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Betty Burke

Nurturing quilts uplift spirits in the courtroom

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When children enter Judge Lynn Tepper’s family courtroom in Dade City, they’re often welcomed with healthy snacks, stuffed animals, and lots and lots of books.

Another staple in Tepper’s courtroom of late: Dozens of homemade quilts, stitched with an assortment of bright colors, shapes and other unique designs.

The quilts are given to adoptive parents and caregivers of infants and young children, to help form a nurturing bond for families navigating custody cases.

Members of the Rotary Club of San Antonio donated a batch of handmade quilts to Judge Tepper’s courtroom. The quilts are given to adoptive parents and caregivers of infants and young children, to help form a nurturing bond for families navigating custody cases. (Kevin Weiss)

They’re made and donated by members of the Rotary Club of San Antonio, as part of one of its many community service projects.

Creations range from small baby quilts to full-size bed quilts. Handbags have even been designed for older children.

“The quilts have been amazing,” said Tepper, who oversees dependency, delinquency and domestic violence cases for the 6th Judicial Circuit Court of Florida.

“It’s a positive thing for (parents) to wrap around the baby or when the baby is now starting to come home with them. It’s just such a positive — the expression is so positive that they’re coming here, giving them something.”

For Tepper, the quilts are part of a broader theme of facilitating positive, impactful relationships for youth in her courtroom, many of which have experienced adverse childhood experiences, such as abuse and neglect.

“It is a buffering relationship that makes the difference,” said Tepper, who’s served on the bench for 34 years. “You should see the look on the parents’ faces. …They just get such a kick out of them. My bailiff loves to give them away.”

Rotary club members last week handed off another batch of quilts to Tepper, who was the featured guest speaker at the organization’s monthly dinner meeting at the Tampa Bay Golf & Country Club.

Her talk centered on trauma-informed care and the importance of getting to the root of societal problems through rehabilitation, as opposed to outright punishment.

“She likes to take care of the children,” San Antonio rotary club member and past president Winnie Burke says of Tepper. “It’s good when they come in, for them to have something to be happy…”

Fellow Rotarian Betty Burke earlier this year came up with the idea of donating quilts to Tepper, after she picked up the craft.

“I have a great time (quilting),” Burke said. “I just started doing it, but I’m having a wonderful time, enjoying it.”

Burke enjoys it even more knowing the creations are being put to good use — uplifting the spirits of children going through challenging circumstances.

She explained: “You know, these kids come to court, sometimes they have nothing. If they’re abused and taken out of the homes in the middle of the night, they might not have any clothes but what’s on their backs, so we thought, ‘Well, if they get a quilt, this is theirs (and) something that belongs to them.”

Burke has also enlisted the help of a few quilting friends, like Darlene Kirkpatrick, who work together on producing creative, thematic patterns.

“I just love creating things,” said Kirkpatrick, who’s been quilting for over 20 years using scraps of materials from yard sales. “And then when you get a quilt, (it’s fun) trying to decide what kind of pattern to put on. Some have flowers, others have Xs. You just kind of look at the quilt for awhile and try to decide what you’re going to do.”

About 40 quilts have been donated to Tepper already this year.

Many feature squares with vibrant colors. Others have more unique patterns much like the American Flag or Christmas designs. Some are designed with characters, like Snoopy.

The rotary club plans to continue donating quilts “as long as somebody can use ‘em,” Burke said.

“We try to make different ones that appeal to different kids,” Burke said. “I call mine ‘happy quilts’ because they’re bright colors and they make me happy, and they can make somebody happy.”

The Rotary Club of San Antonio was founded in 2005, and is one of eight clubs in east Pasco County.

Rotarians are governed by Rotary International, which has about 1.2 million members in 32,000 clubs in 200 countries and geographic areas, according to the international organization’s website.

Published August 8, 2018

Rattlesnake fest not hiss-tory after all

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New organizers have stepped forward to take over the management of the San Antonio Rattlesnake Festival & Run, an event that had appeared to be headed toward extinction.

The Thomas Promise Foundation will be taking over reins of running the festival, that has been a mainstay in the City of San Antonio for a half-century.

A Bay News 9 reporter gets a first-hand feel for this creature at the Croc Encounters’ alligator pen, a popular attraction at the San Antonio Rattlesnake Festival & Run.
(File)

The San Antonio Rotary Club had been the festival’s primary organizer and had announced on Feb. 1 that 50th festival, which was held in October, would be its last.

In announcing that decision, Betty Burke, festival chair, said the club decided to step away from the festival because it was too much for the small club to handle.

After that announcement, however, five organizations stepped forward, expressing interest in taking over the event.

Club members talked about those willing to take over the festival during the club’s Feb. 21 meeting, and after discussing the various pros and cons of each of the interested groups, they reached a consensus, deciding that Thomas Promise would be the best fit for the festival’s original mission.

Burke then headed to the San Antonio City Commission meeting to share the news.

