Once in a long while I can get someone from the Osprey Observer to give me an old family recipe from the past. I lucked out this month with one I think you’ll like. It is different and little bit special because it came from Vermont, the state where I was born. From Kitchen of Patricia Tracy. The recipe came from my Great grandmother…in Vermont. Years ago my great grandparents owned a large horse farm. They raised stallions and each year planted a mile field of Pumpkins for children at Halloween. Kids came from miles around to gather pumpkins to carve. My great grandmother came up with lots of Pumpkin recipes, but this one was everyone’s favorite on cold winter nights.
Vermont Pumpkin Soup Ingredients:
½ cup onion 3 tbsp. Butter 2 cups mashed cooked pumpkin 1 tsp. Salt 1 tbsp. sugar ¼ tsp. nutmeg ¼ tsp. ground pepper 3 cups chicken broth (fat free) ½ cup half & half
Directions: Chop onions and gently brown with butter in pan. Put mashed pumpkin with onions in pan. Add salt, sugar, nutmeg & pepper. Slowly add chicken broth & beat thoroughly, but do not boil. To serve, pour into a tureen and add the cream. Makes 4 to 6 servings. Yummy! P.S. Unusual tip for the kitchen: Do not use bread or cornbread stuffing in the turkey. They pull moisture out of the meat and add to the cooking time. To reach a safe internal temperature of 165 degrees with stuffing in the cavity, breast meat will reach 185-190 degrees and be OVERDONE. Bake the stuffing separate in a cassero9le dish.

The Palmer House Bed and Breakfast in Lithia is ready to cater to your holiday guests. Gail Palmer, owner of the Palmer House, said that she would like to thank the community for another great year and for its love, support and encouragement. Even in tough times like these, she said that the Palmer House is still a thriving business. “We have a lot of repeat customers,” she said. Palmer said Palmer House caters to locals, out of town guests, weddings, baby showers, holiday parties and more. Palmer House is located at 2221 Hinton Ranch Rd. in Lithia and is described as having a “country feeling.” Each Suite is decorated with a different theme: suite memories, spring garden, southern cabin, suite memories and country morning. Palmer House and all of its suites are currently decorated for the holidays, with a tree in each suite and a larger tree in the grand room. Palmer says her most popular room is also the newest, Suite Memories. It has been open for about a year, she said. Activities that Palmer offers include horseback riding and canoeing. Upcoming holiday activities at Palmer House include a Christmas Tea with Joa Jane of Lah-Tea-Dah. The tea will be held at Palmer house on December 14 at 6 p.m. Tickets are $25, with tax and tip included and are available through Lah-Tea-Dah. Tickets are not available at the door. To order your tickets, please call Jane with Lah-Tea-Dah at 326-4921. Next year, Palmer said she plans to start doing mystery dinners, couple’s retreats, network events, a wellness weekend with RobZFitness and financial coaching to be called “Romance and Finance” with Mike Larkin with Larkin Finance. Palmer also puts out a newsletter with specials in it every month. She said she will have specials in the newsletters for the holidays, Valentine’s Day, football packages for football season and more. “Basically we will have a new special every month,” she said. Palmer is active in the community, being a member of the FishHawk Area Networking Group (FANG). She said she also gives back to the community by providing gift certificates to Palmer House for any event, like silent auctions. “We are always willing to give to charitable organizations because giving is better than receiving,” she said. She said that her and her husband would like to wish the community a blessed Christmas; “We’re successful because of you,” she said. She would also like to personally thank the Osprey Observer and Marie Gilmore for their outpouring in the community. She said she is also very excited about the shop local campaign and supports and pledges to shop local. For more information on the Palmer House and its upcoming events or to book a room, call Palmer at 654-0961 or visit the Website at www.palmer-house.com.

