Snell Isle mom and St. Pete native, Catherine Nelke, is stepping up to the plate for youth baseball with Hit the Mitt, a baseball academy she founded to make the All-American sport fun and accessible to more kids.

And she definitely means fun. Picture a young player learning proper batting stance by taking a swing and connecting with a baseball that explodes, sending out a brightly colored cloud of chalk dust. Hearing their own “walk up” song as they step up to the plate, like the professional ball players. Or meeting baseball celebrities like Emmanuel Rosario, a former pitcher for the Savannah Bananas, an exhibition team known for entertaining “on-field hijinks” with music, dance skits, and stunts.… Read More

Back in New England, Zoe Kopp and Thom Namaya usually took a break from the long, cold winters by volunteering. For years they worked with local leaders of small community development projects around the world that they support through their nonprofit, GRACE Cares. But in 2020, COVID lockdowns prevented international travel and they spent some time in St. Petersburg. Just a year later, the two moved here, trading their 27-year home in Vermont on 13 acres of land for a house in the Old Northeast with an art studio out back.  

Why the move? They fell in love with the city’s charm, waterfront, the arts, and the strong sense of community.… Read More

Do you find Medicare confusing? You’re not alone. For many seniors, Medicare and health insurance information can be a maze of online documents and government websites. Sometimes, you just need a friend to help. 

That’s the purpose of SHINE (Serving Health Insurance Needs of Elders). It’s a free program for Floridians over 65, run by volunteers and funded by Florida’s Department of Elder Affairs. Volunteers, often seniors themselves, help users through Zoom or the helpline, or at multiple locations throughout the county, including the Sunshine Senior Center at 330 5th Street N. during limited hours. 

Volunteer Charles Frankle has been with SHINE for 15 years.… Read More

Since I retired seven years ago, volunteering with new English learners has been my passion. I’ve participated in several international programs through Global Volunteers in Cuba, Romania, and Greece, practicing conversational English with students. And, until they closed their doors in December 2021, I had many great experiences volunteering with students from all over the world in ESOL classes for immigrants at the Tomlinson Adult Learning Center at Mirror Lake in St. Petersburg. 

After much research, I recently connected with Dr. Maya Lane, president and founder of NicerFL, Florida Newcomer Immigrant Educational Center, Inc. Dr. Lane manages programs in Hillsborough, Pinellas, Sarasota, and Manatee counties with the mission of “helping immigrants overcome personal, professional, and cultural challenges of integration through individual tutoring and mentoring.”… Read More

It is estimated that the number of people living with aphasia in Tampa Bay could populate the entire Old Northeast Neighborhood. “If you add all the family and friends, and other people impacted by the person they know who has aphasia, that would extend the number of people affected by aphasia to all the surrounding neighborhoods and then some,” says Debbie Yones, executive director of Voices of Hope for Aphasia in St. Petersburg.

Until celebrities like actor Bruce Willis and politician Gabby Giffords went public with their diagnoses of aphasia, perhaps few Americans outside of the aphasia community had even heard of the condition, much less knew about its impacts.… Read More

The holidays bring about a sense of community. In sunny St. Petersburg, we are fortunate to have just that: a local region of small businesses, the arts, and localized charities that allow residents to connect with one another. This is well exemplified by ShapeShifter Fish and Friends, a small business with ties to Coffee Pot Bayou. Maria Aller and Andrew Hill co-founded the organization in October 2020, a time when they felt the world needed more positivity.

“I lived in an apartment for five years, but fell in love with the neighborhood,” Aller says. “When I decided to buy a house, it took me one and a half years until I found the right one.… Read More

“Remember that the happiest people are not those getting more, but those giving more.” 
– Robin Sharma

Giving is the best present we can give to ourselves. And, though the rewards are great, giving something as precious as time can be challenging. Personal wisdom gained over time, lessons that each of us had to take time to learn, is perhaps our most precious asset. Imagine then, the incredible wealth of knowledge in the possession of our senior citizens. 

A recently expanded program supported by Seniors in Service of Tampa Bay, called Senior Companion, aims to make good use of lifetimes of wisdom while easing the loneliness that sometimes comes with it.… Read More

For most of the year, Old Northeast resident Margaret Ann Burtchaell is hard at work in her commercial kitchen on 4th Street, where she and her team are busy creating everything from specialty cookies to gourmet comfort food. 

But in the summer, her kitchen is in a villa in Italy, where she teaches cooking classes to guests enjoying a week-long vacation in the Sabine hills just outside of Rome. The villa is part of a 150-acre estate that includes orchards full of cherry, fig, orange and lemon trees, olive groves, and rosemary bushes.

“It was one of those unexpected blessings in life that come along,” says Burtchaell.… Read More

On September 11th, the St. Petersburg Civitan Club celebrated its 100th year of services to the community. Although the club was officially chartered on April 12, 1921, like many other clubs and volunteer organizations, the recent pandemic delayed their centennial festivities from last spring until now. St. Petersburg Mayor Rick Kriseman issued a proclamation recognizing the Club’s centennial on its actual anniversary last April.

The first Civitan Club was formed in Birmingham, AL, in 1917, with St. Pete starting its own club four years later. The organization’s guiding principle is to build good citizenship through volunteering with an emphasis on helping people with developmental disabilities.… Read More

Even with all their complexities, families are a blessing of permanence that give children an advantage in life. But not everyone is given this opportunity, especially those in foster care. As program director of the Heart Gallery of Pinellas and Pasco, Patsy Stills is hoping to change that.

A program of Gulf Coast Jewish Family & Community Services, “the Heart Gallery of Pinellas and Pasco is dedicated to increasing the number of adoptions of local children in foster care,” said Patsy. Since it was established in 2006, the nonprofit organization has found forever homes for 390 children. But many more need help.… Read More