ZooTampa announced that its baby Indian rhino will be sharing its name with Tampa Bay Buccaneers’ tight end Rob Gronkowski, also known as ‘Gronk.’ The announcement came from Gronkowski himself, via video chat, to help welcome baby Gronk to the Tampa Bay area. ZooTampa celebrated by hosting a baby shower at the Indian Rhino habitat. The shower included football ice cakes, a Bucs-themed boomer ball, Bucs decorations, and a watermelon Gronk Smash.
Safe Autumn activities
Club Connerton previously has hosted several autumn events for residents in the Land O’ Lakes community — but this year, because of COVID-19, the activities were reimagined, to follow social distancing guidelines.
Instead of the adult beer garden and costume contests, Gregg Svendgard, Club Connerton’s general manager, and his staff, came up with some new activities.
There was the annual Monster Mash Dash Costume 5K Run, a pumpkin patch and a scarecrow-themed hay bale to give families a backdrop for photos.
Staff members disinfected pumpkins regularly, and plastic gloves were supplied to those picking out their perfect pumpkin.
The pumpkins were free, and each children received a bag with candy and a craft-to-go, while supplies lasted.
1,000+ crowd at Scarecrow Festival
The Pioneer Florida Museum and Village, in Dade City, held its annual Scarecrow Festival on Oct. 10.
With the purchase of a $5 admission ticket, attendees could participate in games, costume contests and petting zoos, as well as enjoy watching performances from soccer-playing dogs and a bubble balloon magician.
The most popular activity was “Make Your Own Scarecrow,” where guests could create life-sized scarecrows by stuffing them with loads of hay.
The Scarecrow Festival was sponsored by the San Antonio Citizens Federal Credit Union.
Published October 21, 2020