13 minute read
ST. PETE STRONG
You all make us proud to live in St. Pete. You all make us St. Pete Strong.
It’s been a wild ride the last couple months in St. Pete and around the world. While fear, sorrow, impatience and even anger have gripped our city as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, we have seen the best come out in most. Random acts of kindness. Compassion for the struggling. Comforting words and actions, and a willingness to spend your own savings to help your neighbors, your employees and people you don’t even know. We are an amazing community, St. Pete, and at no other time in history has this been so evident. It would be impossible to tell the stories of every individual, every business, every non-profi t, who contributed to the kindness train. From our medical personnel to our fi rst responders, our school teachers to our bus drivers, we salute each and every one of you. In this issue, we offer up just a few stories and a lot of kudos, for our local heroes who exemplify the compassion and strength of St. Pete. - Marcia Biggs, Editor
Donna and Edward Alex / Patriot Produce
The Alexes have been supplying wholesale produce to hotels and restaurants for nearly 30 years. “We are a small business, just my husband, Edward, and three drivers,” says Donna. “When this hit and all the restaurants closed I did not want to lay off anyone.” One day as she was dropping off some fresh produce, a neighbor suggested that other neighbors might like the drop-offs, as well. After all, most folks were homebound and cooking every meal. Donna took the idea and ran with it.
As word got around on social media, the calls started coming. After only two weeks, Patriot Produce had 20 recurring customers. Within a month, they had 200 home delivery clients. Customers choose from a veggie box ($25), fruit box ($25) or a combo box ($35). The variety varies depending on what’s available, says Donna. But all boxes are hand-picked and packed and full of color – everything from corn, cucumbers, potatoes, tomatoes, peppers, zucchini and lettuce to pineapple, mangoes, bananas, lemons and limes.
The demand keeps the Alexes and their drivers busy. Edward will call in orders to their supplier, then they get up at 2am Monday through Saturday and head to Tampa Hillsborough Market where they purchase the wholesale produce which comes from local, national and international farmers. They divvy up the orders and the drivers, wearing masks and gloves, deliver to homes.
For now, they deliver mainly near their Snell Isle home and around downtown St. Pete. Donna says she foresees demand continuing for home-delivered produce, even when the economic climate returns to normal. “It’s the way of the future now,” she says.
Tony Mangiafico / Gratzzi Italian Grille
Chef/owner Tony Mangiafico set his sights on helping unemployed hospitality workers from around St. Petersburg by providing free, carry-out lunches Monday through Friday for 8 weeks from his downtown restaurant. And we are not talking a sub and chips. How does Mojo Roasted Pork and Spanish Risotto sound? Or Penne Vodka, Meatballs and Pasta, or Veal Marsala? A team of dedicated volunteers manned the kitchen and front desk, preparing, bagging and delivering to frontline workers. Mangiafi co funded much of the operation, but private and corporate donors also came through with gift cards and cash. When he fi nally threw in the napkin so he could open to the public on May 8, Tony had provided over 8,500 full meals to his fellow hospitality workers, plus other meals to frontline workers at St. Anthony Hospital , Bayfront Health St. Petersburg, and the city’s fire and rescue and police departments. Hats off to Chef Tony who was a top winner in the Evolve & Co. Local Heroes Contest.
Wendy Ohlendorf / Mask Maker
Wendy Ohlendorf, center, and her team at work.
PHOTO/LARRY BUSBY
When Wendy Ohlendorf closed the door on her last night as owner of Vintage Small Bites and Wine Bar in Gulfport on March 16, she had to wonder what was next. The pandemic was just starting to rear its ugly head in the United States. An experienced seamstress and fashion designer, Ohlendorf had bins of leftover fabric and lots of time. An entrepreneur at heart, she sat down at her sewing machine and began making protective cloth face masks. It was just the beginning.
Two months later, after working around the clock almost every day, Ohlendorf has sewn nearly 700 masks that have been picked up, delivered and shipped across Tampa Bay, Florida, and the United States. At fi rst she donated masks to fi rst responders and medical personnel and anyone with a compromised immune system. She sent a shipment to the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit at the Doernbecher Children’s Hospital in Portland, Oregon, where she used to live. She has a large following of friends across the country on social media who ordered masks, and spread the word to their families and friends.
She set up an ordering portal on the Gulfport Community Arts website. The orders poured in.
