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Whatever happened to ...

A year for bride, books, bikes

By BILL COATS, STEPHANIE HAYES, AMBER MOBLEY, EMILY NIPPS, JACKIE RIPLEY and TRACY SMALL
Published December 30, 2005

Devastating floods marked the news year in 2005, first in Asia and then in the southern United States. Like communities everywhere, northern Hillsborough County became a source of relief and resettlement. Families continued to watch the war in Iraq, some with personal interest and others with a desire to support the armed forces. Aspiring artists and writers pursued their dreams. Schools filled to capacity and the building boom continued.

The following short stories revisit people in New Tampa and Lutz, Carrollwood and Westchase, who appeared in North of Tampa throughout the year. What became of them? Read along as we catch you up today and Sunday.

After the flood, unemployment: When one of the worst natural disasters in a century was unleashed in the Indian Ocean a year ago, Lutz's Heather Lazenga and her future husband, Andy Keeler of England, were immediately above it, on a dive boat off the coast of Thailand.

The tsunami pushed the ocean higher, but they rode placidly on top.

The disaster became apparent for Lazenga and Keeler when they returned to shore. They approached their town of Khao Lak through debris-strewn waters. Their home, 2 miles inland, had filled 9 feet high with sea water, then emptied. Two feet of mud covered the floor. Crabs crept about. Their landlady's body lay outside.

Keeler and Lazenga quickly booked 21 hours of flights to reach Lazenga's parents' home in Cheval.

The year since has been a mostly frustrating adjustment period, said Lazenga, 26.

"I feel like a puzzle piece that doesn't fit in its space anymore," she said.

Keeler, 34, entered the United States on a 30-day traveler's visa. But in a paperwork glitch, the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services denied Keeler's requests for permanent resident status and the right to work. So Keeler, who shot underwater photos and videos for tourists in Thailand, has endured a year of forced unemployment in Florida.

Lazenga returned to her old job at a travel agency.

On April 16, the couple were married by a justice of the peace at the University of Tampa, next to the Hillsborough River. They moved in July to an apartment in Carrollwood, near Ben Hill Middle School, which Lazenga attended.

The couple had booked flights to return to Thailand this month, to participate in memorial ceremonies for tsunami victims. But Keeler's uncertain immigration status dashed that; he feared he wouldn't be allowed back in the United States.

Lazenga decided instead to take her husband to see the Smoky Mountains. "We didn't really want to be anywhere that reminded us of a beach at Christmas," she said.

Recently, she did a television interview with the Orlando-based Ivanhoe Broadcast News for a segment on her logical approach to finding a partner. The segment is expected to air during a series called "Smart Woman" sometime around Valentine's Day on up to 50 stations around the country, she was told, including Bay News 9.

She also has become a regular call-in guest expert on the Bo Griffin Morning Show ("She's like the Oprah of radio," Smith-Sullivan said), which airs on Magic 98.9 in South Carolina. She has been asked to hold seminars and workshops. Borders started carrying Soulmate Logic on its mail-order list.

Smith-Sullivan is so busy, she has had to hire a part-time assistant. And some previous marketing goals she set - "a major news article, a dozen radio shows under my belt, and have a TV station interested" - have been met.

Book sales, she admits, could be better. But she expected a slowdown this time of year.

"It's not a holiday book," Smith-Sullivan said. She hopes sales will pick up when women start needing the book around Valentine's Day.

In the meantime, she is collecting readers' testimonials for a possible follow-up "success stories" book and she even got a few requests for a men's version of Soulmate Logic. The men's idea is intriguing, Smith-Sullivan said, but "it wouldn't have to be very long."

"Women love to read the stories about finding a soulmate," she said. "Men are like, "Can you just give me a checklist?' "

Originally penned exclusively for his 13-year-old daughter Riyana Lalani, a Ben Hill Middle School student, the book is a biographical sketch of the Beatles and its members, complete with album art, trivia, fan interviews and other information that probes many of the controversies, myths and mysteries surrounding the group but in a tone appropriate for teenagers.

Although not topping any bestsellers lists, Teenagers Guide to the Beatles has been well-received.

"It seems to be doing very well even though there's a lot of competition this year," Lalani said. Despite a flurry of commemorative books marking the 25th anniversary of John Lennon's shooting, book orders are coming from Europe, Lalani said, and even Japan and Australia.

It doesn't really surprise LeVan, a University of South Florida communications professor whose class collected free bikes, painted them yellow and released them for community use.

"Failure pretty much is built into this, unless you're able to have a cadre of people walking around looking for broken bikes," he said.

The "Communication, Culture and Community" class was comprised of graduating seniors who didn't stick around to maintain the project.

LeVan didn't try the project again this semester, opting to have his class work on smaller projects like an online book swap. However, he says with a little effort, the bikes could start rolling again.

"I hoped that some people would have picked it up, and even if it was a half a dozen people, they could have done something with it," he said. "There's nothing stopping someone from picking it up in the future."

LeVan thinks the students still learned valuable lessons about community property. In fact, even the thieves helped drive the message home.

"I figure, if someone needs a free bike, if somebody's going to use it, that would be great from my perspective."

"With economic development and growth continuing at lightning speed in Lutz, there is never a dull moment for the group," Polzin said.

Recently the group has been monitoring the progress of Cordoba Ranch, a planned development of 1,059 acres flanking Interstate 275. The group has raised issues about traffic and the environment.

"Hopefully, there won't be too much contentiousness," Polzin said. "We just want to help them understand what the community's needs are, and then report back to the community."

"She has cerebral palsy with vision impairment and has seizures all throughout the day, every day," said trainer Angela Bubley of Lutz. "When she came out to see us, Buzz wouldn't leave her alone." And it was just as Bubley suspected, young Buzz was sensing the onset of a seizure.

"He started at her toes, licked her calves and kept sniffing her," Bubley said. "I asked if she was feeling okay." The woman might have felt fine. But she had a seizure on the drive home, about 40 minutes after the dog's warning, Bubley said.

Bubley said the woman is working hard to raise the $5,000 needed to buy Buzz. And Buzz is working hard to learn everything he needs to know in order to help her.

Henne decided to try again, and discovered the area is finally ready to embrace the arts.

Since the North Tampa Arts League (made up of artists from as far south as Temple Terrace and as far north as south Pasco County) held its first meeting at the New Tampa Regional Library on May 17, the group has grown to about 40 members, with 15 or so showing up regularly to the meetings.

It was enough to support a league art show, titled "Body of Work," held at Fit 4 Life in Hunter's Green in October. There is also now an NTAL logo, a newly constructed NTAL Web site (www.northtampaarts.com) and plans to eventually incorporate performing and musical arts into the group.

"We're rocking," league secretary Kim Thompson said. "We're tired of waiting around, so we're making things happen. This area has always been pretty vanilla and this is our way of infusing some color and culture into our neighborhood."

In late January to mid February, the NTAL plans to hold its second art show, titled "The Art of Love," at Frame By Frame Gallery in Tampa Palms. For more information about NTAL or the show, call Henne at (813) 971-3016 or Mary Ellen Bitner at (813) 977-4500.

Williams, of Wesley Chapel, continues to send moving DVDs of the troops in action to churches and schools to capture their attention and hopefully persuade them to open their purse strings. "We're still way short on dollars," said Williams.

In addition to what he sends the troops, Williams has loads of school supplies that he wishes to deliver for these countries' fledgling schools. "Small minds want to be educated and the people want their freedom," Williams said. You can contact Williams at 813 991-9400 or e-mail him at sift@aol.com

[Last modified December 29, 2005, 08:40:09]