This isn’t the first time the festival has had a new organizer.

Burke recapped the festival’s history, in her announcement about the festival’s demise.

The festival originally was conceived by founders Eddie Herrmann and Willy Post, as a rattlesnake roundup — to replace the San Antonio Junior Chamber of Commerce’s Fun Day, which was being discontinued.

The Jaycees presented the first Rattlesnake Roundup on Nov. 4, 1967, in City Park, in San Antonio, according to a history compiled by Burke. Its aim was to entertain and to give funds back to the community.

The event continued for nearly a decade with few changes, until the Jaycees, gave up their chapter. That prompted Herrmann and other members to form the Rattlesnake and Gopher Enthusiasts (R.A.G.E.) group to carry on the tradition.

In 2013, R.A.G.E. announced it could no longer manage the event due to a lack of new volunteers to help.

That’s when the San Antonio, Dade City Sunrise, Wesley Chapel, Wesley Chapel Sunrise, Zephyrhills and Zephyrhills Daybreak Rotary clubs stepped in and assumed leadership, under the banner of the East Pasco Rotary Charities.

After that, the San Antonio Rotary Club took over in 2014, assuming full leadership for the festival.

In choosing to hand the festival off to Thomas Promise Foundation, club members noted that the organization seems in line with the original intent, to help the local community.

Thomas Promise Foundation provides backpacks full of food complete with three meals and snacks for underprivileged children in Pasco County. The meals help feed children through the weekend when they would otherwise go without.

The charity’s Operation Backpack began after Brooke Thomas gave her lunch money to classmates she saw going hungry. When she asked her mom for more lunch money, her mom asked why, and Brooke said she just wanted to help.

Thomas Promise Foundation began with that young girl’s compassion.

Now, the organization will bring new life to the Rattlesnake Festival & Run.

Published March 1, 2017

Festival may slither back to life

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The San Antonio Rotary Club is considering four organizations that are interested in taking over the annual San Antonio Rattlesnake Festival & Run.

The club announced earlier this month that the 50th festival, held in October, would be its last.

Children enjoy riding around in a barrel train during a previous San Antonio Rattlesnake Festival. (File)

“We pulled out all the stops for the 50th annual festival to honor and celebrate this longstanding community fundraiser,” Betty Burke said, in the announcement.

“The sad fact is that it’s just too large of a project for our small club and the declining pool of community volunteers,” Burke added.

Since then, however, the club has heard from four organizations, and it will be discussing their offers to take over the event at its meeting Feb. 21.

Some of the organizations are for-profit organizations and some are not, Burke said, declining to identify them before the club meets.

Burke had a mixed reaction when organizations came forward expressing an interest in taking over the festival.

“On the one hand, we kind of felt that the 50th (festival) was a good one to finish it with,” she said.

On the other hand, after news broke that the club would no longer organize the festival, most people were sad to see it go, she said.

There’s a possibility the festival could move, depending on which organization is selected to take it over, she said. Or, the new organizers would need to work with the City of San Antonio, if the festival stays at the park.

Burke said she’ll present the information to the club, and they’ll discuss which organization would seem to match up with the festival’s original purpose.

Burke recapped the event’s history, when she announced it would be ending.

The festival originally was conceived a half-century ago, by founders Eddie Herrmann and Willy Post, as a rattlesnake roundup — to replace the San Antonio Junior Chamber of Commerce’s Fun Day, which was being discontinued, according to Burke’s recap.

The Jaycees presented the first Rattlesnake Roundup on Nov. 4, 1967, in City Park in San Antonio. Its aim was to entertain and give funds back to the local community.

That event continued for nearly a decade, with few changes, until the Jaycees gave up their chapter.

The gopher tortoise races, as seen during last year’s San Antonio Rattlesnake Festival & Run, use wooden mechanical tortoises, instead of live ones.
(File)

That prompted Herrmann and other members of the community to form the Rattlesnake and Gopher Enthusiasts (R.A.G.E.) group to carry on the tradition, Burke adds. That group incorporated as a nonprofit in 1996.

In 2013, R.A.G.E. announced it could no longer manage the event due to a lack of new volunteers to help.

That’s when the San Antonio, Dade City Sunrise, Wesley Chapel, Wesley Chapel Sunrise, Zephyrhills, and Zephyrhills Daybreak Rotary clubs stepped in and assumed leadership for the festival, under the banner of East Pasco Rotary Charities, the recap added.

“The East Side Rotaries did an outstanding job with the festival in 2013,” San Antonio Rotary president Winnie Burke, said in the club’s announcement.

“In the face of losing the festival entirely that year, it was heartwarming to see

our larger community pull together to keep the tradition alive,” Winnie Burke added.

When that group stepped down, saying they wouldn’t manage the festival in 2014, the San Antonio club took over as the sole organizers.

