The Laker/Lutz News

Gloria Dale

Collecting litter to help keep Pasco clean

By

About 340 volunteers fanned out across Land O’ Lakes to pick up litter and trash along the area’s roads, public lands and waterways.

In their first year volunteering for the Coastal Cleanup event, the Dana family, from Wesley Chapel, work together to pick up trash that was discarded along Collier Parkway, north of Hale Road. From left: 7-year-old Peyton, Cliff, 10-year-old Ethan, and Lydia. (Christine Holtzman)

They were among the thousands who took part in Pasco County, as part of the annual International Coastal Cleanup event on Sept. 21.

Volunteers in Dade City, Lacoochee, New Port Richey, Port Richey, Hudson and Holiday also joined in the efforts that were organized by Pasco County and the not-for-profit environmental organization, Keep Pasco Beautiful.

Those pitching in on the Land O’ Lakes effort met around 8 a.m., at the community center at Heritage Park, 5401 Land O’ Lakes Blvd., to pick up gloves, trash bags, safety vests and bottles of water.

Event sponsors paid for the supplies, and volunteers who had registered received a keepsake bag and an event T-shirt.

Some of the volunteers have been helping out for decades, including 84-year-old Gloria Dale, of the GFWC Lutz-Land O’ Lakes Woman’s Club, who worked at the registration table. She’s been pitching in for 26 years.

Eleven-year old Olivia O’Malley, of Land O’ Lakes, holds a trash bag open, as her father, Michael, throws away a decaying trash bag that was found on the side of Parkway Boulevard. O’Malley, a member of Boy Scouts Troop 34, and her dad also found a piece of a car bumper earlier in the morning.

Lottie Kelley, another longtime volunteer, has helped for 24 years.

She works for Covanta, one of the event sponsors, and was the Land O’ Lakes site captain.

Helping to keep Pasco clean and green is what makes the event important, Kelley said.

“Litter is very unsightly, and it’s not good for the county,” Kelley said.

Besides being unattractive, roadway trash can be dangerous for wildlife, she said.

“We need to keep the litter off the roadways, so the animals don’t eat it. They can end up being in a terrible situation,” Kelley said.

She said this year’s effort focused on roadways in Land O’ Lakes, including Ehren Cutoff, Collier Parkway, Parkway Boulevard, Hale Road, Bell Lake Road and Carson Drive.

Boy Scout troops 33 and 34, and Cub Scout Pack 33 from Our Lady of the Rosary Church in Land O’ Lakes,  collected trash along large stretches of Collier Parkway and Parkway Boulevard.

Twelve-year-old Wesley Swank, of Land O’ Lakes, emerges from the bushes with a large Styrofoam cup, that was discarded along Parkway Blvd, near Paw Place. Swank is a member of Boy Scout Troop 33, which is based out of Our Lady of the Rosary Church in Land O’ Lakes.

The troops have been participating in this event for approximately 15 years and, over the years, have picked up all sorts of items, including a glass table, a microwave, beer bottles and even a device that looked like a pipe bomb.

The idea is to remove every piece of trash discarded on the roadways to prevent it from ending up in waterways, and eventually into oceans.

As each piece trash is picked up, it is recorded on sheets, or on a downloadable app provided by the nonprofit organization Ocean Conservancy.

The ocean-advocacy group is on a mission to tackle the greatest global challenges facing the ocean.

By recording the types of trash and the amounts, the group can establish a snapshot and a state-by-state index of the problem of marine debris.

Last year, 1,823 volunteers picked up 11.94 tons of trash throughout Pasco County, according to the Keep Pasco Beautiful website.

Published September 25, 2019

Five-year-old Aliya Goodwin, of Lutz, left, and 9-year-old Caleb MacKenzie, also of Lutz, take a break from picking up trash, and sit on the bumper of an SUV. The kids were volunteering their time by collecting trash along Parkway Boulevard in Land O’ Lakes with Cub Scout Pack 33.
Seven-year-old Brendan Pratt, of Land O’ Lakes, left, and his father, Michael, stand on the corner of Parkway Boulevard and Collier Parkway. To stay hydrated, Brendan is drinking water from a hose, that is connected to the backpack full of water that he is wearing.
Cub Scout Pack 33, based out of Our Lady of the Rosary Church in Land O’ Lakes, picks up trash along Parkway Boulevard, near the corner of Collier Parkway.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Land O’ Lakes festival offers music, car show, food

By

Things didn’t go exactly as planned.

The permanent stage event organizers had hoped to use remains under construction.

Soul Circus Cowboys were the headline act at the second annual Land O’ Lakes Music Festival.
(Courtesy of Suzanne Beauchaine)

There were also some pre-event traffic snarls. And, electrical problems threw off the schedule, precluding Stonegrey, the first musical act, from being able to perform.

Those at the festival had the chance to hear performances by The Higgins Brothers, Shalyah Fearing, City Groove and Soul Circus Cowboys.

The event was presented by the Central Pasco Chamber of Commerce, as a way to give back to the community.

David Gainer, the event chairman and president-elect for the Central Pasco Chamber of Commerce, was disappointed things didn’t go as smoothly as planned.

“With all the pre-planning and walk-through the day before, we somehow still had a couple of issues. It was disappointing not to have Stonegrey open the show.  We sincerely apologize to them and, more importantly, their fan base who came out to see them,” he said.

Overall, though, those attending the second annual Land O’ Lakes Music Festival seemed to be having a good time.

Gloria Dale and Rosie Heim were working a booth to try to drum up support for Heim, who is campaigning to become the new Honorary Mayor of Land O’ Lakes. Dale is the deputy honorary mayor a title she’s been given for life.
(B.C. Manion)

People were checking out the vintage Cadillac and old-school Nova, the Teslas, and the other vehicles that owners were showing off at the Al and Ida Silver Memorial Car Show.

