Weather | Sports | Forums | Comics | Classifieds | Calendar | Movies
2002: The Year in Review
© St. Petersburg Times, published December 27, 2002
The comic book guy
NEW TAMPA -- Ben Rosa's plans for Invisible War keep getting bigger.
After spending $3,000 of his own money to publish a 22-page comic book about a young hero named Nikko who protects children from a legion of evil demons, the Richmond Place resident migrated to a much colder and windier city, where he is polishing up the second installment, called Sequestered. The second book will be 100 pages long and will include roughly 40 pages of text to accompany the art. Rosa said the Harry Potter phenomenon gave him the idea to combine literature with art.
"I wanted to combine two forms of reading material," Rosa, 27, said. "Hopefully serious readers and comic book junkies will both be interested."
To help cover the publishing costs, Rosa is applying for a $5,000 grant offered by the creator of the legendary Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles comic books
Rosa's first book, Invisible War, caught the eye of a number of comic book publishers, one of whom offered Rosa a position as a graphic artist in Highland Park, Ill., just north of Chicago. Rosa moved in September.
He got his first taste of snow a few months later. At first, the winter powder was exciting.
"Then, three days later, we got a huge blizzard and I started hating the snow," he said.
He plans to spend part of 2003 touring comic book conventions in Chicago, Orlando, New York and California promoting the series and finishing his Web site, www.invisiblewar.net.
Rosa said he hasn't had much time to explore the Windy City; he has spent nearly all of his free time in his apartment working on Invisible War.
"My comic book is my No. 1 priority," he said.
LUTZ -- The bones of Elmer "Butch" Sieger are disturbed no more.
Sieger left his Pennsylvania family in 1992 and never contacted them again. He was 53. By 2000, he had moved into dense woods off U.S. 41, haunted by manic depression and utterly alone. His bones were found there in February 2001, scattered by animals.
Sieger's frayed wallet and driver's license also were there. But sheriff's deputies could not locate next of kin, so the bones of a "John Doe" were stored at the Hillsborough County Medical Examiner Department.
This year, the Times located Sieger's elderly father through an Internet search. The medical examiner commissioned DNA testing. Several of Sieger's bones were sent to National Paternity Services, a Tampa company. DNA was taken from a molar. Sieger's father then contributed a saliva swab from his cheek, and a match was confirmed in August.
At that point, the Sieger family had not decided what to do. Neither Sieger's father nor any of his three adult children is wealthy. They worried about how to pay for a burial.
"We left it up to the people down there," said Jane Einsel of Mohrsville, Pa., Sieger's stepmother.
Staffers in the Hillsborough County Indigent Burial Unit discovered that Sieger had served in the Air Force. The county applied to the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs for burial benefits.
In late August, the bones of Butch Sieger were taken to their final resting place, Florida National Cemetery in Bushnell, said Prudencio Vallejo, manager of the indigent burial office.
"It saved us money, and we still got the individual buried in a place where he deserved to be buried," Vallejo said.
CARROLLWOOD -- The day after Cathee Marston closed Young Editions, her children's bookstore and a neighborhood landmark for more than a decade, she celebrated.
"I have a philosophy that there are stages of your life for everything, and you should be prepared to move on," said Marston, 60, of Original Carrollwood. "I looked forward to (the closing) with anticipation, not with dread like some people would have."
Marston took time to rest, reflect and travel. A teacher years ago, she had always contemplated returning to the profession part time.
With scores of north Tampa parents and educators well acquainted with her ease with children, Marston landed a job at Lake Magdalene United Methodist Pre-School.
"It's like the story time hour I used to have at the store on Thursday mornings, but now it's two mornings a week, all morning," she said.
"When I was teaching full time I never had 3-year-olds, and I think this age is wonderful," she said. "They walk in with smiles on their faces and they're ready to take on the world, even if they don't know what that will be."
In addition to the teaching, Marston volunteers with Meals on Wheels and keeps in touch with business associates from her Young Editions days.
"'I think it was more than a salesperson thing," she said. "We developed friendships."
NEW TAMPA -- A professor in general music education at the University of South Florida, Sheila Woodward started a music education class for babies and toddlers in New Tampa. She continues teaching that class, with several other musically based projects on the horizon.
Woodward, 43, wants to form a couples group for pregnant mothers, exploring more of her theories of how babies learn in the womb.
"I love interacting with the children and seeing how their cognitive skills develop at a young age and they learn to enjoy the music," Woodward said.