Newsome High School is one of the area’s largest employers with more than 170 staff, 2,200 customers and one CEO, the principal, Rebecca Fitzgerald. The corporation is run like a well-oiled machine with all 2,200 students who must be directed, encouraged, led, fed and molded into young adults and future college students. Each day starts before 7 a.m. for Fitzgerald, who, along with her administrative staff, welcomes the students to the school by supervising both arrivals and daily departures from the school. In addition, she and the administrators spend 150 minutes each day in the cafeteria, supervising the students through the three, 50-minute lunch periods. Newsome also opened its new $2 million, two-story, 24-classroom wing, which rid the school of its portables this year, and there is a little room for growth, according to Fitzgerald. In addition to the academics, students at Newsome participate in more than 40 clubs and organizations, and have an opportunity to take part in the Careers programs including Interior Design, Fashion Marketing and more. With three years committed to these classes, students may earn extra recognition for Bright Futures Scholarships. Also, along with a budding agriculture program, driver’s ed, a district championship winning football team, band and orchestra, a strong army ROTC program and much-more, Newsome is a welcome environment for students to find themselves. Walking the halls with the principal is eye-opening, there are no raised eyebrows or concern on the teachers’ faces when Fitzgerald walks into a classroom. Since she does all of the evaluations of the teachers twice a year, they are all used to her observations. In addition to hiring all staff, Fitzgerald’s daily duties include: ordering supplies, approving orders, payroll, schedules, meetings with staff, administration and parents on request, closing the school, etc. “We have an excellent administrative staff,” explains Fitzgerald who started in the classroom as a math teacher and worked her way through Tomlin Middle School and Dowdell Middle School, before landing at Brandon High School where she was principal for eight years. “I have fallen in complete love with every school I have been at and wanted the opportunity to open a school,” she describes, explaining her move to Newsome more than six years ago. “Many of our staff are the same who opened the school with us and we all work very well together.” Fitzgerald makes the commute from her office to the cafeteria several times per day logging ¼ mile each time. She has lived in the Brandon/Valrico area since she moved from Ohio in 1980. “There is a wealth of opportunity in this school system for kids and we are just here to guide them.” Brandon Sports and Aquatics director Chuck Burgess was principal for a day at Nelson Elementary School and enjoyed his experience. “Teachers really have a commitment to the classroom and were having fun!” The principal for a day program is put on by the Hillsborough Education Foundation, a non-profit organization started in 1988 to enhance public education through community partnerships, grants and scholarships. The foundation hosts a monthly luncheon to learn more about partnerships with the district. An upcoming Spotlight on Education lunch will be held on Tuesday, December 9, 12 noon at Teaching Tools Supply Store at 3719 Corporex Park Dr. Suite 400, Tampa. 740-7651 ext. 225 or visit www.educationfoundation.com.

FishHawk Ranch has a country radio celebrity in its community: You can hear Jenny Dean weekday afternoons on US 103.5 FM on the Travis & Jenny Show from 3-7 p.m. Originally from Kentucky, Dean spent about five years in Illinois anchoring television news and came to this area to work for Bay News 9 as an anchor. Eventually, Dean made the decision to join the Clear Channel radio family and says, “I enjoy radio a lot.” Dean explains that the big difference between the two is that in radio, “I can have an opinion; I can just be myself and this is an opportunity to show people who I am.” Dean starts laughing and adds, “Not only that, but I don’t have to wear makeup, and I don’t have to get all dressed up for radio.” Dean emphasizes she didn’t leave television because she was unhappy, but, “I thought radio would bring something different and new to my life and it has.” Dean seems to have a lot of talents including singing, and says she has sung the National Anthem for all the professional sports teams in the area. Right now, Dean is getting ready for the annual Battle of the Media Bands, and comments, “I usually throw together some sort of band for the event, and we just make a fun night of it.” Dean also loves to travel and says she does so every time the opportunity presents itself. Dean has visited several states and has taken a lot of cruises, but says she has always wanted to go to Europe and also hopes to pack up her kids and take them to see the Grand Canyon one day. Dean has a 12-year-old son and 6-year-old daughter and says one of the things that attracted her to FishHawk Ranch was the schools. Dean goes on to say, “I love FishHawk; the neighborhood and community are just great, and it reminds me of the kind of area I grew up in when I was a kid.” WFUS 103.5 is also the FM home to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, meaning all the games can be heard on the station, along with pre-and post-game coverage. For more information about Dean or the radio station, visit www.us1035.com or call 839-9393.

