Great gobbles to the 2,142 Wiregrass Turkey Trotters
who came out to run and walk last Thanksgiving morning! Thanks to them, the Rotary Club of New Tampa made a significant contribution to wellness donating one-third of the Wiregrass Turkey Trot proceeds to AdventHealth Wesley Chapel Foundation.


 

AdventHealth's new CEO Ryan Quattlebaum, business development director Rich Matte and director of community outreach Connie Bladon accepted the check for $21,880.64 after Ryan briefed Rotary members about the hospital's expansion.

The donation will fund the AdventHealth H.E.L.P. Medical Vans that conduct community health screenings and the mammogram van. "We serve at community events and food banks and educate hundreds through our Food is Health Program each year," says Connie.
 

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Lesley Zajac and Connie Bladon dropped off part of our RCNT Foundation donation of 500 backpacks to Pioneer Medical Foundation at their clinic on Fletcher Ave. recently. These will be given out to people they serve-- uninsured and homeless in our community.

Pioneer gave us a wish list Connie and team are in the process of purchasing with the remaining 2024 Give Back Breakfast donation earmarked for Pioneer.

The "American Gothic" painting has nothing on these eight hardy Rotary Club of New Tampa members. We turned out the largest work crew at Rotary's Camp Florida for the 2024 Rotary District 6890 Work Day.  

We raked dead fall off roofs, power washed the outside of the dining hall top to bottom, hiked and cleaned up the nature trail and weed-whacked the outdoor recreational spaces.

See if you can tell who was hidden under the hats, sunglasses, water and dirt.

Rotary's Camp Florida, located in Brandon, is a unicorn...it's a fully ADA accessible camp. The camp welcomes children, youth and adult groups with medical challenges.

Each year the camp hosts diverse camping programs--kids with cancer, youth grieving their parents' deaths, adults living with learning disabilities and more. The groups pay only a portion of the cost to use the camp. The balance is paid by donors and Rotary Clubs from throughout Florida.

Our club is honored to sponsor the Leonard Gathering Hall, the non-denominational Wade Chapel and the camp laundry facilities.

 

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Accessible camps are rare.

Camps that embrace children, youth and adults with medical challenges are unicorns.

Rotary Camp Florida in Brandon, Fla. is a unicorn. Each year the camp hosts diverse camping programs--kids with cancer, youth grieving their parents' deaths, adults living with learning disabilities and more.

Rotary Camp Florida came to be when the Rotary Club of Brandon and others bought the camp from a church. Everything--the camp dorms, dining hall and all the fun amenities--are now fully accessible. That's an expensive and expansive undertaking accomplished by Rotarians and other wonderful donors.

Each year, income from the camping groups covers 60 percent of the cost. The other 40 percent has to be raised through donors. It's important that the camp begin to raise more than the shortfall each year for maintenance, building an emergency fund and creating an endowment that will ensure the future.

RCNT's own Craig Miller, Full Throttle Intermedia, shot and edited the new Rotary Camp Florida video. You'll also recognize many of the Rotarians interviewed. RCNT donates time and treasure to the camp every year. We've rebuilt the laundry twice and helped renovate the chapel.

Consider making a donation to Camp Florida directly or through our own RCNT Foundation.

Click this photo to see the video.

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New Tampa Rotary Gives Back
Part face-to-face nonprofit networking, part donation celebration—the annual Give Back Breakfast hosted by the Rotary Club of New Tampa packed the room. This year, the club hosted local and global nonprofits giving away $61,809 from its foundation annual fund.
 

“What’s significant is the number of collaborations and relationships built between the nonprofits during and after breakfast,” said Ken Guidera, 2023-24 club president. “Each nonprofit has a few minutes to explain what they do and how they plan to use the donation. That creates ideas. I heard the folks from Kennedy Cares making plans to meet later with OASIS Opportunities. These community leaders don’t often have the chance to meet like this.”

New Tampa Rotarians have supported OASIS Opportunities since three moms founded it in 2001. “New clothes and school supplies equals dignity,” said Dawn Shulman,  OASIS executive director. Last year 60 to 65 percent of Hillsborough County Public School students were economically disadvantaged. This year it is 87 percent.