The celebration marking the event’s half-century mark was a two-day event, featuring a 5-mile and 1-mile run, a family bike ride, musical entertainment, a snake show, a cowboy show, crocodile demonstrations, mechanical gopher tortoise races, food booths, children’s rides and a pumpkin patch.

Now, it appears that a new chapter is about to be written for the San Antonio Rattlesnake Festival & Run.

Published February 22, 2017

Glimpsing the upbeat in a gloomy 2016

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You don’t have to be a disappointed supporter of Hillary Clinton to have arrived at the notion that 2016 can’t end soon enough.

Tom Jackson

I mean, lots of us got there long before Nov. 8. Simply put, 2016 was, in many respects, a rough year, and not just because of the rancor of the election.

We needn’t revisit the particulars here. That’s for the news services, networks and major dailies. Let’s just say any year that begins and ends with relentless horror that elevated an unknown Syrian city — Aleppo — to nightmarish prominence, and still found time to accommodate the Orlando nightclub massacre, two mass killings by truck, and the deaths of Prince and Zsa Zsa Gabor is a year that will live in infamy.

Not unexpectedly, then, as if to hasten its exit, we have for weeks been awash in the business of mopping up 2016. People of the year have been declared. News events have been ranked. And, we’re up to our chins in forecasts about what 2017 will bring. (Breaking: CNBC projects Americans still will buy lots of trucks and SUVs.)

Ordinarily, I am second to none when it comes to reveling in expectation, what psychologists call “the joy of anticipation.”

This is why you never will find me lining up with those who complain about Christmas merchandise filling the shelves in the middle of September, or TV commercials for April’s Masters golf championship airing in January.

Both are terrific dates on my calendar, and I extract enormous pleasure from contemplating them. In fact, I’m going to pause right now and think about the banks of azaleas surrounding the 12th green and 13th tee at Augusta National’s Amen Corner. … OK, back to our regularly scheduled column.

The thing is, although it’s true 2016 packed no shortage of misery — for me, the year will forever be framed by the death of the Tampa Tribune, where I’d toiled nearly a quarter of a century until its abrupt termination May 3 — but, what the old Scottish philosophers said about ill winds applies equally to the year behind us. Close inspection finds some slight cheer amidst the tumult, including within the region served by The Laker and Lutz News.

Mike Wells, Pasco’s longtime property appraiser, retired, as scheduled, celebrating among friends and associates at the Champion’s Club clubhouse in early December.

Land O’ Lakes-based Richard Corcoran, meanwhile, has become Florida’s Speaker of the House, giving Pasco its second House speaker in two years (Wesley Chapel’s Will Weatherford turned it over in 2014), and, Corcoran’s pronouncements on crony capitalism, lobbyist activity and government transparency — all welcome — sent tremors across the state.

In Pasco, another can-do fellow with an agenda — Seven Oaks’ Mike Moore — was elected chairman of a county commission that, with the loss of Ted Schrader, will be looking for leadership.

Moore’s job will have to be easier than that of Pasco schools Superintendent Kurt Browning, who, even as the district races to complete new schools — including the jewel, Cypress Creek High, with a state-funded performing arts center — has been accused of unfairly tampering with attendance boundaries.

So, yes, we suffered losses in our region, although few were more keenly felt than that of Joe Hancock, forever 57, descendant of pioneers, farmer, philanthropist, family man and cycling enthusiast, knocked off his German Focus and into eternity on rolling Lake Iola Road in early May.

Those hills are God’s way of reminding us space must be honored, which is among the reasons folks in Pasco’s high country remain worried about what encroachments might be signaled by the rollout of the “Connected City” plan proposed by Metro Development, a massive project of homes and job centers east of Interstate 75 and south of State Road 52.

Although ground recently was broken on a staggering 7.5-acre lagoon slated to become the centerpiece of a $100 million residential community, Metro has yet to submit its final proposal involving about 96,000 new residents to county commissioners.

So, something else to anticipate in 2017. Need more? OK. Spokesman Kim Payne says the Florida Hospital ice center is only weeks from exiting its construction stage. Soon, only hockey players will need hard hats.

And finally, this upbeat note. Upbeat? Make that soaring. The results of the raffles involving Sherry Lee Steiert’s quilts are in, and San Antonio Rotarian Betty Burke has this to report: The drawing attracted $420. Through the miracle of matching funds — from various divisions of Rotary, plus the Gates Foundation — that $420 became $3,150, enough to purchase 5,250 polio vaccinations.

Y’all did that. In a certifiably terrible year, assorted acts of kindness, love and generosity stitched together to produce a quilt of human selflessness. Something to build on as we contemplate 2017.

Tom Jackson, a resident of New Tampa, is interested in your ideas. To reach him, email .

Published December 28, 2016

Stitching together a life’s big moments

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Perhaps it was how she was brought up, or maybe it’s just in her genes, but Sherry Lee Steiert never was interested in being a poster child for polio.

