BLOG: My reaction to playing cupid

Tara and Mike Pettit pose for a picture with News-Press reporter Alejandra Diaz. The couple got married on Feb. 10, just 7 months after Mike searched for Tara online and found her in a News-Press story about parasailing on Bonita Beach.


Mike and Tara Pettit toast to their guests during their wedding reception.


Tara Clydesdale and Mike Pettit pose for a picture prior to getting married on the water at Lovers Key State Park's beach. The pair vowed their love for one another on a Boston Whaler that cruised the two with family and friends around Estero Bay.

Wedding bells rang in Bonita Springs on Feb. 10 as Tara Clydesdale and Mike Pettit said their ‘I dos’ at sunset on Lovers Key State Park’s beach.

I was honored with an invitation to gather with friends and family and watch the high school sweethearts finally marry after 18 years apart and “life getting in the way.”

The marriage comes just seven months after Mike Pettit decided to sit at his computer in July 2006 and google Clydesdale. He found her in a story I wrote about a parasailing company she worked for on Bonita Beach.

Clydesdale and I met on the beach one day in early July and she sent me soaring 1,200 feet in the air from a parachute.

The story practically wrote itself and like many stories I write, I expected it to leave me once it hit the pages on July 8, but it didn’t.

The first paragraph haunted me for months and I wasn’t sure why. I just kept thinking about it.

“Tara Clydesdale, 33, works on Bonita Beach, but she doesn’t sell hot dogs or set up rental chairs ...” I wrote never knowing the phone call I would get months later.

In October, Clydesdale called and left me a message saying she quit her job, flew to Delaware and was rekindling her relationship with the love of her life Mike Pettit.

Pettit’s the guy whose life brought him to think of Clydesdale months after a failed marriage and life of unhappiness.

I almost fell off my chair in astonishment. With one story, I became a matchmaker, or Cupid of sorts.

Clydesdale and Pettit became engaged and moved to Bonita Springs. I wrote another story to tell of their unlikely love story and ability to “pick up where they left off” more than nine years earlier.

Realizing that I helped change two lives, I felt satisfied. But the tale didn’t end there.

My phone rang again just three weeks ago inviting me to the wedding of the couple I “brought together.”

It was “my fault,” the soon-to-be Pettits said, when they introduced me to friends and family at the Fish Tail Marina in Estero.

Throughout the boat ride to Lovers Key, I remained mesmerized.

Mike and Tara danced to calypso music as family members thanked me for bringing happiness to two lives that were meant to be led together.

“I just wrote a story about parasailing,” I kept saying, but they knew it was much more than that.

When they slipped the rings on their fingers and the Pettits finally anchored their lives together, I knew I was meant to write that story with the paragraph that haunted me.

At that moment I realized I had accomplished one of my goals as a journalist – to change a life and be fortunate enough to experience it first-hand.

Perhaps the story ends here ... at least until a bundle of joy arrives.

To read the other stories I first wrote about Tara and Mike Pettit copy and paste the following link:
http://alejandradiaz.blogspot.com/search?q=tara

Bernwood Centre to host new tenants

Chris Goff, 26, the club owner and manager at Anytime Fitness, points out what type of equipment the 24-hour gym will include.

Businesses at the Bernwood Centre in Bonita Springs are going to see new tenants moving in during the next few months.

The Centre, which is home to restaurants, stores and offices in more than 67,174 square feet of space has a few spots open and Michael Maurer is working to get them filled.

Maurer is the broker who recently signed off on three businesses including office space for an autism school, a yoga studio, and fitness center.

“All the Bernwood complexes are showing growth with the addition of malls like Coconut Point in the area,” said Maurer, from the Commercial Realty Group of Bonita Springs.

Anytime Fitness has just leased 5,880 square feet of retail space, or two units, and has plans to move in during the next few months.