“People all over the country were ordering masks for their entire families and all their friends,” she said. “It was nonstop, one day I had 200 orders come in. I would sew all day, make trips to the post offi ce and drop off masks in people’s mailboxes late at night.”
Locals have donated some fabric (she only accepts large pieces, no used clothing) and elastic banding, and she hired several helpers to cut fabric. Lately, she says ordering elastic can take up to a month to be delivered, the demand is so great. In mid-May, a slight lull allowed her to get some sleep, but she remains ever ready to fulfi ll orders should a second wave of COVID-19 strike. “Everyone needs to have a good face mask,” she insists.
Nate Najar & Daniela Soledade / Friday Night Bossa Nova
A regular on the fundraiser/ house party/bar and restaurant scene, homegrown acoustic jazz guitarist Nate Najar in recent years has been drawing in steady audiences to cool-cat jazz nights at the Palladium Side Door, appearing in festivals, and performing at venues across the state and country. With a repertoire heavy into Latin music, it seemed like kismet when he met Brazilian songstress Daniela Soledade in November of 2018. They have been performing mostly bossa nova tunes together ever since.
On March 20, just about the time bars and entertainment venues were shutting down due to COVID-19, Najar decided to hold a bossa nova concert on his downtown St. Pete balcony and stream it live. “That was the same night I had to cancel my bossa nova concert at the Palladium,” he recalls. “We thought why don’t we do something the same night for the audience that couldn’t go?”
Najar set up a camera, some lights and announced on social media that the show would go on – on his balcony and on Facebook Live. With dusk settling over the St. Pete skyline, nervous residents went online to enjoy an evening of calming Latin jazz – and the plan was set in motion. Every Friday at 7:30 pm the duo performs live and free for the residents of St. Pete. The livestreams, titled “Love & Bossa Nova,” have drawn a steady audience, serving as a serene hour of relaxing vibes to kick off the weekend.
There were a few technical glitches at the beginning, but Najar seems to have mastered the live broadcasts. It’s a calming, casual hour of happy hour music with a lovely downtown backdrop, although occasionally they perform with a few backup musicians at Studio@620.
Najar does not ask for donations like most other musicians who are livestreaming these days. He feels he is giving back to the community that has supported him over the years. “There’s not a lot of opportunity to see live music now,” he says. “I want to spread some love, it’s good for our soul.” He says he and Daniela will continue to do live balcony concerts on Friday evenings until venues open up and they have weekend gigs.
The concerts can be viewed on the Facebook pages for Nate Najar and Daniela Soledad, as well as on YouTube.
Emmanuel Cerf/Polypack Inc. Face Shields
Emmanuel Cerf likes to solve problems, come up with solutions. His family owns Polypack, Inc., an industrial company that is a global leader in the packaging industry. Plastics is the name of the game at Polypack (as in shrink wrap), so when a shortage of face shields was announced, he jumped into action. “After hearing about the lack of personal protective equipment for fi rst responders, the Polypack team decided to design a face shield that could be manufactured with our available equipment and stocked materials,” he said in an email. “Polypack employees have donated their time on weekends and after regular working hours to manufacture over 2,000 face shields, all of which have been donated free of charge to fi rst responders in our community, nursing home workers in south Florida and even as far away as medical ICU professionals in New York.”
Leigh and Mike Harting / 3 Daughters Brewing
Leigh Harting being interviewed on the Kelly and Ryan morning show on national TV.
The owners of one of St. Pete’s favorite breweries knew they could contribute to the community shortly after the seriousness of the coronavirus became apparent in mid-March. “We realized we had a chemist and a lab and alcohol, so we quickly made a batch of hand sanitizer in 4-ounce bottles,” says Leigh Harting, who with husband Mike Harting, owns and manages the brewery operation with 57 employees.
When they posted on social media that they were distributing free hand sanitizer the next day to anybody stopping by, the response was overwhelming. “We got thousands of emails and comments and phone calls within a matter of hours,” she said. “We realized we needed to do this on a bigger scale and with a distribution process that would be responsible and safe.” They called off the giveaway and made the decision to go all-out and commit to producing as much hand sanitizer as possible.
As of mid-May, 3 Daughters has produced some 4,000 gallons of hand sanitizer in 10,000 containers of all sizes. “Sourcing plastic bottles has been a challenge. We were buying them in any size and shape we could fi nd,” said Leigh. “At one point we accepted 2,000 urine specimen cups from Johns Hopkins.