Never mind that she’d have made a good one. Struck when she was just 7 years old and paralyzed for a time from the waist down, Steiert survived to create a life that was exceptionally normal — a marriage, four lively children, a career or three — despite having to get along on uncooperative Mutt & Jeff legs that she herself calls “the shriveled one,” with the brace and the boot, and “the heavy one.”

And dance? Oh, yes, she danced. “I did my share,” she says, triumphantly. More on that in a moment.

Betty Burke, left, and her friend, Sherry Lee Steiert, show off the quilt that Steiert made that will help raise money to battle polio. (Tom Jackson/Photo)
Betty Burke, left, and her friend, Sherry Lee Steiert, show off the quilt that Steiert made that will help raise money to battle polio.
(Tom Jackson/Photo)

Life turns on moments. A handful of fateful seconds here. A chance encounter there. Early on, Steiert’s life pivoted on at least a couple.

There was that Saturday morning in 1949. She was 7, hurrying down one of the side streets by Rodney B. Cox Elementary on her way to a dance recital in which her friend, Suzanne Williams (of the downtown Dade City department store family), was performing, when she was sideswiped by a boy on a bicycle.

He struck her, and she went down. Within a day or so, she ached powerfully in her lower joints, and a fever came on. Then, “My leg just gave way,” she says. Soon she was at Tampa General Hospital being treated for polio.

The collision and the onset of the disease are most likely pure coincidence, she concedes; polio was not transmitted by random acts of two-wheeler mayhem. But, it stands as one of those incalculable before-and-after episodes.

Steiert also remembers a brother enduring a bout of fever and aches only a week or so earlier, then bouncing back like nothing happened. Suppose the boy on the bike missed her. Did the crash somehow weaken her at a crucial passage?

That’s how it was with polio in the fear-soaked days before Jonas Salk’s miraculous vaccine stopped it cold in 1955. Some got fevers and aches, and were back playing in a week. Others got fevers and aches, and wound up in massive iron lungs.

“That’s what I remember from being in the hospital,” Steiert says. “The boy in the iron lung. That made an impression on me. No matter how bad it was for me, I was lucky. There were others worse off.”

Doctors recommended exercise, which is how the family moved from its San Antonio acreage to Sarasota, so Sherry could attend a school with a pool.

“I became a duck,” she says. “Third and fourth grade, swimming is what I did.”

Eventually, they returned to the family’s ranch land east of town, where Lake Jovita — the golf course and gated community — sprawls now. Then, it was 1,800 acres of citrus and wildlife, and more than enough to keep the second family of a locally legendary frontiersman busy. Alas, William E. Lee died when they were young, leaving not much money and absolutely no time for feeling sorry for themselves.

Which is how 14-year-old Sherry Lee found herself zipped into a gown of her mother’s design and stitching, on the elbow of her younger brother, practically shoved through the door of the Dade City Garden Club hall for a soirée remembered as the “sub-deb ball of 1956.”

She didn’t want to be there; she especially didn’t want her brother for a date. But, never leaving the house means missing the moments on which life changes, and if she’d stayed home, she’d have missed this one:

Phil Williams, Suzanne’s brother, future proprietor of Williams Lunch on Limoges, striding across the floor and asking her to dance.

“He was so good looking!” Steiert says.

“I remember it well,” Williams says. “Suzanne was Sherry’s champion. I’m sure she encouraged me. But, I probably would have done it anyway. It was the right thing to do.”

Today, the episode decorates Steiert’s memory like a flower pressed in a book: delicate and precious, a reminder of a moment that was full of life and beauty.

On a recent morning on the porch of Betty Burke’s antiques shop, these two events stood out from a lifetime when sometimes just getting out of bed was a major accomplishment.

Add a marriage — to a lumber mill worker and house builder, long since deceased — the rearing of four children, careers with Saint Leo University and the University of Florida/Pasco County Extension Office (where, self-taught, she designed the web page), and you have plenty of life for someone with two good legs.

There’s more. Not a closing chapter, by any means, but, deep into her story, a plot twist. Sherry Lee Steiert has become a quilter. She does it to fill up her days, she says, and they go to family and friends. As gifts. You simply can’t buy one.

But, you could win one. As Steiert says, she never has been one much for the cause of eradicating polio. “I contracted it so early, it’s part of who I am,” she says. Maybe she simply doesn’t want to be reminded that her timing was bad.

Still, her friend Betty is a Rotarian, and persistent, and Rotary International is bent on stamping out polio where it still lurks in the world. Bad stuff travels in this modern world, she notes, and if an infected someone from a Third World country comes in contact with one of the thousands of American children unvaccinated on their parents’ say-so, what then?

Like Rotarians everywhere, then, the San Antonio chapter is raising money for the cause. And next week, at the club’s Dec. 13 meeting, two of Sherry Lee Steiert’s quilts will be raffled off. See them at RotarySanAntonioFL.org, ask a club member, or call (352) 588-4444 to obtain tickets.