“We are excited to get started and move in because we will be the only gym in this part of Bonita Springs,” said Misti Burns, 25, owner of Anytime Fitness. She and business partner Chris Goff, 26, moved to the area from Louisiana after realizing the area was saturated with Anytime Fitness franchises. “Bonita Springs has a good demographic and we found that this spot is good for people who work later at night like at the local malls.”

Two failed fire inspections have kept them from opening the fitness center that will feature tanning, state-of-the-art workout equipment and access to the facility at all hours of the day or night.

Security will be provided by cameras that will capture everything going on inside the gym and members will get a keycard that will allow them access to the gym.

“We are playing the waiting game now but soon we will be able to complete demolition and have showers, equipment and lockers put in,” said Burns who has been introducing Bonita Springs residents to the 24-hour gym concept from the gazebo adjacent to where the gym will be. “We will be here every day until we open.”

The Eden Institute, which has already opened its doors at the Bernwood Centre, is hoping the location will give its customers easy access to their services.

The space will hold the administrative offices for the Institute’s autism schools and group home in Naples and Fort Myers.

“We will have our offices in Bonita Springs so that our schools in Naples and Fort Myers have an easier time getting to us,” said Frank Garbarino, of the Eden Institute. “Bonita Springs is a good spot to put an office so people don’t have to go too far back and forth.”

And de-stressing from the hustle and bustle of traffic is why a yoga studio is also moving into one of the Centre’s 4,200 square foot space.

“There isn’t much else in this area where to do yoga that I know of. There is one small studio off Corkscrew but it’s very trendy right now and this will bring yoga to this part of Bonita,” said Maurer adding that Sam Chiodo will be the owner of the studio. No other information about the yoga studio was available as of press time.

Maurer feels that having new tenants move into the Bernwood Centre is a sign of growth in this part of Southwest Florida.

“The new malls are attracting more people to the area. So the more traffic, the more people see these buildings and the more attractive they become for potential tenants,” Maurer said. “Bonita and Estero are the focal point of growth in Southwest Florida and I think people are starting to realize that … this is where they want to be.”

Reading garden dedicated to 95-year-old

Bonita Springs Elementary school Principal David Short stands with Gertude Nielsen, 95, during a dedication ceremony for Nielsen's birthday. Students sang happy birthday and dedicated a reading garden in her honor.


Gertude Nielsen, 95, reads to Suzanna Martinez, 5, during a dedication ceremony for Nielsen's birthday. Students sang happy birthday and dedicated a reading garden in her honor.

Gertrude Neilsen got the surprise of her life when she walked out of the media center at Bonita Springs Elementary to students singing “happy birthday” and cheering her on.

Neilsen turned 95 on Friday and had a dedication ceremony held in her honor at the school on Wednesday.

Students and teachers got the idea to celebrate her birthday by dedicating a reading garden named after Neilsen.

“Every year we do something for her birthday but we thought that 95 is a big birthday so we wanted to do more,” said Allyson Lutz, who used to be the librarian at the media center when Gertrude started there 3 years ago. “It’s a wonderful legacy for her to have here. She has done so much for the students.”

Gertrude spends five days a week at the school reading with students, re-shelving books and helping students check books out.

“I’m flabbergasted!,” said Neilsen, after seeing the garden that includes a bench so students can spend time reading with mentors or friends.

The garden will eventually have flowers and some ground cover. “I can’t believe that. Why didn’t they tell me? What a surprise,” she said.

The surprise touched Neilsen who teared up when she received birthday cards from students and heard a speech about everyone’s appreciation for her work at the media center.

“I dream of filing books at night,” Neilsen said. “I sure do.”

And students are hoping she is able to continue to work with them for years to come. Students will have access to the reading garden during media center hours.

“She does such a wonderful job and I think this is such a way to show we appreciate her,” Lutz said. “She is an inspiration to us all.”

Students build structures for competition

Students at Bonita Springs Elementary recently had a chance to spend time with local builders, architects and engineers during a “Building Blocks” session provided by the National Association of Women in Construction.