” At fi rst they distributed to frontline workers in hospitals across Tampa Bay, assisted living facilities, fi re and police departments, and postal workers. Two partners helped raise $40,000 just for ingredients. They kept some employees on just to help with the production and distribution. “Drive-through” free distribution days for the local community were announced on social media. The response was steady.
Leigh was fielding calls from across the country, large corporations and companies seeking hand sanitizer. “We were getting calls from Southwest Airlines, Walmart and UPS in Atlanta saying they would purchase as much as we could make,” says Leigh. “But we decided, sorry, this is about helping our community.”
Then in early May came the big shocker. Leigh was contacted by the “Kelly and Ryan” morning show on Fox about appearing in a segment honoring moms on a Mother’s Day show. With three daughters and a commitment to making hand sanitizer, they called her a local hero and presented her with a $5,000 award which she plans to distribute to the community.
Bill Edwards /Meals on Wheels for Kids
The lobby of Duke Energy Center for the Arts - Mahaffey Theater never looked quite like this on a Saturday morning. Tables piled high with packaged food, groceries and fresh produce, with masked and gloved volunteers bagging and boxing it all up in assembly line fashion. That Monday, three Pinellas County school buses pulled up and the meal boxes were loaded in. As the buses wound through St. Pete neighborhoods, the food was delivered to pre-assigned homes for children and families in need of nutritious food.
This will be the scene every weekend throughout summer at Mahaffey Theater, as they join a number of other locations in Pinellas County to become a weekly meal packaging and distribution site for Meals on Wheels for Kids. The new campaign was developed through nonprofi t Tampa Bay Network to End Hunger in response to COVID-19 school closures. Families with children and without transportation are the targeted recipients; they receive a week’s worth of food items. The program serves about 550 children or 25,000 meals per week.
St. Pete businessman Bill Edwards, who manages the city-owned Mahaffey Theater, is known for his generosity when it comes to helping St. Petersburg kids. In April, The Edwards Family Foundation presented a contribution of $100,000 to help Meals on Wheels for Kids pay for food.
“We are proud to partner with the Network to End Hunger on COVID response in our community,” said Edwards via a press release. “If we can’t put on shows, we should use it to help people. No child should feel uncertain as to when their next meal may come. Meals On Wheels for Kids is doing an outstanding job combating that issue, but they cannot do so without the help of others.”
“Bill wanted all of his community organizations to be involved, and we happily agreed to both provide manpower and our venue to stretch his fi nancial gift even farther,” said Amy Miller, who helms the Mahaffey staging site as president of Bill Edwards Foundation for the Arts.
Meal packing events take place each week at the following sites: TuesdaysClearview UMC (4515 38th Ave. N., St. Petersburg); Saturdays-Catherine Hickman Theater (5501 27th Ave. S., Gulfport); Daystar Life Center (1055 28th St. S., St. Petersburg) and Duke Energy Center for the Arts/ Mahaffey Theater (400 1st St. S., St. Petersburg). Volunteers should visit networktoendhunger.org/volunteer to complete an application form.
St. Pete YMCA Steps Up
As the COVID-19 health crisis began to aff ect our community, the YMCA of Greater St. Petersburg quickly identifi ed the need for safe, aff ordable childcare solutions. As the nation’s largest schoolage childcare provider, the Y transitioned facilities and staff to meet this urgent community need. Since March 23, the Y has provided weekly care for more than 200 children of workers from essential industries. Moving forward, the YMCA will continue to be a critical provider of childcare solutions for economic recovery.
By pivoting programming, collaborating with community partners, and transforming facilities, the Y is meeting essential needs. In addition to providing childcare for families, the Y is tutoring youth through a YMCA Reads! program and securing collaborative partnerships to provide food and address food insecurity.
Beyond service to families, the Y is hosting blood drives and reaching out to seniors who are even more isolated during this time. They off er members virtual exercise classes, dance lessons, educational and fi tness resources for families and weekly newsletters.
The Y is grateful for support from Florida Blue, the United Way of the Suncoast, the Juvenile Welfare Board of Pinellas County, Pinellas County and Lealman Exchange, Bank of America, Pinellas Community Foundation, Publix Charities, the Rays Baseball Foundation and Rowdies Soccer Fund, TD Bank, the Francis and Gertrude Levett Foundation, and YMCA members and donors who have answered the call to help.
To learn more about the work that the Y is doing in our community, or to make a gift to help support these eff orts - and more importantly, assist with community recovery - please visit www.stpeteymca.org.