Maybe this, too, will be a moment: a simple act of selflessness that changes everything. Buying a ticket wouldn’t just affirm this late-coming poster child’s decision to join the fray. In the words of Phil Williams, it would be the right thing to do.

 Tom Jackson, a resident of New Tampa, is interested in your ideas. To reach him, email .

Published December 7, 2016

 

Rattlesnake fest hits half-century mark

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They weren’t bringing in rattlesnakes that they’d found out in fields or carting in live gopher tortoises to race — but they were having old-fashioned fun at the San Antonio Rattlesnake Festival & Run.

Kids scaled up rock walls, people had close encounters with alligators and bands played continuously.

The festival, held in San Antonio’s City Park, celebrated its 50th anniversary with a two-day event, on Oct. 15 and Oct. 16.

Richard K. Riley/Photos Taylor Weiss, of New Port Richey, makes her way up the rock wall.
Richard K. Riley/Photos
Taylor Weiss, of New Port Richey, makes her way up the rock wall.

It was a hit.

It’s hard to get actual numbers, since there’s no admission charge, but Betty Burke, chairwoman of the organizing committee, estimated attendance at between 7,000 and 8,000 people.

“My goodness, it was fantastic,” said Burke, a member of the Rotary Club of San Antonio, which put on the event.

There were lots of kids, she said. And, “there were dogs everywhere.”

People seemed to be enjoying themselves, said Burke, noting she was “very happy” with the way things turned out.

“Croc Encounters — that was real popular,” the chairwoman said. “Everybody loved the music,” she added.

Besides listening to bands, festivalgoers could get a bite to eat, pose for a picture in the pumpkin patch, or do a bit of shopping.

There were barrel train rides, a bounce house, a rattlesnake run, and wooden gopher tortoise races — a perennial hit at the event.

The gopher tortoise races, which use wooden mechanical tortoises, is always a big hit at the San Antonio Rattlesnake Festival & Run.
The gopher tortoise races, which use wooden mechanical tortoises, is always a big hit at the San Antonio Rattlesnake Festival & Run.

The festival is the primary fundraiser for the Rotary Club of San Antonio. Proceeds support local scholarships, community projects and international Rotary projects, such as Polio Plus. The event is partially funded by Visit Pasco Tourism and Visit Florida. Area businesses, community members and sponsors, including The Laker/Lutz News, also support the event.

Published Oct. 19, 2016

 

 

A half-century of old-fashioned fun

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A half-century ago, the San Antonio Jaycees got together and hatched a plan for a fun way to raise money to support local causes.

They figured they could hold a festival, with rattlesnakes as the centerpiece.

Cowboy Tom is a popular act at the annual San Antonio Rattlesnake Festival. The event is celebrating its half-century mark this year. ({Photos courtesy of San Antonio Rattlesnake Festival)
Cowboy Tom is a popular act at the annual San Antonio Rattlesnake Festival. The event is celebrating its half-century mark this year.
(Photos courtesy of San Antonio Rattlesnake Festival)

Over the decades, the leading organizers have changed — and so have some of the particulars — but the essence of the annual event remains the same: Every year, on the third weekend of October, residents and visitors flock to the San Antonio Rattlesnake Festival & Run in City Park.

This year, to celebrate the 50th anniversary, organizers have scheduled a two-day festival.

Organizers of the event have gone from the Jaycees, to R.A.G.E. (Rattlesnake and Gopher Enthusiasts), to a group of Rotary Clubs, to the Rotary Club of San Antonio, which has been the chief organizer for the past three years.

“We, of course, have help from the people who did it all of those years,” said Betty Burke, chairwoman of the current organizing committee.

“Dennis Devine, he’s been with it since the beginning, and he’s our music master.

“Jack Vogel is one of the people who started it. He was in the Jaycees,” Burke said. His son, Jay, is this year’s volunteer coordinator.

Betty’s daughter, Andrea Calvert, who works for the Town of St. Leo, is involved, too. The town sponsors a pumpkin patch, which is a popular place for people to take photos of their children, and to snap selfies, too.

Burke’s sister, Winnie, who is the president of the Rotary Club of San Antonio, is also involved. She’s in charge of the arts and crafts area.

Blacksmith demonstrations are among the highlights at the San Antonio Rattlesnake Festival.
Blacksmith demonstrations are among the highlights at the San Antonio Rattlesnake Festival.

Other members on the festival planning committee include Terri Grissom, Rick Behnke and Anne Kibbe.

Event highlights include 5-mile and 1-mile runs, a family bike ride, musical entertainment, a snake show, a cowboy show, crocodile demonstrations, mechanical gopher tortoise races, food booths, children’s rides and a pumpkin patch.

Other attractions include a butterfly exhibit, children’s crafts and games, a farm animal exhibit, M.A.D. Flames Fire Entertainment and Pioneer Village demonstrations.

Vendors will be selling a variety of items, there will be a farmer’s market, and there will be a pet corner, too.

