Business as usual? Not at chamber

The Wesley Chapel board presents new members, logo and honorary officials.

By MICHAEL KRUSE
Published July 21, 2007

WESLEY CHAPEL - New.

New, new, new.

The Greater Wesley Chapel Chamber of Commerce announced seven new board members and a new honorary mayor and a new deputy honorary mayor and also unveiled a new logo Thursday evening in a crowded room at the Lexington Oaks Golf Club.

"Big event," chamber executive director Jason Wilson said. "Big event."

He had on brown loafers, dark slacks and a pink shirt with no tie, his typically casual but put-together self, doing the handshake, back-pat thing.

All the bankers, attorneys, builders of homes, sellers of homes, trainers, organizers, helpers, assistants, gun club owners and people from pest control companies had "Hello my name is ... " stickers or fancy, more permanent name tags tacked to their garments.

The spread in the center of the room included melon balls, asparagus spears, baby carrots and crinkle-cut cucumbers. The coconut shrimp on platters smelled pretty good. The bar was in the back.

There was chatter. There was the clinking of glasses.

Six ceiling fans were fighting a losing battle vs. body heat.

Wilson picked up the microphone and flicked it on at the lectern in the corner of the room. He tried to get people to hush a bit. That was somewhat successful.

"We got a lot of people in here, and it's kind of hot," he said. "Do I have everybody's attention?"

Pause.

"All right," he said anyway.

Pause.

"The votes are in, the votes are in ..." he announced.

"I wish we had a drum because we need a drum roll for this," said Dr. Randall Stovall, the jovial provost of the East Campus of Pasco-Hernando Community College and the chamber's chairman of the board.

Stovall introduced the seven new members of the 18-person board.

They were: Ray Bonti, the principal of the new Wiregrass Ranch High School; Martine Duncan, who's part of the husband-wife team that runs the Theater Doctor for home entertainment systems; Will Weatherford, the local District 61 state representative; Stephanie Watts, promotions coordinator for the St. Petersburg Times; David West, community relations manager for the Tampa Tribune; Peter Hanzel of the Wesley Chapel Republican Club; and Larry Parker, proprietor of Cork & Olive in Wesley Chapel.

Then it was time for the logo.

The logo contest started in April. The chamber got about 15 submissions. The field was whittled to five about three weeks ago and then to a final two about two weeks ago. The winner was Pasco County native and Land O'Lakes High School Class of 2000 grad Casey Meacham. She is the executive art director at her own graphic design firm called Jet Set Designs.

In the new logo, the "C" looks like a golf hole, and there's a thicket of palm trees, and some flying birds, too. It's clean and crisp.

People clapped when they saw it.

"Whoo!" someone said.

"Does everybody like the new logo?" Wilson asked.

Everybody hollered that they did. There was more clapping.

"When I think of Wesley Chapel, I think of golf courses," Meacham said later. "The original design had cypress trees. But the chamber asked for palm trees."

"Obviously," said Wilson, who's from upstate New York, "the palm trees represent Florida."

"I like the fact that it has palm trees in it," office administrator Brittany Capelle said.

Next up: the announcements of the new honorary mayor and honorary deputy mayor. LOL Transport & Moving owner Rene Van Hout took over for independent training consultant Sheri Goldberg as honorary deputy mayor. Duncan took over for exporter Sharon Rogers as honorary mayor.

"Hey," Duncan said when she got up to make a speech. "I'm the mayor."

She pulled out a piece of paper and uncrinkled it and began to thank people. She thanked a lot of people. A lot.

"This is us," she said. "This is Wesley Chapel."

More clapping.

Wilson took the mike for the final time.

"Thanks for coming," he told everybody. "The bar is still over there!"

Michael Kruse can be reached at mkruse@sptimes.com or 813 909-4617.

[Last modified July 20, 2007, 22:25:55]