Looking for something to do that is fun and a great way to help those less fortunate? Well dust off your golf clubs and make your way to The Groves for the Super Saturday Golf Tournament, Benefit Dinner and Auction Oct. 1.   The day will start early. At 8 a.m. the shotgun, four-person scramble on the golf course gets under way.  The cost is $75 and will include golf on The Groves’ 18-hole golf course, a golf cart, and lunch. Prizes will be awarded at the lunch for the lowest team score, longest drive, and closest to the pin.   Sponsors are still need for this event. Sponsors will have a sign …

It all started when Prince Ludwig of Bavaria, later crowned King Ludwig I, wanted the people of Munich to help celebrate his marriage to Princess Therese of Saxony-Hildburghausen on Oct. 12, 1810. Ludwig organized a horse race and invited everyone living in Munich. The royal party included about 40,000 guests—a good time, and copious amounts of beer, were apparently had by all that first year. Oktoberfest is still a 16-day festival in Munich, but you can enjoy the festivities right here in Land O’ Lakes on Friday, Sept. 30 at The Groves Clubhouse. The evening will begin with dinner (5:30-6:30…

If you love Jimmy Buffett music, and who doesn’t, you would have loved the Jimmy Buffett tribute band that played at The Groves earlier this month.  It was a colorful event, with lots of Hawaiian shirts, dancers and energetic performers. The Live Bait Band opened with one of Jimmy’s favorite audience participation songs, Fins.  The Live Bait Band has maintained the same line-up since day one of putting the five-person band together in 2001, creating a strong sense of performing together and very tight vocal harmonies.  The music just kept coming with crowd favorites, like Margaretville, 5 O’…

He was 27 years old, living the good life. Joey Sanders was a parts manager for Sky Motor Sports in Port Richey. He had a lot of great friends and a family who loved him. He loved to ride his 2006 Suzuki motorcycle, and had a thing for reptiles; he even nursed a baby alligator back to health.  Most remember Joey as a jokester, with a great smile and a talent for making people laugh. He and his father Joe were always together. They were like a comedy act, both quick-witted with infectious laughs. Joey looked up to his father, and called his father his “Hero” on his MySpace page.  Joey was a …

Ready for a little latitude adjustment?  Well dust off your flip-flops, pull that parrot-head out of the closet, slip on your best tropical shirt and make your way to The Groves for a fun night of Jimmy Buffet tunes this Saturday, August 13. The show starts at 7 p.m. and will feature The Live Bait Band, a lively and colorful group that will have you up and dancing to your favorite Jimmy Buffet songs. The concert will take place in The Groves' ballroom and is sponsored by The Groves Social Club. The Live Bait Band has maintained the same line-up since the first day this five-person band played…

You may have seen him driving his van up and down Land O’ Lakes Boulevard, it reads Jerry Handyman. You would be correct if you guessed that Jerry Millecam fixes things, because that what he does. He fixes things.  So when the earthquake hit Haiti in January 2010, Jerry wanted to help fix the problems. He searched the not-for-profit world looking for a way to use his skills, to help rebuild Haiti. He wasn’t successful until he found Habitat for Humanity’s -Jimmy & Rosalynn Carter Work Project. Finally, he had found a way to help! “Most of the others charities only wanted money,” Jerry says …

"This one’s fast, so you ladies need to really work those skirts,” yells Allen Snell as he calls the steps during The Groves' first square dancing lesson on a recent Tuesday night.  The event was held in the ballroom, and 40 or so dancers, some very experienced and some who had never square danced before, came together to kick up their heels, twirl their skirts and have some fun.  Some of the more experienced dancers, also known as Angels, danced first to three different songs. Then the Angels paired up with those taking the lesson, and before long everyone in the place was square dancing. …

It doesn’t take much to get Carin Bicker talking about plants. You might even say she surrounds herself with them. In fact, she has more plants than she has grass in both her front yard and back yard.  She has a Florida Friendly Garden.  In 2009, Bicker and her neighbors Bill and Barbara Bloodgood planted the first two Florida Friendly Gardens, side-by-side in The Groves.  They planted these gardens just after Gov. Charlie Crist signed a bill that allowed homeowners to tear out their grass and replace it with a Florida Friendly Garden.   A Florida Friendly Garden is one that reduces the need …

One year ago Tuesday, Irene Russell was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer and underwent surgery. Today she is not only alive, but she is playing tennis, traveling and more importantly, living her life to its fullest.  Irene considers herself lucky - lucky because her cancer was discovered by accident, and lucky because she is still alive and feeling so good. Irene and her husband John were vacationing in Canada when she started feeling bad. When they returned to Land O’ Lakes, she went to her doctor who thought she had a bladder infection. A few days later, Irene became jaundice. She drove …

Once a month Sandy Paxton and her Beta Sigma Phi sorority sisters get together to help pack Ziploc bags full of commissary items for soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan. Some of the soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan are miles from any kind of store where they might buy basic items such as razors, shampoo, snacks, chewing gum or even personal hygiene products.   Most of the members of the Beta Sigma Phi live in Land O’ Lakes and travel to Wesley Chapel to donate their time to a nonprofit group called Support The Troops operated by a Vietnam veteran, Bob Williams. Businesses, churches, schools, and…

