Celebrating 2023 in Avalon Park Wesley Chapel
We’re excited to share a new year of events with you! This year, there are several community festivals and events to look forward to in Avalon Park Wesley Chapel. From food truck nights to family-friendly events, we have it all. Whether you’re a music lover, foodie, or looking for family fun; Avalon Park has something for everyone.
food and music along with bounce houses, a laser light show, and community performances.
These festivals are created to bring people together and they offer plenty of entertainment for all ages. We want to provide an array of opportunities for you to participate in our community.
Do you offer a product or service that would be a great fit for an upcoming event? Apply to be a vendor and share your products with thousands of attendees. Vendor Opportunities are available for all upcoming events! Check out all opportunities at Vendors | Avalon Park Wesley Chapel.
For a full list of family-friendly events, visit us at AvalonParkWesleyChapel.com and follow us on social media @AvalonParkWesleyChapel.
At Avalon Park’s many festivals, you’ll have a chance to visit with local arts & crafts vendors, as well as organizations and businesses that share a passion for both families and our community. You can meet face-to-face with people who provide important resources like farm fresh food, housing, education and more—giving you peace of mind knowing that your family is well taken care of in our city. It’s also fun to make new friends while enjoying the community performance entertainment together on stage. The first festival will be on Saturday, April 15th at Absolutely Avalon where we will celebrate diversity in Avalon Park! There will be international
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Why? I wanted to get in shape, and it worked! When doing my annual executive physical the results were outstanding, on every level, all the blood values, fitness, blood pressure, heart rate et al. The Doctor said: whatever you do, just continue this way.
Health is the most important you could wish for in your entire live. With physical and mental health, you can conquer the world.
And that is what we want for the Avalon Park communities; to become the healthiest communities in Florida.
5 years ago, I was invited by APG’s Chief Human Resource officer Mari Robles, to attend a dinner given by AdventHealth with about 25 finalists in line to win a $150,000 grant. AdventHealth was looking for a company who could be made the healthiest company in Central Florida. I am proud to say that APG won the award and Advent started right away their program. It was great, from running or walking a 5K together to many lifestyle lessons and medical workshops. We worked as together as a company with about 200 employees on getting healthy. And WOW, we did, from losing weight, to getting in shape, some people quit smoking and people reversed diabetes.
We were told that one of the determining factors
introduced us to a great opportunity. This time the Avalon Park Orlando community was selected to do a pilot community health program. The pilot program begins this month with 30 participants, with the goal to continue adding additional participants at different benchmarks. We look forward to sharing more details with you on this fantastic program as it develops for the Avalon Park Wesley Chapel community.
Our goal remains to make Avalon Park Wesley Chapel one of the healthiest communities in Central Florida.
Advent Health and APG have been partners and friends for a long time. I am serving on their main Orlando Board since 2006, and our organizations have collaborated on many partnerships over the past 20+ years. Some of those include that AdventHealth is a tenant in the Keith A. Ewing Medical Office Building, Encore at Avalon Park Assisted Living and Memory Care and Advent Health have an affiliation agreement, and AdventHealth is a key sponsor to many Avalon Park events. Additionally, AdventHealth and APG are founding partners of the UCF Medical School in Lake Nona, and so it goes on and on. True friends and great partners!
I think to start 2023 with a goal like becoming the healthiest community in Central Florida, truly will be life changing for many, it definitely was for me when I went on to lose a quarter of my (excess) weight.
Happy New Year Avalon Park!
The Avalon Park Sun is published by Avalon Park Group. Interested in Advertising with us? Email Marketing@AvalonParkGroup.com or call 407.658.6565. 3801 Avalon Park East Blvd. #400 Orlando, FL 32828 www.AvalonParkSun.com
PUBLISHER
Beat Kahli
EDITOR
Stephanie Lerret MANAGING EDITOR Marielle Fernandez
ART DIRECTOR Kenzie Farrish
Update from Pasco County Commissioner Seth Weightman
Hi, I’m Seth Weightman and I am your new Pasco County Commissioner. I was sworn-in to office on November 22nd and hit the ground running. It is a great honor to have been elected to this role to represent our community. I greatly appreciate the Avalon Park Sun for allowing me to provide these updates to you on what is happening around Pasco County each month.
behind to support our local economy. Last July, I attended the groundbreaking for downtown Avalon Park Wesley Chapel, including more highquality jobs to our area and co-working space for entrepreneurs and small businesses to grow.
