New leader keeps band marching

By JULIE CHURCH

© St. Petersburg Times,
published August 12, 2001

After a summer filled with uncertainty, the East Lake High School Silver Sound Marching Band completed a successful band camp last week and has hit the ground marching for another successful season.

The band lost its leadership at the end of last school year when director David Carbone left. Students and parents thought another director had been hired early in the summer, but were disappointed to find out he had accepted another job.

Fortunately they found a resource in Brad Barnes, 29, a Tampa resident who studied with Carbone at USF and had worked with the band as an instructor the previous year.

Barnes was thrilled to be offered the director's job at East Lake High just three weeks ago.

"East Lake is a gold mine, with 2,000 kids and valuable community resources," Barnes said. "My goal is to have 10 percent of the school involved in the instrumental music program in the near future."

Students are excited to have Barnes join their team as band director.

"He's the best guidance we've had," said drum major Patrick Downes, 17. "He's really one-on-one with the students, and he knows when to work and when to have fun."

In addition to marching at half-time during the football season, the band has also competed in many local and national tournaments. Barnes said he will be continuing the tradition this year.

Church members take to streets

For the second year in a row, more than 50 volunteers from George Young Memorial United Methodist Church will take their message to the streets of the neighborhoods surrounding the church Aug. 23-25.

Celebrate Jesus is a three-day effort to canvass the homes in several East Lake neighborhoods. Volunteers will knock on doors, offer free aloe plants to residents and ask if they have prayer requests.

Another group of members will be back at the church, praying for the people who have requested them to do so.

"Last year, I had seven and a half pages of requests and each page had two columns of names," said Peg Gordon, 69, a church member who is leading the Celebrate Jesus project.

Last year the volunteers visited nearly 1,000 homes in the Windmill Pointe and Fairway Forest neighborhoods. This year, they are attempting to canvass the homes in Lansbrook.

"We are not trying to push the church on people," Gordon said. "We feel it's important that people in the neighborhood know that we have a very caring church and that we care for them."

Dinner to benefit golf foundation

The Vincent Reid Foundation is hosting a benefit dinner from 6 to 8 p.m. Tuesday. The event will be at Pizza Hut in the K-Mart Center at 3142 Tampa Road.

Pizza Hut will contribute 20 percent from all food items sold that evening to the foundation. The proceeds will go to provide award dinners at the end of each session for the children who participate in Vincent Reid Foundation golf classes.

The Vincent Reid Foundation teaches kids with disabilities to play golf and through the process fosters independence and confidence.

Call (727) 781-2234.

You can't be too ready for a storm

Although it's repeated year after year, a well-known Tampa Bay meteorologist told Oldsmar Chamber of Commerce members Wednesday there is no such thing as too much preparation for a hurricane.

Steve Jerve, chief meteorologist for WFLA Television, urged the business owners at the group's monthly luncheon to make preparations now for the possibility of a cataclysmic storm that could upend life as we know it in Pinellas County.

Jerve said that according to Dr. William Gray, the Colorado State University professor who is the country's best known hurricane predictor, the Tampa Bay area has one of the worst scenarios for natural disasters of any place in the world.

"Seventy to 90 percent of the people in Tampa Bay are not prepared for a hurricane," Jerve said. "If we get a major storm, we could see several feet of water in downtown Tampa and Pinellas County could be covered from gulf to bay, and I'm not talking about the boulevard."

Jerve said he takes in stride complaints of too much television coverage of recent storms.

"When there's a storm nearby, were going to be on the air covering it," he said.

Jerve worked at a television station in Orlando in 1992 and was on scene for Hurricane Andrew. He said the damage was overwhelming.

"We live in an ordered society and when a major hurricane strikes, there is no order," he said. "I spoke to one woman in Homestead who was without power for six months."

Jerve urged chamber members to take responsibility for themselves and their businesses in the event of a major natural disaster.

"Don't rely on the government or anyone else to take care of you," he said.

Sweet Adelines concert planned

The Oldsmar Cultural Arts Foundation's Coffeehouse series begins Aug. 24 with a performance by the Sweet Adelines female barbershop quartet. The concert will be at 7:30 p.m. at the Oldsmar Cultural Arts Centre, 402 St. Petersburg Drive E. Call (813) 855-6223.

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