Author: Chelsea Zukowski

City Hall veteran wants to come back for more

Chelsea Zukowski South Pasadena 0 Comment
Whitney Elfstrom | USFSP
The city should be more than just “a pass-through on the way to St. Pete Beach,” Arthur Penny says.

By WHITNEY ELFSTROM
USFSP Student Reporter

SOUTH PASADENA – Name any department at City Hall and chances are Arthur Penny has run it.

In seven and a half years as a city commissioner, he supervised the departments of finance, public works, community improvement and public safety. The only department he hasn’t directed – administration – is reserved for the mayor.

“I have the experience and experience matters,” said Penny, 59. “There is no one who knows the city better than I do.”

Penny stepped aside from city politics last year, but now he’s back – one of four candidates for two City Commission seats in the March 13 election.

All four candidates have served on the commission, but none longer than Penny. That’s something he touts as he ticks off his accomplishments as a commissioner in the tiny town (population 5,000).

Under his leadership, he said, the yellow lights on the town’s stoplights were lengthened from 3.6 seconds to 4.3 seconds (the longest allowed by law), a school bus stop was installed on Pasadena Isle and pedestrian crossing signage was erected near the entrance of Bay Island Condominiums.

In his first year in office, he said, he initiated a move to pay off the city’s debt on its reclaimed water system with money that “was just sitting there” in reserves.

Encouraging business development in South Pasadena has been a priority for Penny. In 2014, he said, he helped create a business revitalization committee that helped bring Ace Hardware, Taco Bell and Pet Supermarket to the city.

Those efforts need to continue, he said.

“I’d like to see the city open up for everyone, and instead of just being a pass-through on the way to St. Pete Beach it’ll be a place where people will want to stop for a while,” Penny said at a candidate forum last month.

One of Penny’s top priorities is building a new fire station in South Pasadena – a goal all four commission candidates have embraced.

“The building is falling apart, the roof leaks and our firefighters have to work out in an open garage,” said Penny. “It’s mandatory they have to work out every day, and you can imagine how hot it is in July and August.”

The fire station lacks bathrooms and sleeping quarters for women, he said, and that limits the opportunities for female firefighters in the city.

Penny and fellow candidate Gail Neidinger, who are unofficially running in tandem, have both been endorsed by the International Association of Firefighters.

In his campaign, Penny also cites his stint as president of the Suncoast League of Cities in 2016-2017 and his work at Pasadena Community Church.

Penny, a native of Chicago, moved to the Florida Panhandle in 1982. He attended Gulf Coast Community College and worked as a park ranger in Panama City from 1997 to 2001.

In Bay County, court records show, Penny had some brushes with the law – two misdemeanor convictions for possession of marijuana and two arrests for DUI. One DUI charge was dismissed, and the other resulted in a $1,899 fine, records show.

Penny also was charged with failure to appear on a misdemeanor battery charge that he said grew out of a dust-up after he was attacked at a hot dog stand he ran on Panama City Beach.

Penny said the judge dismissed the charges, but records indicate that he pleaded no contest and the judge withheld adjudication.

After 20 years in the Panhandle, Penny came to South Pasadena to pursue a condominium management license at the Bob Hogue School of Real Estate.

As a licensed community manager, he has run Sea Towers, a 55-plus high-rise complex northwest of St. Petersburg, since 2003.

Penny got into public service by chance and said he stayed out of determination.

In 2009, his neighbor, former Mayor Fred Held, recommended that he apply to become a city commissioner when two commissioners stepped down for personal reasons.

To his surprise, he was selected by the commission to fill one of the vacancies.

Tampa Bay Times senior news researcher Caryn Baird contributed to this report.

A throwback to yesteryear, city mulls change

Chelsea Zukowski South Pasadena 0 Comment
Nancy McCann | USFSP
When city clerk Carley Lewis returned to work 10 days after the birth of daughter Remy, department directors took turns holding her during meetings. Here, Remy cuddles with fire chief Dave Mixson last month.

By NANCY McCANN
USFSP Student Reporter

SOUTH PASADENA — Only one municipality in the state of Florida still leaves the daily nitty-gritty of government in the hands of elected city commissioners.

Is it time for a change in South Pasadena?

Lari Johnson, who as vice mayor oversees the city’s community improvement department, says it’s time to explore what the majority of municipalities in Florida do — hire a professional to run the day-to-day operations of the city.

