People

Organizer extraordinaire

Linda Cannarella is almost single-handedly responsible for Sun City Center's characteristic hustle and bustle.

By SHANNON COLAVECCHIO-VAN SICKLER
© St. Petersburg Times
published February 14, 2003

SUN CITY CENTER -- Linda Cannarella has no time for procrastinators, no use for indecision.

There are just too many clubs and homeowners groups, and too few meeting rooms to allow for dawdling or disorganization.

"If I don't hear from you, as far as I'm concerned, you don't want a room," she says.

Meet Cannarella, the Queens native who spends her days fitting Sun City Center's more than 250 clubs, organizations and homeowners associations into just 13 meeting rooms.

Her official title is head of "room assignment" and "entertainment services" for Sun City Center's Community Association.

In practical terms, Cannarella is integral to the hustle-and-bustle pace of this over-55 community, where most residents are retired but few sit still.

She makes sure the 3 p.m. anniversary party in the Florida Room doesn't overlap with the ballroom dance event scheduled at 6 p.m. She gives the lawn bowling club a room for its annual spaghetti dinner fundraiser.

If you want tickets to see music groups like the Fabulons or to the Big Band Series, Cannarella's office is the place to go.

"As soon as I come in here in the morning, there's messages on my phone," says the energetic 65 year old. "Or I'm out, and somebody comes up: 'Linda, when is this? When is that? How is that show?' "

"I might have a quiet day -- maybe. Sometimes, boy, I long for those days. But I love my job. It's wonderful knowing I can help people do the things they enjoy."

Cannarella works from a small office just beyond the front lobby of the Community Association building on Pebble Beach Boulevard. Sheets listing the major holidays -- through 2006 -- are tacked to the wall above her phone. Beside her computer, Cannarella keeps "my bible."

The white three-ring binder is more than an inch thick. The ever-organized and methodical Cannarella has divided the binder into 14 sections, one for each meeting room and the bandstand. Each section holds a calendar for every month.

Flip to any month of 2003, and the boxes for each day are dense with type. This club at 9 a.m. in the Community Hall. That homeowner's group in the Caper Room at 2 p.m. Wedding in the Florida Room at 1 p.m. Saturday.

Cannarella completed the 2003 schedule last July, and has penciled in dozens of revisions, as clubs cancel or reschedule meetings and events, or call at the last minute, pleading for space.

No one gets preferential treatment, she says. Sometimes they get lucky -- sometimes not -- depending what her "bible" has to offer.

Earlier this month a man needed a room for 10, pronto. She pulled out her schedule and gave him the good news: There was one room available.

Other times, Cannarella is forced to make late changes.

"That's why we tell people the subject is scheduled to last-minute changes."

At the end of this month, she will send out about 275 letters seeking clubs' space requests for 2004. It will take her from March until June to juggle all of them into the calendar.

"It takes awhile because in between everything else is when I figure out the schedule," she says. "I have lots to do, you know?"

Cannarella moved to Sun City Center from Connecticut 14 years ago with her husband, because Aetna Life and Casualty transferred her to its Tampa office. She lost her job when Aetna downsized in 1991, and her husband Bill died eight years ago.

After Aetna, she worked as a part-time secretary for Sun City Center's security patrol, then moved five years ago to the community association office. For the first three years, she worked in membership services.

Two years ago, she moved into her current position.

Her versatility isn't surprising, given her diverse resume.

After attending Catholic elementary and high schools in New York, Cannarella worked in New York City and then Connecticut. She has been employed at a commercial printing office and spent eight years at the University of Connecticut library in Hartford.

She can't retire yet, she says: "I have a mortgage!"

Cannarella comes in every day at 7:30, and typically works until 3:30 p.m. Sometimes she'll spend a few hours helping a family with the seating arrangements for a wedding; other times she'll walk around the community center's various meeting rooms, "just to make sure everything is right."

Even thought this is her busiest time of year, she manages to use some of those meeting rooms herself. Cannarella is a 13-year member and secretary-treasurer of the Jazz Club and enjoys attending events like the German-American Club's Oktoberfest.

On Tuesdays, she has line dancing. In between, she reads as much as she can. Right now she's trying to finish a book about Jack the Ripper.

She has no children, but plenty of friends, so Sundays are reserved for them. They go to a movie or to brunch.

"Sometimes we just have a little picnic in my back yard," she says.

Cannarella also has a gentleman friend in Sarasota.

"He's really sweet," she says. "We get together on the weekends."

Walt Cawein, community association president, says Cannarella's work is key to giving residents the active lifestyle they want.

"We've got a lot of clubs and not many rooms, so that's a lot to juggle," he says. "But she keeps us all happy."

Linda Cannarella

• AGE: 65
• HOBBY: Any kind of dancing, but she especially loves Latin dancing. Also enjoys photography, traveling, reading and music. "I have a library like you wouldn't believe! For music I listen to jazz, opera, the whole gamut."
• FAVORITE CITIES: New York -- "Oh, how I miss those museums! It's a whole other experience" -- and New Orleans. "I would go back there any time!"
• FAVORITE MOVIE: Anything with Bette Davis, but she's partial to the film Now, Voyager. "Now that's a real tearjerker."
• MORNING RITUAL: A Stella Doro anisette or breakfast cookie dipped in coffee.
• FAVORITE FOOD: "Just about anything. I'm a good cook!"
• FAMILY: Widowed, no children. Three sisters.

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