“Today's donation goes to help our Pop-up Shop which is our newest program. The mobile clothes closet makes sure that our high school students have all the clothing and the hygiene items they need to fit in with their peers, meet dress code, get to school every day and fully engage in their learning. We all know getting an education and that diploma is a kiddo's passport to choices in their life,” Shulman said.

The New Tampa Family YMCA is also addressing the increase in economically disadvantaged youth.

“All the money we raise for our YMCA each year goes back into the community as part of our Open Doors Program,” said Ryan Pratt, executive director. “We provide financial assistance to those in the community that may be in financial distress. About 35 percent of our members are on some sort of financial assistance. No one would know that when they come into our facility. The kids can participate in swim lessons, sports and summer camp. Parents can have a family membership taking care of their health and wellness while we watch their kids.”

Denny Locasio, owner of Impact Fitness, joined the Rotary Club of New Tampa After Hours Satellite group to give back to his community. His Heroes Adapt Foundation is using its donation to buy home cardio workout equipment for two veterans.

“This equipment is built for their wheelchairs so they can fit into it. That's the big thing. They can keep themselves healthy without needing assistance from other people,” he said. Locasio trained in exercise science at USF and worked with the athletic department at USF. “Working with athletes, I've been around a lot of injuries. I’m transferring that learning to veterans. Working around their injuries and some of their limitations.”

The complete list of Rotary Club of New Tampa nonprofit partners who received donations during the 2023-24 Rotary year.

• Cleft Lip and Palate Vocational Training Teams in Peru-Rotary Club of Venice-Nokomis (Global Grant)
• Crisis Center of Tampa Bay
• Evolve School of Learning
• Fisher House
• Ghana Service Projects-USF Rotaract
• H20 for Life Burkina Faso Water Projects-White Bear Lake, MN Rotary Club (Global Grant)
• Helping Hands Food Pantry
• Heroes Adapt
• Hillsborough Literacy Council
• Hurricane Idalia Disaster Relief-Rotary District 6890
• Kennedy Cares Tampa Bay
• Makumbi Orphanage-c/o Rotary Club of Harare Central, Zimbabwe
• Maui Fire Disaster Relief-Rotary District 5000 Hawaii
• Mission Smiles
• New Tampa YMCA
• OASIS Opportunities.
• Pioneer Medical Foundation
• Polio Plus-The Rotary Foundation
• Project Dynamo
• Rotary Camp Florida
• Seminar 4 Tomorrow’s Leaders
• Stay in Step Rehabilitation
• Teen Impact
• The Joshua House
• The Rotary Foundation
• USF Rotaract

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The Rotary Club of New Tampa recently donated new re-useable gel ice packs to the Pioneer Medical Foundation. Connie Bladon and Lesley Zajac delivered the needed supplies to Ano Kashumba, executive director.
 

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The Clay Shoot was sponsored by District 6950 and the Rotary Club of Wesley Chapel. It was well attended and held at Tampa Bay Sporting Clays on a beautiful Friday afternoon. Matt Palmer, Frank Moore, Eric Longphee and David Pogorilich snagged the second place Governor's Cup. Shooters enjoyed a barbecue meal with all the fixins' from Hungry Harry's Barbecue.

"Build This Home was one of the charities we supported last June during our Give Back Breakfast. Our members learned about Wesley Chapel Rotary's efforts to raise $500,000 to build this home giving young girls and teens a safe, secure home in which to recover and learn," said Ken Guidera, RCNT president and a member of the second RCNT shooting team.
 

Scan the code below to learn more and help finish the home.

 

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Over the past 12 months, the 72 hard-working community leaders in the Rotary Club of New Tampa raised and donated $93,761* to nonprofits that make our community and the world better for everyone.

 

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Lesley Zajac and Connie Bladon dropped off the remainder of our 2024 Give Back Breakfast donation to Pioneer Medical Foundation last month. They distributed the remainder of the backpacks we ordered along with a laundry list of undergarments and socks during Pioneer's recent health fair for uninsured and unhoused people in our community.

Thank you, Pioneer Medical Foundation team, for doing all that you do in partnership with AdventHealth Wesley Chapel's medical van fleet.