Visitors also will have a chance to learn more about the festival’s history.

In the beginning, preparing for the event meant going out into the woods — equipped with a long pole with a hook on the end — and rounding up snakes.

Amateur and professional snake hunters would bring the snakes in, and organizers would pay for their snakes, according to published reports.

The gopher tortoise races used to feature live tortoises, too.

People would decorate the creatures with glitter and nontoxic paint, and pit them against each other.

The live gopher tortoise races ended after increasing development in Florida led to the state placing them on its protected species list.

Undaunted, organizers began using wooden replicas, operated by yanking ropes to pull them to the finish line.

Over the years, the festival has helped to create many fond memories.

Children enjoy riding around in a barrel train during a previous San Antonio Rattlesnake Festival.
Children enjoy riding around in a barrel train during a previous San Antonio Rattlesnake Festival.

“It is a fun thing. The kids have always had fun,” said Donna Swart, a former volunteer, who recalled how much her kids enjoyed the festival and racing live gopher tortoises.

Eric Herrmann, who has run the mechanical gopher tortoise race for years, said he’s been going to the festival his entire life.

“As the son of one of the founders, I’m very proud of it,” Herrmann said.

“It’s one of the last old-fashioned, hometown festivals,” Herrmann said, noting his dad, Eddie Herrmann, helped to design the mechanical gopher tortoises used in the races.

“It’s a very distinctive and unusual game, that’s pretty much singular to our festival,” he said.

He recalls one festival when a girl desperately wanted to win, but couldn’t, despite repeated attempts.

At the end of the second day, she still hadn’t won a race.

“I made a decision and I called her over, and we gave a one-time award for ‘Perseverance,’” he said.

Those kinds of things make all of the work worthwhile, he said.

“There are moments of pride,” Herrmann said.

One year, a Japanese television crew came to film the event, and the race they chose to cover included the young son of a Japanese-American family.

The boy’s grandmother still lived in Japan.

“The grandmother watched the show in Japan,” Herrmann said. “That was the first time she ever got to see her grandchild — other than in a picture.”

In another instance, a young man who had attended the snake show was bit by a snake after the festival had ended.

Because he’d gone to the show, he knew what to do and sought immediate medical attention, Herrmann said.

“The doctor said, ‘That festival probably saved his life,’” Herrmann said.

The event’s souvenir T-shirts have been wildly popular through the years, he noted, adding, “there are pictures of people all over the world, who are wearing the festival’s T-shirt.”

Kibbe, a volunteer who is handling the public relations for this year’s event, is fond of the festival.

She lives on Pennsylvania Avenue, across from City Park, and she lets musicians who are playing the event to park in her yard.

“I am front and center,” Kibbe said. “I like to tell people, ‘Yes, I’m having a festival this weekend in my front yard.’”

Kibbe appreciates the way the festival has evolved, and she thinks others admire that, too.

“As people became more ecologically and environmentally conscious, we stopped painting the turtles, and we stopped catching the snakes. And now, it’s educational,” she said.

Indeed, families who homeschool their children often show up because there are so many opportunities for learning, she said.

Socially, it’s a great time, too, Kibbe said.

“It’s like a big family reunion in a lot of ways,” she said, noting people who lived in San Antonio come back for the event.

“Folks come back from out-of-town. They moved to Saint Pete, or they moved to Orlando, but they come for the festival. So, that’s a big plus.”

This year’s event is being organized by the Rotary Club of San Antonio.

Proceeds from the event will support local educational programs, scholarships, community projects and international Rotary projects, such as Polio Plus.

The event is partially funded by Visit Pasco Tourism and Visit Florida, and is supported by numerous local sponsors, including The Laker/Lutz News.

San Antonio Rattlesnake Festival & Run
Where: City Park, 12202 Main St., San Antonio, Florida, 33576
When: Oct. 15 and Oct. 16
How much: Parking, admission and most of the entertainment are free; there are nominal charges for the snake show. 

Festival schedule
Oct. 15
8 a.m.: Rattlesnake run begins; race winners are announced on main stage at 9:15 a.m.
10 a.m.: Festival opening ceremony

Musical lineup
10:15 a.m.: Graham Music Studio’s Showstoppers
11 a.m.: Crabgrass Cowboys
Noon: Beaumont!
1 p.m.: J2
3 p.m.: Jesse & Noah
4 p.m.: Those Unscrupulous Sunspots

Other highlights include:

  • Cates Educational Snake Lectures: 10 a.m., 11:30 a.m., 1 p.m., 2:30 p.m. and 4 p.m. (Free for those 5 and under, $3 for ages 6 through 12; $5 for those 13 and older)
  • Cowboy Tom’s Wild West Show: Performances throughout the day (Free)
  • Croc Encounters demonstrations: 11 a.m., 12:30 p.m., and 3:30 p.m. (Free)