The session was sponsored by local chapter Southwest Florida 297 as an annual event to introduce children to the construction industry.

“The idea is to give them an idea of what jobs are out there in construction and give them a very primary idea of different construction aspects,” said Tracy Bean, the co-chair of the event that has been taking place for seven years at the school.

During the event, students are given 100 blocks, a rock, a piece of string, and a piece of tin foil and asked to create a structure in 40 minutes.

“Seems like we are so oriented to tests but this gives students something different. It’s a fun thing and it’s a competition where they learn too,” said Susan Shelley, the science teacher at Bonita Elementary.

Shelley has coordinated the event for the last few years in hopes of giving first and second graders a chance to compete for trophies and work with local construction entities.

“This teaches them skills, problem solving and creativity, and they get to ask the engineers questions to see what works and what doesn’t,” said Shelley, of the program that awards each student a T-shirt, plastic construction hat and poster. “They get feedback from professionals, and it’s a nice interaction between the kids and local businesses.”

After completing their structures and discussing them, each one was judged on design and creativity.

“We like doing this every year because we get a new group and it helps us introduce our field of construction,” Bean said.

International Business Week

The very best clients and business members in Bonita Springs were invited last week to attend a networking event during International Business Week at the Spanish Wells Golf & Country Club in Bonita Springs.

The event, which was hosted by the Bonita BizNet chapter, gathered local businessmen and women to spread awareness about networking and ways to reach customers.

“It was a regularly scheduled meeting but the build-up was that we asked everyone to bring a guest or their very best client so they can see what we are about,” said Greyson Huber, the vice president of the group that meets every week on Wednesday mornings.

The chapter is just one of 17,000 in the world that work under the guidelines and standards set by Business Network International, the group’s governing body.

“There are 20 different countries throughout the world and every single BNI that week was doing the same event,” said Huber about the event meant to get the buzz going about the group. “It’s a chance to get a bunch of people to our meeting.”

The networking group, which is made up of about 25 members that represent each industry from plumbers through insurance agents was able to get more members to join as a result of the event.

But not everyone may join because if the group already has a financial advisor, BizNet is required to recommend another group without a financial advisor.

“We build Power Groups and we meet outside of BNI to make sure we recommend each other while we are out working day to day,” Huber said. “That maximizes that everybody has an opportunity to be referred.

And, International Business Week was the perfect way for the group to introduce the business community to what they had to offer, Huber said.

“It was very successful. Some 10 people came out and two were recommended to other groups,” Huber said. “This event made the meeting much more of a buzz and anybody who joins has exclusive access to that industry so it blocks out your competitors.”

For more information about Bonita BizNet call Cynthia Begin at 390-9433.

Conservancy decides on clean-up date

The Imperial River Conservancy met on Monday night and elected new officers for the year.

Ryan Willoughby was sworn in as president, Al Piscitelli is the new vice president and Kathy McGrath is the secretary and treasurer of the group that works to protect the Imperial River.

“We have about six meetings a year and it helps to have officers to head it all up,” said Kathy McGrath, about the meetings that are held in February, March and April.

The group works to conserve the Imperial River by monitoring it for garbage, tires, car parts and styrofoam.

“We scour the shorelines looking for all sorts of things like pieces of cars,” said McGrath of the efforts by volunteers who also donate their own boats for clean-ups sponsored by the group.

The next clean-up is schedules for March 24 and the group is looking for boat-owning volunteers.

“We collect all the trash and dump it all and then host a barbeque for all the volunteers. It’s a nice time,” McGrath said.

During the meeting, the Conservancy also awarded $100 to the best not-for-profit agency in the boat parade which benefited the American Cancer Society.

“The two winners, Debbie and Chuck Wilson and Betsy and Sam Vincent, wanted their winnings to go to the same group so we wrote the check at the meeting,” she said.

For more information on the Imperial River Conservancy call 992-7076.