Event-goers also were grabbing a bite to eat, including barbecued meals served by Hungry Harry’s Family Bar-B-Que, hot dogs from D&R Specialty Dogs, and food and drink from other vendors.

And, the mood was generally upbeat, as people strolled up and down vendor aisles, checking out displays and picking up freebies at the March 11 event at the Land O’ Lakes Community Center and Park.

“This is a great day,” said Phyllis Bross, who was working at the AARP Land O’ Lakes Chapter’s booth to raise awareness about the organization. “People seem happy, and I see children with balloons. Everyone loves the food.”

Rosie Heim was at the festival trying to garner support for her bid to be the next Land O’ Lakes Honorary Mayor. She wants to win the race so she can make more people aware of the GFWC Lutz-Land O’ Lakes Woman’s Club, a volunteer organization involved in countless community causes and events.

Heim was there with her sidekick, Gloria Dale, who has been named the deputy honorary mayor of Land O’ Lakes for life.

The two ladies were selling “I love Land O’ Lakes” buttons and chances for prizes, to help raise money for Heim’s campaign.

Shalyah Fearing, a performer whose familiar to fans of the television program ‘The Voice,’ performed at the second annual Land O’ Lakes Music Festival on March 11.

Tim Clayton Sr., and his son, Tim Clayton Jr., were there working the Knight Pest Control booth. The presence of a life-size replica of a knight in shining armor helped draw attention to their booth.

“We go to all of the chamber events,” said Tim Clayton Sr., whose company is a member of Central Pasco Chamber of Commerce, and has offices in Pasco, Hernando and Pinellas counties.

He was particularly pleased that the event featured a car show, in addition to the music and vendors.

“There are a couple of Teslas over there,” he said. “They’re beautiful cars.”

There were scores of other businesses and organizations with booths at the event.

Lowe’s Home Improvement had a booth and so did Holy Trinity Lutheran Church. Seal Swim School was there, and so was Connerton. The Laker/Lutz News had a booth, too.

Organizers estimate attendance at about 1,000. Admission was free, except for reserved seating at the concert. Parking was $10.

Gainer said the experience “was definitely a learning process for us (event organizers), but it will help us with the planning of our future events.

“Overall, we believe it was a success, and we can continue to build from this. We understand that it takes time to grow an event such as this, and we intend to see it become a signature event that the Land O’ Lakes community can look forward to annually,” he said.

Published March 15, 2017

Land O’ Lakes woman gives personal touch to greetings

By

In this age of Tweets and texts, Gloria Dale sticks with an old-fashioned method of sending holiday cheer to veterans and troops.

She writes each of her greeting cards by hand.

The 78-year-old spends much of the year preparing about 1,575 cards to hand out at local nursing homes and to mail to active military personnel overseas.

Gloria Dale works through the year, writing holiday greeting cards for area veterans and military troops overseas. (Photo by B.C. Manion)
Gloria Dale works through the year, writing holiday greeting cards for area veterans and military troops overseas. (Photo by B.C. Manion)

She’s a fixture at the Dunkin’ Donuts on SR 54 in Land O’ Lakes — where she plants herself at her favorite corner table on Wednesdays, Saturdays, Sundays and holidays.

She sips coffee as she jots out cards. Sometimes she’ll indulge in a bagel or some oatmeal.

When she’s not at the shop, she can be frequently found penning the cards at Winter Quarters Pasco RV Resort’s clubhouse, while watching NASCAR or her beloved Tampa Bay Rays.

Dale does the holiday card project every year, on behalf of the Lutz-Land O’ Lakes Woman’s Club.

She got involved about eight years ago, while helping other club members complete the task.

“Well, some of them write so small you can’t read it,” Dale said. So, she thought to herself: “I’ll just take that little chore on myself.”

She asked the group: “Can I take these cards home?”

They told her that’d be fine.

“So, I took those cards home on a Thursday, and the next Thursday I took them back, all done,” Dale said.

Since then, the project has become Dale’s little baby.

As soon as one holiday season is over, she’s out buying cards for the next one.

“After Christmas, I go to the store. They’ll come down — 75 percent and 80 percent off,” said Dale, who pays for the cards herself.

The woman’s club pays for the postage to send the cards overseas, said Rosie Heim, club president.

Heim said the club is lucky to have someone with Dale’s commitment.

“I’m loving that she does it. She gives a personal touch from the club, which we like,” Heim said. “We want people to know that we care. She has beautiful writing.”

Signing the cards is simple, Dale said.

“I could get a stamp that says ‘Merry Christmas’ or ‘Happy Holidays,’” Dale said, but she added, “That would look horrible.”

Instead, she carefully signs each card, places it in an envelope and then adorns the envelope with holiday stickers.

“This is what it looks like when it’s finished,” Dale said, holding a card that she’s finished. “It doesn’t look commercial.”

Dale says she enjoys the project. It’s a way she can honor people who have put their lives on the line for the nation.

“My dad was in the service,” she said. “I had an uncle who was in the service who got killed. I had brothers-in-law and my husband. They all served.

“My (late) husband (Harry), about the last thing he said to me was, if there’s anything to do to help a veteran, help them. So, I try my best.”

Not everyone who gets a card always knows they get it, especially in nursing homes where patients may not always be aware of what’s going on around them.

“But the family will know that they have a card, that we’re thinking of them,” Dale said.

The greetings may also bring a bit of cheer to troops overseas at the holidays, she said.

“I enjoy doing the cards. I can sit and write all day long,” Dale said. “It gives me something to do. It keeps my fingers limber.”

Anyone with new holiday cards they would like to contribute or who would like to help cover postage costs can reach Dale at (813) 215-1045.