By Michelle Colesanti
The Brandon area YMCAs’ sponsored their 2008 Corporate Challenge-Survivor in early November, benefiting the YMCA’s Building Strong Kids Campaign. The idea of going back to camp after all of these years seemed a bit intimidating, but I was ready for the challenge. Our team, FishHawk Area Networking Group (FANG), was one of five teams that participated. In the end, it turned out to be a fantastic learning experience - except maybe for the worms. Each of the teams rotated between seven events throughout the day. The events included archery, an obstacle course, Fear Factor, a climbing wall/zip line, Leap of Faith, Spiderweb and a boat race. Every event depended on teamwork to earn points. Some of the events such as the Leap of Faith, which involved climbing a 50-foot high telephone pole, balancing on the top and then jumping off, proved that you need both mental and physical determination to do more than you might have thought possible. Having my team’s encouragement down below was the only thing preventing me from still being up on that pole. Back to the worms: Fear Factor involved eating foods that were not so enticing. I was not planning to participate, but our whole team decided to go for the highest amount of bonus points by indulging in the worms. Since letting down my team was not an option, I ate the worms. I can tell you that I will not be adding them to my meal planning anytime soon. We all broke for a great lunch that was graciously donated by Chick-fil-A on Lumsden Rd. in Brandon, Beef ‘O’Brady’s and East Coast Pizza, both located in Riverview. After lunch, we participated in one more activity, which involved more mental prowess than physical. We had to construct a boat out of cardboard boxes and duct tape and then have one of our team members get the boat across the pool, a futile attempt on our part as we came in fourth in this event. I personally learned that through team encouragement, it’s easy to work just a little harder and go that extra mile when everybody is cheering you on. In the end, our team came in last place, but we were definitely not losers. I highly recommend this experience for everyone. If you are interested in serving on the planning committee for next year’s event, contact Bryan Beckham or Cindy Sofarelli at 684-1371.

By Michelle Caceres
Hillsborough County School Board named the Lithia elementary school located adjacent to FishHawk Ranch after Richard “Dick” Stowers, 79, a local civic leader and businessman that revolutionized the funeral business in the Brandon area. Born in Hillsborough County, Stowers grew up in the Palm River area when Brandon was just a sleepy bedroom community. Ironically, Stowers fondly recalls his younger days of courting young ladies on the property where the elementary school now resides. He and his friends would swim in the lake and park their cars on its banks. “That area was a real lover’s lane,” he says. As an 8-year-old boy, Stowers attended the funeral of a young neighborhood girl, an experience that irrevocably altered the direction of his life. “I knew from that moment on that I wanted to be a funeral director,” he reflects. His big break came in 1960, when a friend loaned him the money to purchase the James Brandon Homestead located on S.R. 60. After remodeling the historic home, he opened Stowers Funeral Home in 1961. “Going into business for myself has given me a lot of opportunities to help other people and that’s a lot of fun,” said Stowers. Throughout his life, he has donated his time and money to many organizations, including the Brandon Kiwanis Club, Brandon Elks Club and Boys and Girls Club of Brandon. He was an active member of the Brandon Chamber of Commerce. Stowers and wife Raymetta have five daughters and one son. Raymetta said the naming is the perfect birthday gift (he’ll turn 80 on the 4th of July) for a man who never asks for anything. Friends signed petitions and wrote compelling letters to the school board in favor of using Stowers’ name. “It was wonderful to see so many people come out to support Dick and all he’s done for Brandon,” she says. Other schools receiving names in November include the middle school sharing the same campus, named in honor of the late Glenn Barrington, a long-time educator and school board member. Strawberry Crest High, located near Plant City and its adjacent elementary school, David E. Bailey Jr. Elementary, honoring a former educator and Plant City historian, were also named. Stowers says he hopes the children at his school will learn from his example to go after their dreams. “I hope each child at the school will have a vision to do something great,” he said. For more information about the schools named in November visit www.sdhc.k12.fl.us.

