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APRIL 2022 941.312.0665 | 27TH STATE MEDIA, LLC
Living the Life of an Opera Performer
VOLUNTEERING FOR THE BIRDS
By Paul Weiner
Landings residents volunteer & tour Celery Fields.
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LANDINGS HAPPENINGS
Latest Schedule of Events & Activities
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DAY TRIPPING
Exploring Venice - the Sharks Tooth Capital of the World
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page KID’S CORNER
Miles Cuff, 10
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GAYLE SHARES HER VOLUNTEERING STORY
Save Our Seabirds Experience
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LRC Happy Hours are Back! By Ingrid Wiemer, LRC Committee Vice-Chair Photos by Bob Manteiga and Rick Waller
A c o upl e o f m o n t h s ag o, I received an email asking if we were interested in being a supernumerary (a nonsinging or speaking part) in upcoming operas. I responded positively. Because of my poise, wit, charm, and beauty, I was assigned to be a noble attending a wedding in Donizetti’s “The Daughter of the Regiment”. At my f i rst rehea rsa l, I was instructed to stand next to a young lady named Victoria Tomasch who was in the chorus and “fake talk” and “fake emote” when she did and go where she told me to go. After decades of marriage, this came quite naturally, although, I did refrain from saying “Yes Dear, whatever you say.” My premiere was on Saturday, February 19. Surprisingly, despite a glowing review of the opera in The Herald Tribune, there was no mention of my performance. The cast is composed of young people, most of whom are younger than my car! Granted, I do have an old car, but seriously? After getting on stage at one of my performances, Continued on page 4
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Fossil Fun
Free College Profile: Joe & Carol Balsay By Emma Shaughnessy The items on display in someone’s home can indicate a lot about a person. An artist may display paintings or sculptures, a hunter may showcase deer head taxidermy, and a teacher may have a library full of books. Two Landings residents, Joe and Carol Balsay, have over three hundred fossils and corals on display that they have found over the years through their interest in fossil collecting. Joe and Carol Balsay spent most of their lives in Ohio. Carol worked thirty years in payroll at a large corporation. After graduating from Hiram College at 52 with a degree in business, she became a manager of accounting at a well-known company. Joe worked as a tool & die journeyman for 25 years. After receiving technical training, he became a designer of precision instruments used for quality control for a large fluid systems component company. The couple met at a bar in Ohio and will be married 55 years in June. They raised their two sons, Joe and Adam, in Mantua, Ohio, right outside of Cleveland, and later lived in Aurora, Ohio until moving to Sarasota in 2019. Their favorite part of living in The Landings is the weather; they just could not handle the harsh Ohio winters anymore. When they decided to move to The Landings, they sold their home in Ohio in one day and moved to Florida six weeks later with a car-full of fossils. Lovers of the outdoors, Joe and Carol enjoyed camping, hiking, and canoeing while raising their two sons. They also enjoyed sea kayaking and paddled with orcas, whales, and walruses while visiting areas in the Northeast Vancouver Island area, spending days overnight camping between the islands. Nova Scotia was one of their most memorable paddling experiences as they were able to watch large whales breach in front of their boats. Joe whitewater kayaked for over twenty years and obtained expert level, running world class rivers in the eastern United States. He also was asked to be a gate judge at the kayak slalom races for the Olympic team trials years ago. Carol’s interest in fossil collecting began when she explored areas where Joe paddled. After Joe gave up kayaking, Joe and Carol joined many fossil and mineral clubs around Ohio and Canada, launching their hobby of collecting and identifying fossils. With their clubs, they took field trips to quarries to learn where to dig and how to split rock. They would then go home and look up what they found
Eurypterid- one of Joe and Carol’s favorite fossils
and manually clean the fossils until they were presentable; a job which often fell to Joe given his work background. They displayed their fossils at many fossil and mineral shows and libraries in Ohio and Canada. Carol’s efforts in displaying and identifying their special collection of over three hundred million years old fossil plants won first place at the 2013 Cincinnati Ohio Geo fair competition. Their fossil collecting hobby took them all over North America, vacationing in areas like Utah, the Niagara peninsula, and states in the eastern US. Hiking Burgess Mountain to the Burgess Shale world heritage site in British Columbia to explore rare fossil beds was another one of their most special experiences. In their Free College talk, they plan to talk about how they learned about fossils, and how other people can, too, by joining fossil clubs. Some of the clubs Joe and Carol were part of include the Cincinnati Dry Dredgers, Niagara Peninsula Geological Society, North Coast Fossil Club, and the New York Paleontological Society. They are currently members of the Tampa Bay Fossil Club. They plan to explain what fossils are and how they are made, as well as a geological timeline of the fossils they have collected. They also want to let attendees take a Florida fossil sample home with them! Now that they are full-time Florida residents, their fossil collecting endeavors look different than they did when they lived up north. Although fossils in Florida are different
Fossil ferns displayed at their home.
Their Crinoids, Crinoids, and Blastoids
from fossils elsewhere, Joe and Carol have discovered a new interest in finding fossils of ancient Florida mammals and marine life. They plan to keep growing their fossil collection, and to continue discovering and learning about new fossils in the future!