5 p.m.: Festival closes for the day

Oct. 16
9:30 a.m.: Family bike ride
11 a.m.: Festival grounds open

Musical lineup
11 a.m. to noon: The band called 2 PM
Noon: Moon Dance
1 p.m.: Sassafras Bluegrass
2 p.m.: Mark Hannah & Major Dade’s Last Ride
3 p.m. Mary Smith with Dean Johnson

Other highlights include:

  • Cates Educational Snake Lectures: 11 a.m., 12:30 p.m., 2 p.m., and 3 p.m. (Free for those 5 and under, $3 for ages 6 through 12; $5 for those 13 and older)
  • Cowboy Tom’s Wild West Show: Performances throughout the day (Free)
  • Croc Encounters demonstrations: Noon, 1:30 p.m., and 2:30 p.m. (Free)

3:30 p.m.: Closing ceremony
4 p.m.: Festival ends

Published October 12, 2016

 

Celebrating San Antonio’s small-town charms

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When you’re young and restless, Betty Burke says, San Antonio is the sort of town you leave. It’s small. It’s sleepy. It’s a long way from anywhere.

It scarcely helps that its mascot is the Eastern Diamondback rattlesnake, the deadliest serpent in North America. More about that in a moment.

So you go. To college. To a fast-paced career. To bright lights and busy streets. To places that, famously, never sleep. And, you stay far, far away, reveling in the distance and big-city tumult … until something fundamental and ancient clicks inside, and you’re ready to rear children.

Betty Burke, head of the organizing committee for the San Antonio Rattlesnake Festival, is busy preparing for the festival’s two-day 50th anniversary celebration. Here, she is at last year’s festival, in front of the event T-shirt tent. (File Photo)
Betty Burke, head of the organizing committee for the San Antonio Rattlesnake Festival, is busy preparing for the festival’s two-day 50th anniversary celebration. Here, she is at last year’s festival, in front of the event T-shirt tent.
(File Photo)

Then you return, knowing, even as the town changes, in all the essential, pleasing ways, it will have remained the same. San Antonio still will offer, for your offspring, the simple treasures you couldn’t properly appreciate until you lived apart from them.

Burke knows this because she has lived it. She is among those bright-eyed lasses and lads whom the town methodically sends into the world who, upon review, find the entire leaving-home business unsatisfying.

It’s then, feeling the biological magnetism of bringing up offspring as they were brought up, they find their trajectory arcing toward home, toward its friendly faces, familiar rhythms and reassuring appeals to the senses.

All of that, and so much more, will be in play next week when, precisely on schedule on the third weekend of October, the little town’s biggest adventure — its 50th annual Rattlesnake Festival — is scheduled to unfold.

It is for such reassuring predictability that Burke became a human boomerang 35-odd years ago, returning — after two years at Duquesne University in Pittsburgh and career-related stopovers in Miami, Tampa and St. Petersburg — to the ancestral 40-acre plot off State Road 52. She arrived accompanied by husband Bruce Calvert, a since-retired Tampa Bay Times building maintenance manager, and, restored to her roots, they added to the family line.

Now, about the Rattlesnake Festival: Among the things you learn, fast, in small towns is that for good things to happen, everybody has to pitch in. So, even as responsibility for the autumnal celebration with the arresting premise has passed from one group to another — the Rotary Club of San Antonio, 15 members strong, has topped the masthead these last three years — making it happen remains very much a community effort.

The city makes sure adequate electrical power is installed in the park and dispatches maintenance supervisor John Weaver to troubleshoot. The town of St. Leo supplies a well-received pumpkin patch. Jay Vogel, whose dad was among the festival’s founders, coordinates volunteers.

More? Of course, more. Amy and John Greif conduct races of hand-carved wooden gopher tortoises (the live versions having become endangered and, therefore, off-limits). Eric Herrmann — because it’s not a legitimate San Antonio event without at least one Herrmann — provides a history presentation.

Of course, if there’s more than one Herrmann involved, it’s a certifiable “Major Event.” Nurseryman Steve Herrmann makes it so by employing his landscape trailer to fetch bleachers from the athletic complex and transport them to the City Park. Margarita Romo brings her Farmworkers Self-Help associates over from Tommytown to fix Mexican corn-on-the-cob.

And, to prove she doesn’t play favorites, Burke reserves the most thankless task of all for her spouse: Calvert manages the supply and good working order of the 30 portable toilettes.

“This is how small towns work,” Burke says, “and that’s how we like it.”

She says this even as outside forces surge San Antonio’s way — recently, city commissioners heard from Metro Development Group about the mini-city with the mega-lagoon planned for northeast Wesley Chapel — possibly threatening the town’s last-century ambiance.

On the upside, development has reduced rattlesnake encounters in the wild. Burke says she hasn’t seen one in eight years, at least. That could explain why there’s no longer a rattlesnake roundup at the Rattlesnake Festival.

Otherwise, Burke hopes the things she loves will resist outside influences. For instance, the corner post office is where information — OK, gossip — has been swapped, like, forever. Surely that will endure.