Originally from South Africa, Woodward returned home this Christmas to research a book about South African jazz singer Candi Klaasen. The book will deal with Klaasen's struggles as a black woman against the social injustices of apartheid.
Woodward continues a program at USF, Diversion Into Music Education, with at-risk children ages 10 to 14. Besides musical skills, the second-year program teaches motivation and social skills. A future USF program will be modeled after it.
NORTHDALE -- Eva Dou, Northdale's 12-year-old piano-playing prodigy, is basking in the glow of a growing reputation. That is, when she's not basking in the glow of the oven when baking pies with brother Dan.
Eva wowed the judges at the 2001 Florida Orchestra Young Artists Competition, winning first place among 19 competitors in the 15-and-under piano division. On the strength of that performance, she recently got a chance to play for some well-heeled music lovers at a salon recital to benefit the Florida Orchestra Guild.
Eva and her mother, Anna Wang, braved an early December deluge on their way to the Harbour Island home of Dr. Ignacios Armas, who hosted the evening of music. There she won kudos from the crowd with her easy grace at the keyboard, tickling out Claude Debussy's Reverie, then kicking it up a notch with Beethoven's Appassionata sonata.
"I think I did pretty good," said Eva, who took the stage before the adult Arioso Trio. "And it was a good experience because after I finished I got to watch the professionals play."
Eva has been playing piano since she was 4, and is a flutist in the Ben Hill Middle School band. She's a mathematician as well, having taken first place in the individual seventh-grade category of the county Math League in early December.
"Right now, I'm just learning some new pieces to expand my horizons," she said. "You learn to get better, to get deeper into the music and all of its shades."
LUTZ -- Only a month after running a strong but unsuccessful race for Hillsborough County commissioner, Denise Lasher became president of Florida Children First, a nonprofit organization promoting tax-funded private school scholarships for low-income children.
"I wanted something that had some political involvement and the opportunity to make a difference in the community," Lasher said.
Although the election is over, a lawsuit is still alive against the winner, Ken Hagan. Lasher sued Hagan and one of his supporters for a ninth-hour flier the supporter mailed. It accused Lasher, falsely, she says, of supporting a $1-billion tax increase.
Professionally, Lasher could have returned to pharmaceutical marketing, but wanting to remain politically involved, she contacted state Rep. Sandy Murman. The fellow Republican put Lasher in touch with John Kirtley, who helped create the scholarship program and is president of Children First America, a national school choice advocacy foundation.
Kirtley said he was impressed by Lasher's fight five years ago against a plan to put a high school next to her Lutz neighborhood. Lasher researched the topic, persuaded her neighbors to rally against the idea, and coached them on how to lobby a county hearing officer.
At Florida Children First, Lasher is contacting parents whose children have received scholarships through the Florida Educational Freedom Foundation and enlisting them to lobby legislators to expand the program.
"She's moving up that learning curve extremely quickly," Kirtley said.
The scholarship program lets a corporation redirect up to 75 percent of its state income taxes to scholarships that allow low-income children to attend private schools. The program is capped each year after $50-million has been allocated, a limit Lasher hopes to raise.
Lasher doesn't rule out another run for office in the future. "I'm not going to say 'no,' but I'm really enjoying what I'm doing now."
NORTHDALE -- This year brought another accomplishment to concert pianist Mary Ann Scialdo's long list of achievements. The Webb Middle School choral director was selected for inclusion in Who's Who in American Women, 2002-2003.
"That's exciting to me," Scialdo said. "There are a lot of key people in there."
Scialdo, who earned a scholarship to Juilliard at age 5, was a protege of Grigory Haimovsky, a Debussy scholar at the Pius XII Graduate School of Fine Arts in Florence.
She left New York for Tampa four years ago. This year, she was a finalist for the directorship of the Manhattan School of Music Preparatory School of Music division.
"That was extremely exciting even though I didn't get it," she said. "That's very flattering."
Scialdo continues to live in Northdale with her two cats, Shsha and Gigot, and is faithful to her early morning regimen, which includes rising at 3 to exercise and meditate, followed by coffee and practice.
LUTZ -- In just two months Fawn Germer traveled to Washington, D.C., five times, Reston, Va., twice, and took single trips to Miami, St. Louis, Phoenix, Greensboro, N.C., and Milwaukee. It's all second nature to the author and motivational speaker from Lutz, who began crisscrossing the country just over a year ago to promote Hard Won Wisdom (Perigee Books, October 2001).