“Something needs to happen,” agrees Gigi Esposito, the commissioner over the finance department. “There aren’t big problems, but we need to work more efficiently.”

The so-called pure commission form of government is a throwback to yesteryear, when the pace of local government was slower and less complicated. It made sense for the people who were elected to run things, especially in small towns.

That’s how South Pasadena, a city of 5,000 covering less than a square mile, ended up with five commissioners who each lead a department – administration, finance, public works, public safety and community improvement.

The commissioner elected as mayor now makes $10,000 a year; the other four, $7,600. Every March, commissioners vote to determine their assignments for the year.

The department directors they supervise have annual salaries from $89,682 to $103,530.

Today, fewer than 200 municipalities in the United States, mostly small towns like South Pasadena, still operate under this awkward form of government.

David Magenheimer, the commissioner over public works, says he has “not yet concluded that the benefits of changing the form of government outweigh the costs.”

Johnson wants the City Commission to investigate the city manager form of government, and he suggests meeting with retired city managers who provide guidance to local governments at no cost.

Judging by city manager salaries of other small Pinellas municipalities, hiring a city manager would probably cost at least $100,000 a year, not including benefits.

Esposito, who worked with a city manager for six years when she was a city commissioner in Largo, says it is “is a very effective way to run a city” but does “not want to be rushed.” She says she thinks “there are some different angles to explore” for improving efficiency in South Pasadena’s government.

Mayor Max Elson, who heads the administration department, and Gail Neidinger, the commissioner over public safety, say they lean toward a less expensive option – a “city administrator” with less responsibility and a smaller salary than a city manager.

“We (the commissioners) get along fine until we hit a small bump in the road,” said Elson at a workshop last month. “We don’t need a big payroll” for a solution.

Carley Lewis, 31, South Pasadena’s city clerk, is Elson and Neidinger’s answer.

To anyone carefully observing the commission’s meetings, it is clear that Lewis provides much of the glue holding together the daily operations of the city. She prepares the agendas. She knows project timeframes, contractual specifications and financial details. She is the city’s human resources manager. She helps keep the meetings on track, and she knows what’s coming around the bend.

Lewis’ importance was underscored last September when she returned to work part time about 10 days after the birth of her third child, Remy.

Department directors took turns holding Remy while her mom worked at her post during commission meetings. Neidinger called Remy “the city baby.”

Elson says he wants to increase Lewis’ salary – now about $89,000 a year – and enhance her responsibilities to work more closely with the department directors and “resolve differences” in weekly meetings instead of at the commissioners’ public workshops.

All five commissioners said they would like to spend more time on the big picture, like legislative issues affecting the city.

“We need to stop spending ad infinitum time (at commission meetings) on whether or not we are going to have a clown, a face painter or a puppeteer at our block party. That should never hit the table,” Elson says.

She seeks to stir outrage over Puerto Rico

Chelsea Zukowski St. Petersburg 0 Comment
Michael Moore Jr. | USFSP
Many islanders who fled to the mainland are being treated shabbily, says Mayra Calo (third from left).

By MICAHEL MOORE JR.
USFSP Student Reporter

Five months after Hurricane Maria devastated Puerto Rico, immigration lawyer Mayra Calo can speak about the politics of the issue and the way the news media has covered it.

But she speaks from the heart.

“I apologize if I get weepy or emotional,” Calo said Feb. 23 during a panel discussion at the sixth annual St. Petersburg Conference on World Affairs at USF St. Petersburg. “The rebuilding and the change will only come if we provoke outrage.”

The Category 4 hurricane hit Puerto Rico with 150 mph winds on Sept. 20, just 13 days after Hurricane Irma passed just north of the island.

Even now, a third of the population is still without power – a crisis that a Newsday editorial on Feb. 3 attributed to a “scandalously inadequate” response by the federal government.

The months since the hurricane have been an emotional time for Calo, a Puerto Rican native who practices law in Tampa, and her family, some of whom still live on the island.

Every night, she said, she worries about her son, who went there to volunteer.

Hurricane is a Taino word, she said, referring to the indigenous people of Puerto Rico and the Caribbean. “We are always ready for hurricanes.”

The problem, according to Calo, is that Hurricane Maria came shortly after Irma and was “more ferocious than any hurricane in history.”

Now, Puerto Rico is suffering, with many of its residents flocking to the mainland to escape the chaos brought by the storm.

Calo laments the way those Puerto Ricans are being treated in the states.