-Public safety: quality of life for our residents begins with feeling safe. We will work to make sure our Fire Rescue and our partners at the Sheriff’s Office to make sure they have what they need to keep people safe.
-Parks: Pasco has a great parks system that provides opportunities for families to relax in a safe environment outside. I want to make sure Pasco Parks system continues to encourage uplift our children.
My first regular County Commission meeting was on December 6th, I was honored to sponsor my first resolution recognizing members of Pasco Fire Rescue for helping our neighbors in southwest Florida with Hurricane Ian relief. I’m looking forward to working with my colleagues on the County Commission to do great things for Pasco County!
A little more about me: I’m a fifth generation Pasco native, my family and I love our community and proud to be part of it. Before I was elected to the County Commission, I was an appointee of Governor DeSantis on the Southwest Florida Water Management District Governing Board for three years, infrastructure around flood mitigation and water supply will be a major priority of mine during the next four years on the County Commission.
I want to outline some of my other priorities:
-Fiscal discipline, we will watch every dollar to make sure our citizens are getting most out of every tax dollar that comes to the County.
-Infrastructure and road projects, this includes County roads like Old Pasco Road and Wesley Chapel Boulevard and making sure our partners at Florida Department of Transportation have any information they need on projects like State Road 54 widening near Avalon Park Wesley Chapel.
-Supporting our small business: we will make sure that we do not leave our small businesses
I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas and holiday season and are ready to tackle the New Year!
About: Commissioner Seth Weightman represents District 2 on the Pasco County Commission.
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Gary Plastic Packaging Corp to Locate to Pasco County, FL
The Pasco Economic Development Council (Pasco EDC) is happy to announce the relocation of Gary Plastic Packaging Corp (Gary Plastic) to Pasco County, Florida.
their products. The Company has two product lines, Promotional Products and Packaging. Its Promotional Products Division manufactures, prints and assembles plastic products for the promotional industry. Its Packaging Division manufacturers stock rigid/reusable plastic containers primarily for the pharmaceutical, dental and electronics industries.
The company will be leasing 279,000 square feet of a 400,000 square foot building in the new North Pasco Corporate Center currently under development by Harrod Properties. This is one of two buildings on the 72 acres off Softwind Lane in Spring Hill. Gary Plastic is anticipated to bring approximately 555 total new jobs to the county over a 3-year period, with approximately 184 jobs at 125 percent of the average county wage. The company is investing approximately $16,000,000 in lease hold improvements such as manufacturing equipment, furniture, and other fixtures to create a modern state of the art manufacturing facility. Additionally, Harrod Properties is set to invest approximately $50,000,000 in the building, land, and infrastructure.
“It is so nice to see an environmentally-focused family business that employs hundreds of people choose Pasco County to call home,” said Bill Cronin, President/CEO, Pasco EDC. ”We are thrilled to welcome Gary and to see them locate into another great speculative property, we are here to help them grow for years to come.”
Gary Plastic is an environmentally focused company committed to providing customers with manufactured reusable products with an average content of 30 percent recycled plastic resins and continuing its R&D to incorporate bio-plant based materials in
“It has been a pleasure working with the Pasco EDC, they were extremely helpful from the minute we connected. Given The Corporate Center’s location, and its opportunity for efficient growth, Pasco County was a natural fit for Gary Plastic’s new manufacturing facility” shared Richard Hellinger, President of Gary Plastic.
Today, the Pasco County Board of County Commissioners approved multiple incentives including ad valorem tax reimbursement, Job Creation Incentives (JCI) for 184 jobs totaling up to $552,000, High Impact Job Creation Bonus (HIB) up to $306,206, as well as Discretionary Training Funds for $100,000 through the Penny for Pasco Jobs and Economic Opportunities Trust Fund. The Pasco EDC also assisted the company with Expedited Permitting.
and management jobs,” said Jack Mariano, Pasco County Board of County Commissioners
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“Gary Plastic locating to the west Pasco area is going to provide great opportunities for our workforce from manufacturing jobs and skilled mechanics to supervisor
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