"I've met so many amazing people," said Germer, whose book features personal and business mentoring advice from 50 prominent women. "Every time I'm out there I learn more about how other people deal with other people, and I learn a lot more about myself. It's all material."
Germer said the heavy traveling also gave her "a whole new appreciation for home and friends and neighbors that I would never have had if I was home all of the time."
She called to mind a close friend who recently died of ovarian cancer. Germer was asked to deliver the obituary. Having worked to the last minute to polish the writing, she wound up late for a hairdresser's appointment.
"So here I am, speeding down a dark road, and a car comes out of nowhere heading right toward me before it veered off just at the last split second," she said. "My friend had spent two years fighting for every breath, and here it was almost all over for me in one second. It made me mindful of living -- living in the present, not searching for any other greater meaning other than to live."
In addition to ongoing speaking engagements, Germer has started working on her new book, tentatively titled Mustang Sallies. Similar in format to her first work, the book will include interviews with a new set of female role models, including Martina Navratilova, Hillary Clinton, Janet Reno and Eve Ensler, author of The Vagina Monologues.
KEYSTONE -- Ed Jones and his Select Artists Associates are riding a wave of demand for concerts and other big-crowd entertainment.
The business, which finds the talent, builds the venue and then dismantles everything afterward, handled this year's Super Bowl pregame festivities, a gala show with acts timed down to the second. Other jobs included new outdoor concerts by dormant ski slopes in Durango, Colo., and continuing events as part of a long-term relationship with the owners of Bank One Ballpark, where the Arizona Diamondbacks play.
"Every time the phone rings it's great," said Jones, 52, who lives off Wayne Road in Keystone.
The coming year promises to be another busy one, he said. Select Artists will do a repeat performance at the Super Bowl pregame show (the entertainers are a secret, he said) and head once again to Durango.
Promise Keepers, Diamondbacks spring training, master trucks and supercross shows also make for a busy schedule. If only more events were happening in Tampa, Jones lamented. Lacking many, he will keep traveling.
"I can't sit still at home," he said.
TAMPA PALMS -- Mark Russo teaches his students at the Quest Center for martial arts to stretch beyond their mental and physical limitations. His classes involve as much self-discovery as physical preparedness.
So you're not surprised when Russo says he will attempt to scale 19,300-foot Mount Kilimanjaro in Africa in February. This past summer, he led a group of 16 adults and children on a 10,000-foot climb up Deer Mountain in Colorado, his first Summit Quest. He plans four such treks in 2003.
"It's about pushing your comfort zone," Russo said, "learning about yourself and your strengths and weaknesses."
In November, Russo, 45, of Cross Creek finished running a two-day Gashuku, or intense training camp, for students from around the country studying to become black belts. He just started a new program at the Quest Center he calls Shadow Warriors. The class focuses on historical teachings of the grand masters of the martial arts and applying them to today's society.
TOWN 'N COUNTRY -- New Year's Eve will find Town 'N Country hairstylist Ugo DeAmbrogio playing the piano at Gio's, an Italian restaurant at N Dale Mabry Highway and Waters Avenue.
While hair is his livelihood, DeAmbrogio produced a CD this year and plans a second in the coming year. He dispenses both styling and music at Ugo's Place, his salon at 7004 Hanley Road. He hopes the new year will bring inspiration for more of his own compositions.
"I have three songs that I have written and want to do more," said DeAmbrogio, who moved from Italy to South America when he was 10 but grew up with the idea of eventually coming to the United States.
Ugo's Place, with its pink Roman columns and Grecian statues, is a fixture in Town 'N Country, known now not only for its cuts and color but also for the Notte Romantica (Romantic Nights) CD, which can be purchased for $15 at the salon.
CARROLLWOOD -- Olando Rivera's days are carved out with the same intensity as one of his kickboxing flurries.
He does personal training at Club BodFit in Carrollwood and Ultimate Cross Training in South Tampa. He's continuing his quest to earn a light heavyweight boxing title, and he plans to defend his ISKA (International Sports Karate Association) kickboxing crown in January in Atlantic City.
"All the workouts and training make me a young 38," Rivera said, smiling. "I have to keep moving."
Rivera will continue working out of both facilities, where he will start a kickboxing program at Club BodFit in January. He plans to purchase more space in the same building as Ultimate Cross Training so he can start his own club, which will include group fitness training.
-- JOHN BALZ, BILL COATS, SHERYL KAY, LOGAN D. MABE, JOEL POILEY, JACKIE RIPLEY and JOSH ZIMMER