After 30 years of teaching history, a friend of mine recently retired. She has never looked better, but this isn’t always the case for many retirees. There is such a build up to the retirement day, I remember many of my own work colleagues counting the weeks, days, and even minutes to the second they became “retired.”  There are the parties, the goodbyes, and then all at once, it all ends. You’re retired, and your time is your time. For the first few weeks it feels like you’re on vacation, and retirement may feel really great. Let’s face it; most of us are tuned in to taking 2-4 weeks of …

It’s probably fair to say that it was the biggest Kentucky Derby party in all of Land O’ Lakes.  Nearly 150 guests attended the private party hosted by Jim and Hilda Holt at Caliente Resort to cheer on their favorite horse. The May 7 event was the seventh Kentucky Derby party the Holts have hosted in Florida.  They have had smaller parties in their homes in Pennsylvania, and in Tennessee, but when they moved to Florida, the parties just kept getting larger and larger.  The party started as Jim’s idea. He grew up in Somerset, Ky., just 80 miles south of Lexington. While attending the …

Imagine if one swing of your golf club could make you an instant millionaire!  That was the scenario Larry Benson pondered March 19 as he walked onto the 17th hole at Copperhead Golf Course. All it would take was a hole in one … one perfect swing! The goal, while lofty, was possible for Benson, a resident of The Groves since 2003. He has had three perfect shots. His first hole in one was in 2008, then a year later in 2009, and then just recently on Feb. 19, 2011. But it was this most recent hole in one that made him eligible to participate in the competition.   The Callaway Million Dollar …

You may notice some new blue lines on the tennis courts at The Groves.  That’s because The Groves just added pickleball to its list of activities. The idea came from John and Pam Stern and Jim and Dora Mae Sinner who all live in The Groves.   “Pickleball is the fastest growing court game in the U.S.,” said John Stern who hosted four pickelball clinics at The Groves earlier this month.   Pickleball is a fun court sport played on a badminton-sized court with the net at 34 inches at the center. It is played with a perforated plastic ball similar to a whiffle ball and wood or composite paddles …

It all started several years ago as a joke. Some of the men teased about wanting the opportunity to begin their golf game at the ladies tee box at The Groves golf course.   “I told them, that the only way they could start at the ladies tee box was if they were wearing skirts,” recalls Marge Merrill.  That was three years ago.  Merrill, a resident of The Groves, organizes the Caliente Wednesday Golf Scramble. Each week they golf at different courses, but once a month, they golf at The Groves.  Last week, a group of 52 men and women came together at The Groves to participate in this unusual …

For the fourth consecutive year Land O’ Lakes will have a finalist in the Bright Stars Senior Idol Talent Show, sponsored by Brighthouse Networks. For the last three years, three different residents from The Groves were crowned the winner of the Senior Idol competition.   Can Land O’ Lakes hold onto the crown for a fourth year?  The win lies on the voice of Sue Rott, a seven-year resident of Land O’Lakes.   She plans to sing: "One Day at A Time," (Cristy Lane) and "Paper Roses" (Marie Osmond). The Bright Stars Senior Idol Talent Show is set for April 6 at Ruth Eckerd Hall in Clearwater. Only …

Linda Wood’s journey began almost 3 ½ years ago when a doctor told her she had stage-four lung cancer. She, her husband, her family and friends were all stunned. The phone calls, e-mails, and cards flooded the Wood household. It was her husband Dave’s idea to create a blog to keep everyone up-to-date about all the medical issues and how Linda was responding to treatment. It was a way to keep family and friends from across the country informed.  You see Dave and Linda Wood were Land O’ Lakes snowbirds. They spent their winters in Land O’ Lakes and their summers in Oregon. They also both worked…

This isn’t your typical exercise class.  Every Wednesday and Friday Maggie Petti conducts a challenging two-hour exercise class at The Groves. What makes this exercise class different is the length of the class and the ages of the participants. The youngster in the class is 57 and the oldest is, let's just say, mid-80s.  “I teach people half my own age and they can’t do some of the things these ladies do in this class,” Petti announced at the end of the class.  Petti has taught fitness classes for 20 years and was a dance and gymnastic instructor in New Jersey before she moved to the Tampa …

With Valentine’s Day just around the corner the garden club at The Groves chose to focus on the rose.  According to Carin Bicker, a licensed horticultural therapist, the rose has been around for more than 5,000 years.  “The rose is visually beautiful, but it can physically and emotionally excite use when we just look at a rose,” said Bicker as she passed a rose to each of the club members.  Most everyone can appreciate the smell of a rose. Roses are often used for aromatherapy because of their familiar fragrance and the health benefits of its aromatics. “The energy one gets from smelling a …

Daniel Rodriguez, also known as the “Singing Policeman” kept his audience wanting more at The Groves last Friday night. His dramatic tenor voice entertained an audience of 170 people from the Land O’ Lakes area for the two-hour program Feb. 4. Performing with Rodriguez was his wife, Marla Kavanaugh, who sang soprano. New York jazz pianist Jesse Lynch accompanied them both throughout the evening.  Rodriguez opened the evening with a beautiful rendition of "The Impossible Dream." The crowd sensed after the first few bars, that the evening was going to be an inspiring night.  Rodriguez and Lynch…