And the termite-ridden bulletin board that will be replaced with Rotary funds from the festival? It’s always papered over with announcements and opportunities; it was San Antonio’s Facebook long before there was Facebook.

These things, she says, are worth preserving. So, too, is the Rattlesnake Festival, even as it evolves, with food trucks replacing barbecue cookers and bounce houses substituting for carousels.

And now, another one is upon us.

Something happens the week before, Burke says. “You know how they talk about, ‘When the circus comes to town?’” We do. It’s anticipation, the pulse-quickening phenomenon that triggers the brain’s pleasure centers in what psychologists call “rosy prospection.”

Well, Burke adds, “When the tents start going up, the same thing happens in San Antonio.” How could it not? That thrill comes from knowing they’re about to be in the regional spotlight. Organizers expect 6,000 visitors to experience their small-town charm, and return home better for the experience.

For Burke, it all comes with a shot of melancholy. Even as the Rattlesnake Festival looks forward to its second half-century, this year’s event brings endings, and she is full of anticipation about that, too.

After three years as head of the organizing committee, she is stepping down. At a vibrant 73, with a confident gait and sparkling eyes, she nonetheless says, “It’s time for someone younger to take it on.”

She has her eye, eventually, on Brady Whalen, recent Pasco High alumnus, Pasco-Hernando State College freshman and all-around reliable go-fer. (Surprise, Brady.)

And, when the festival closes, so, too, will Park Place Antiques, the shop she has run with her sister and nephew in the old Bradshaw house across Main Street from the park.

About this she explains, simply, “There are other things I’d rather do.”

None of which will involve leaving San Antonio. Not for very long, anyway. After all, she’s been there and done that. This is one boomerang who’s never wants to make another extended round trip.

Tom Jackson, a resident of New Tampa, is interested in your ideas. To reach him, email .

Published October 5, 2016

Music, barrel train rides, food and fun

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The old phrase — ‘There’s something for everyone.’ — really rang true at the San Antonio Rattlesnake Festival & Run at San Antonio Park.

Betty Burke, the chairwoman of the San Antonio Rattlesnake Festival & Run, says the event’s T-shirt is one of its best advertisements. (B.C. Manion/Staff Photo)
Betty Burke, the chairwoman of the San Antonio Rattlesnake Festival & Run, says the event’s T-shirt is one of its best advertisements.
(B.C. Manion/Staff Photo)

There was a man who was eating fire, musicians keeping the crowds entertained, and children riding in a train fashioned from barrels.

Shoppers could peruse booths featuring everything from homemade soaps to honey, to paintings and horseshoe décor.

And, visitors could learn a thing or two, too, or grab a bite to eat.

There were pony rides, bounce houses, wooden gopher tortoises races, face painting and plenty of other options for children to enjoy.

Betty Burke, chairwoman of the San Antonio Rattlesnake Festival & Run, was pleased to see people streaming by — obviously enjoying themselves.

Burke was working in the Rattlesnake Festival T-shirt Tent, where patrons were picking up the signature souvenir of the event.

“The T-shirts are our best advertisement,” Burke declared.

Dolores Riego de Dios, of the Rotary Club of San Antonio, and Jack Thies, of the Rotary Club of Zephyrhills-Daybreak, were on hand helping out.

Noah (Royak) the Juggler demonstrates his fire eating and breathing skills in the middle of the San Antonio park during the festival. (Richard Riley/Photo)
Noah (Royak) the Juggler demonstrates his fire eating and breathing skills in the middle of the San Antonio park during the festival.
(Richard Riley/Photo)

Riego de Dios, who performed The National Anthem before the race began, said she’s glad her club decided to take over the event last year to keep it alive.

Next year, the event will be a two-day affair, as the festival marks its 50th anniversary.

“It’s great that it didn’t have to die,” Thies agreed.

He said he was there to help because that’s what Rotary Clubs do, they help each other.

Terrie Grissom also was happy to help, as was her sister, Donna Fichter, who was helping in the T-shirt tent.

Fichter marveled at the weather: “Gorgeous day! Could it not be better?”

Published October 21, 2015

 

Jim Mendenhall, of Squama Reptiles, who has had a venomous reptile show at the festival for years, is shown symbolically passing on the honors — in the form of a Gila Monster — to Gordon Cates, who will take over the show next year. (Richard Riley/Photo)
Jim Mendenhall, of Squama Reptiles, who has had a venomous reptile show at the festival for years, is shown symbolically passing on the honors — in the form of a Gila Monster — to Gordon Cates, who will take over the show next year.
(Richard Riley/Photo)
Joanna Esposito of Honey Bunch Face Painting, adds the final touches to the face of Leah Maher, of Spring Hill. (Richard Riley/Photo)
Joanna Esposito of Honey Bunch Face Painting, adds the final touches to the face of Leah Maher, of Spring Hill.
(Richard Riley/Photo)