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JANUARY 20, 2016
O’Brien’s a destination for Steelers fans By Kevin Weiss
kweiss@lakerlutznews.com
As it turns out, you don’t have to live in Pittsburgh to be surrounded by hundreds of Steelers fans for a National Football League game. You just have to be inside the confines of O’Brien’s Irish Pub, 15435 N. Dale Mabry Highway in Tampa. For the past 21 years, O’Brien’s has been the official destination for Steelers fans to watch NFL games, since partnering up with the Bay Area Black and Gold Club, an organization for Steelers fans living in the area. Founded by the late Walt Pelc in 1992, members of the Bay Area Black and Gold Club used to watch NFL games at Briedy’s Pub in Northdale up until 1994. However, the club’s membership grew so large they had to find a new location large enough to See STEELERS, page 13A
KEVIN WEISS/STAFF PHOTO
Before Steelers games, tables at O’Brien’s are reserved for members of the Bay Area Black and Gold Club. Seated counterclockwise at the table: Melinda James, Sarah Scarborough, Jeremy Frazier, Bre Urrel, Ray James and Shawn Honner.
Former Lutz Guv’na is now Saucy Queen By B.C. Manion
bcmanion@lakerlutznews.com
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It all began with a carrot. Well, a basket of carrots, actually. Carrots were the vegetable of the week at Learning Gate Community School in Lutz, and everyone was encouraged to come up with an idea to make vegetables more enticing for kids. Michele Northrup, who works at the charter school, decided to combine the sweetness of carrots with the heat of peppers to concoct a gourmet hot sauce. People said the sauce tasted so good, she should bottle it. So, she did. Since then, she launched a business named Intensity Academy and has branched out to have a product line including sauces, dry rubs and dips. Her company’s gourmet sauces also have garnered 57 national awards. Last year, Northrup and her husband, Tom Was, joined forces with a partner to open their own bottling plant, The Sauceology Group, in Clearwater. Intensity Academy also was selected by Winn-Dixie to stock its product in about 150 Winn-Dixie stores across Florida. “In the middle of the summer, WinnDixie did a really big, grassroots search for local, quality products,” Northrup said. “They put the word out through all festivals and markets that they were looking for products to showcase their Winn-Local program. “So, we did a pitch, very similar to a ‘Shark Tank’ pitch,” Northrup said, referring
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One of the five artisanal hot sauce developed by Intensity Academy for The Dali Museum in St. Petersburg.
PHOTOS COURTESY OF MICHELE NORTHRUP
Michele Northrup poses near her gourmet hot sauces, now available on the shelves of some Winn-Dixie stores in Florida.
to the television program which gives product inventors a chance to win backing from potential investors. “We did samples of foods with all of our sauces, and we presented it to them, and we had little cheat sheets, so they knew what sauces they were eating with what foods. “We had to talk about our fan bases and our social media, and how we built our businesses from the ground up. “From that selection process, they narrowed it down to a few key products for the state of Florida,” Northrup said. The rollout began around Thanksgiving and is occurring gradually. The fun part, Northrup said, is finding out from fans where her sauces are showing up in other parts of the state. They’ll pose in front of a shelf and take a “Saucy Selfie” to send to her, Northrup said. Northrup was also notified last week that she is one of five finalists in the first an-
nual “That Business Show Awards” selected by Jamie Meloni, host of the iheartradio show. Northrup is thrilled by the achievement of a business she has built from, literally, the ground up. She launched Intensity Academy in 2007, the same year she was making her run for Lutz Guv’na. The honorary title is won by raising the most cash, and proceeds from the race go to local organizations and charities. Northrup raised $16,912, setting a record for the race. Throughout her bid, she was introducing her sauce and using proceeds from their sales to fill her campaign coffers. Her Guv’na bid helped groups in Lutz, but also helped Northrup get her fledgling business off the ground. People who had tasted her sauces durSee SAUCY, page 13A
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Woman’s Club scrambles for donations By Kevin Weiss
kweiss@lakerlutznews.com
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INSIDE, PAGE 1B
The sinkhole that developed at Lake Park in October hasn’t done anyone any favors, especially the GFWC Lutz-Land O’ Lakes Woman’s Club. The nearly 6-foot-wide, 100-foot-deep sinkhole forced the closure of the park in early December, forcing the cancellation of what would have been the 36th Annual Lutz Arts & Crafts Festival. The event, which has attracted nearly 30,000 people in recent years, typically provides the club with several thousand dollars to give back to the community in the form
of donations to nonprofits and college scholarships for local students. “We’re really hard-pressed for funds as a result of the event being cancelled,” said Pat Serio, head of public relations for the woman’s club.“It is our largest fundraiser of the year and, as a result, our budget and our treasury is going to seriously suffer. “Our scholarships in particular (will be affected) because we usually give upwards of $20,000 a year in scholarships, as well as the rest of the money we donate to the library, the Old Lutz School, Boys Scouts, Girls Scouts, Relay for Life, veterans’ charities and all that across the board,” Serio said. The club is currently scrambling to put
together some smaller fundraisers while seeking help from local community members to raise funds. Upcoming events include a Valentine’s Day celebration on Feb. 12 and the club’s annual Flea Market at Old Lutz School on March 7 and March 8. In June, they will partner with Burger 21 for a one-day project, in which a percentage of the restaurant’s sales for that day will go to the club. “We’re just working on lots of different little things, because it’s really hard to do a huge thing like the (arts & crafts festival) as a startup, so we’re going to be doing a lot of See DONATIONS, page 13A