By Marie Gilmore

2006

FishHawk resident David Gottleib, owner of Carvel Ice Cream located on Bloomingdale Ave., knew that his booth would be a big hit at this year's FishHawk Area Networking Group (FANG) Back to School Festival held in August 2006.  What he didn’t know was that he would actually run out of his 1,200 ice cream sundae cups by 11 a.m. with the event continuing until 12 noon.  Fortunately, other vendors at the event picked up where he left off with sno cones, pizza, chicken wings and fajitas from Cody’s Roadhouse being another popular stop at the event.

More than 2,000 people attended the fourth annual event and enjoyed performances by local dance schools, twirling groups, singing and more. County Services, including the Hillsborough County Sheriff’s helicopter, mounted patrol, marine unit and Hillsborough County Fire Rescue, were on hand along with the ever popular TECO bucket truck rides taking hundreds of attendees 100 feet above the event for a bird’s eye view.

In addition to 50 business booths, Theatre Arts & Dance Alliance (TADA) owner Steve Kraack emceed the event and called out door prizes to the thousands in attendance. FAFCO, a local pool heating company sponsored free children's fingerprinting by Child Protection of America inside Scoopers where more than 50 families took advantage of the free service.

This event is free every summer and is open to the public, but residents are asked to bring a school supply item or nonperishable food item which will be distributed through the CAMPO YMCA to a local school program. More than 300 items were collected this year. The event was sponsored by the St. Pete Times/Brandon Times, Osprey Observer, TADA, YMCA and Carvel.

FANG is a business networking group for FishHawk residents. Meetings are held the second and fourth Thursdays at 7:30 p.m. at the Osprey Club theater. For more information on upcoming events, call Denise Graf at 813-643-0730.

© 2007 FishHawk Area Networking Group 2007