“We can better the lives of others and even save lives in countries that have lacked the proper medical facilities and supplies. What a reward, knowing that we can make such a difference,” stated Kathy Curry, sergeant of arms of the Brandon South Rotary Club which, along with the Brandon Rotary, recently packed a 60-foot Wal-Mart semi-trailer truck with medical supplies gathered from local rotary clubs in support of Project C.U.R.E. (Commission on Urgent Relief and Equipment).
Project C.U.R.E., an organization helping medically depleted countries, is said by local chairman Alan Feldman of Feldman’s Photography to be sending over a million dollars worth of donated medical supplies weekly to 105 countries throughout the world. Former president of Brandon Rotary, Feldman went on to say, “Seven thousand tons of medical supplies are thrown away everyday in the Unites States. It’s pretty sad, us throwing away things everyday that others could really use.”
Feldman felt led to support this organization, informing fellow Rotarians of the lack of necessary tools and equipment that we as Americans have access to during surgeries, but those overseas may not – things like scalpels, gauze, numbing agents, crutches or even a bed to recover in post surgery. From there, various rotary clubs of District 6890 teamed up to collect needed medical items from generous facilities such as Brandon Regional Hospital, Bill’s Prescription Center, Brandon Outreach, Emergency Care Help Organization and many more in order to support the cause.
Together, the rotary clubs were able to accumulate enough medical supplies to accommodate the 60-foot trailer of a semi-truck, which was donated for use by Wal-Mart upon its return back north, stopping in at Nashville, Tennessee to drop-off the supplies. In response, the rotaries received a thank you letter for their support from Project C.U.R.E. Its mission to be one of support to charities and the community, Rotary International has a total of 1.2 million members. Brandon Rotary, meets every Tuesday at 12 Noon at Center Place located at 619 Vonderburg Dr. in Brandon and Brandon South Rotary meets on Wednesdays at 12 Noon at Buckhorn Springs Golf & Country Club located at 2721 S. Miller Rd. in Valrico.
If you are interested in joining the clubs in their efforts to help Project C.U.R.E., which is now sending supplies to Haiti, please call Feldman at 685-4343. To learn more about either rotary club, please visit either Website at www.brandonrotary.org or www.brandonsouthrotary.org.Or visit www.projectcure.org.

SouthShore Regional Library is celebrating its second anniversary on Saturday, November 15, with a variety of programs available for all ages throughout the day. The Friends of the Library are organizing this event. According to the SouthShore Friends of the Library Website, the Friends organization does for the library what the PTA does for schools and the booster clubs do for sports programs. “Basically, library employees cannot raise or handle money, so lucky libraries like this have a ‘Friends of the Library’ group that does fundraisers and raises money for programs beyond the basic ones offered at every library,” said Friends Board Member in charge of programs, Diane Waronka. “It really is another example of Sun City Center retirees that find a cause they like and really offer wonderful time and resources.” Jim Duffy was the founder and original president of the SouthShore Friends group. He held meetings a year or more before the library opened and got corporate and individual sponsorships. Duffy asked Waronka to represent Apollo Beach since it’s a regional library. The board of Friends now meets quarterly. Last year, Waronka ran a Harry Potter trivia contest on the first anniversary and “for the opening ceremony, I organized a ‘Why I like to Read’ essay contest with local schools and had a big awards ceremony,” she said. This year, the festivities will begin at the library at 10:15 a.m. with the Fritzy Brothers One Man Circus. “This really funny program truly appeals to kids of all ages,” Waronka said. “The entire family will laugh at juggling, unicycling, clowning and comedy.” At 11:30 a.m., children will learn the art of cartooning as a form of personal expression. All readers and doll collectors ages 7-14 will do games or crafts based on Samantha, Kitt and other girls from the new series of American Girl at 2 p.m. Youngsters are invited to bring one doll of their own, if they wish. At 3:30 p.m., in the Game Zone, local teens will teach seniors how to play Wii bowling and tennis and then assist in games and tournaments. Also in the Game Zone, Rock Band and Guitar Hero will be available to play. For more information on the SouthShore Library’s second anniversary or the SouthShore Friends of the Library, visit www.southshorefriends.com.

“Spend your happiest day of the year at the happiest place on Earth,” says Disney World’s Website, referring to its Free Admission on Your Birthday promotion. Beginning in 2009, you can spend your birthday at Disney for free. Disney is also offering specials for first time visitors, reunions, honeymoons, anniversaries and more.
Dave Herbst, print managing editor for Disney Destinations/Walt Disney World Resort said, “We realized that many guests come to Walt Disney World Resort to celebrate several years ago when we introduced Magical Gatherings and, more specifically, Grand Gatherings (www.disneyworld.com/grandgatherings).”
“That initiative was launched because we became aware that a significant amount of our visitation was made up of groups beyond the single household – whether it was extended family, neighbors, classmates … any circumstances that forge lifelong associations and friendships,” he said. “In the process of making vacation arrangements for these larger groups, our vacation planners frequently learned that personal milestones and celebration occasions were the impetus for the vacation – anniversaries, birthdays, graduations and such.”
Online registration has already begun for the free admission and will continue through December 31, 2009.
You must be 18 years old or older to register your birthday. If you’re under age 18, you need to have an adult in your household register your birthday for you. And you don’t have to register online as long as you have valid identification, including date of birth, allowing you to take advantage of this birthday offer at the Walt Disney World will-call windows. The reason for registering your birthday online is to save you time. You won’t have to wait while you fill out the forms at the will-call windows.
If you’re age 18 or older, proper ID would be a driver’s license, state-issued or government-issued photo ID or a government-issued passport. If you are under age 18 and don’t have any of the above mentioned ID, an original or certified copy of a birth certificate is required.
For Florida residents, Herbst said, “Considering their relative proximity to Walt Disney World Resort, many Floridians may make a ‘Disney day’ of their birthday in 2009.”
Herbst said, “As guests plan their days or full-scale vacations at Walt Disney World Resort, there are many ways that they can tailor the experience to make it something very individual.”
Some of the ways to do this include a pre-ordered Disney birthday cake that can arrive at your table, decorated and personalized just for you.
Unfortunately, the free admission cannot be used the weekend before or after your birthday. It’s only good for free admission on the ticket holder’s birthday.
This offer is good for anyone over age 3. Children under 3 are not required to have an admission ticket to enter the theme parks.
And this offer is valid for all guests, regardless of their place of residency.
The free birthday ticket may be upgraded to another ticket type on your birthday. However the celebrant is responsible for the incremental cost, and the new ticket may only be used by the celebrant. In addition, the one day/one park ticket is good for 12 months (an option for select guests) and may not be upgraded.
For more information or to register your birthday, visit www.disneyparks.com.

I’ll bet you thought it was too late to visit the 1964 World’s Fair, didn’t you? The fair was actually held over for an additional year, but even by the most generous measure, you’re about 43 years late for the New York venue.
Several of the most popular attractions are still alive and going strong, though, albeit with a few updates and expansions along the way.
You can begin your trip through the Johnson Administration at the Carousel of Progress, which was designed and built by Disney’s Imagineers on behalf of General Electric. Walt designed the show with heavy emphasis on GE product placement (causing his project lead to dismiss the whole thing as a “refrigerator show”), but loosely based on Thornton Wilder’s play Our Town, in that it follows a single family through time and acknowledges the audience.
Yes, Carousel of Progress is campy, and I’d even agree that it has been clumsily updated…it would be far more interesting to see the 1960’s vignette rather than the modern day scene currently on display…but the narration at the beginning, pointing out Walt’s love of innovation and progress, could not be more true.
Next stop is the Hall of Presidents, which is the successor to an attraction built for the State of Illinois, featuring Abraham Lincoln. Walt was most personally involved in the development of this show, for which he was sharply criticized by those who believed that his treatment would lack respect or would cheapen Lincoln’s legacy…after all, 1964 was the 100th anniversary of the Gettysburg Address. The audio-animatronic Lincoln was well-received by most, however, there’s another interesting sidebar to this story: The original body movement measurements and studies were done with Buddy Ebsen, the actor who would go on to portray Jed Clampett. Lincoln continues to dominate the Hall of Presidents and has, ironically, provided a sense of realism to a larger-than-life historical figure for generations of students (including me), though I confess that I have used the hall as punishment for my misbehaving children.
Finally, head over to the happiest cruise that ever sailed, it’s a small world. Walt was always working to line-up corporate sponsors, which was his usual method of financing his grandiose plans. With his staff already hard at work on the other attractions, Walt arranged to build a “little boat ride” for Pepsi and UNICEF in an irrationally short amount of time. The original idea was for the figures to sing their national anthems, but the result was an indecipherable wall of noise, which is why you’ve had that cute theme song stuck in your head for decades. Interestingly, Walt was also courting Coca-Cola at the same time, trying to interest it in sponsoring an audio-animatronic bird attraction that would eventually become the Enchanted Tiki Room.
Though it didn’t appear at the fair, Walt was working on an audio-animatronic bear band for a ski resort project at around the same time. The resort never materialized, but unless I’m mistaken, the band is still playing at the Country Bear Jamboree. Not many people would walk into the Magic Kingdom and only do the rides and shows that I’ve mentioned here, but old Uncle Walt personally touched all of them and believed that these kinds of attractions would be a big part of his legacy. He was absolutely right.