“In this era the others are treated as enemies,” Calo said. “They’re being treated like they’re not U.S. citizens.”

She said she wants to dispel the idea that “Puerto Ricans are a bunch of moochers” who “want to have their cake and eat it too” by being a territory and not a state.

Puerto Ricans are U.S. citizens. According to The New York Times, they pay federal taxes such as Social Security and Medicare, but not federal income tax.

Calo calls this “taxation without representation.”

Calo spent her teenage years in New York before moving to Florida, where she earned a bachelor’s degree in international studies at USF and a law degree at Stetson.

She was joined on the panel by Pinellas County Judge Myriam Irizarry, journalist Renata Sago of National Public Radio and C. Knox LaSister, a real estate development expert who has been involved in numerous disaster recovery efforts.

Orchestra music, museums make city hop

Chelsea Zukowski St. Petersburg 0 Comment
Whitney Elfstrom | USFSP
St. Petersburg is right behind “Mickey and Miami” in tourism, says Leroy Bridges of Visit St. Pete/Clearwater (far right).

By WHITNEY ELFSTROM
USFSP Student Reporter

Downtown St. Petersburg is overflowing with murals, galleries and live music, but what makes it an “arts mecca”?

Four people who ought to know agreed Feb. 22 that the Museum of Fine Arts and the Florida Orchestra are key magnets in attracting cultural tourists.

“We draw visitors from all over because no matter where you’re from, the arts are for you and you can find yourself through the art,” said Kristen Shepherd, executive director of the Museum of Fine Arts.

Art helps bridge gaps and understanding between individuals, she said, and the museum specializes in illuminating points of human experience through works of art from across different cultures and time periods.

Shepherd also said that international visitors have told her that their visit to the museum “was one of the marvelous surprises of being in St. Petersburg.”

She joined panelists from the orchestra, an arts support organization and the local tourism marketing agency to discuss “international cultural tourism in the Sunshine City” – one of 40 panels during a world affairs conference on the USF St. Petersburg campus.

St. Petersburg is the third most visited tourist destination in Florida, right behind “Mickey and Miami,” said Leroy Bridges, head of digital marketing and public relations at Visit St. Pete/Clearwater.

To Michael Francis, music director of The Florida Orchestra, the key to increasing cultural tourism is the local arts scene bonding through partnerships. He cited the orchestra’s collaborations with the Museum of Fine Arts and the Dali Museum to transform artwork into music.

“(In St. Petersburg) we have something spectacular,” said Francis. “We have the glorious Dali Museum. We have the Museum of Fine Arts. We have the Morean collection (of Dale Chihuly art). We have the Florida Orchestra, and when we work together this is something very exciting.”

Increasing cultural tourism in St. Petersburg would feed even more revenue into small businesses and the community, according to Susana Weymouth, executive director of Tampa Bay Businesses for Culture & the Arts.

Weymouth cited a nationwide arts and economic study conducted by Americans for the Arts that found that the nonprofit arts and culture industry generates over $166.3 billion in economic activity every year.

Of that number, $63.8 billion is spent by arts and cultural organizations and $102.5 billion is from tourists’ spending on meals, drinks and clothing.

“The revenue is feeding into, directly into, small businesses and our community and making them stronger and more prosperous,” Weymouth said.

Diplomacy or big stick? That’s the question

Chelsea Zukowski St. Petersburg 0 Comment
Jeffrey Waitkevich | USFSP
The U.S. added a “win-win proposition” to the classic ideologies that were limited to “I win, you lose” diplomacy, says veteran Foreign Service officer Paul Berg (right).

By Jeffrey Waitkevich
USFSP Student Reporter

Diplomacy has changed the way people go to war, and America has played a heavy hand in it.

At the St. Petersburg Conference on World Affairs on Feb. 23, four diplomats discussed how important diplomacy is in every international conflict and how it is evolving.

Their panel was titled “War vs. diplomacy: Which one, when?”

Moderator Pierre Guerlain, a professor emeritus of American Studies at Université Paris-Nanterre, France, said that the early description of diplomacy was summed up in Theodore Roosevelt’s famous quote, “speak softly and carry a big stick.”

Now, Guerlain asked, “When do you use the big stick?”

During World War I, all the world’s powers wanted to avoid war but accepted it because diplomacy was absent, said Charles Skinner, a retired U.S. Foreign Service officer who teaches courses on foreign policy and diplomacy at the University of Pittsburgh’s Graduate School of Public and International Affairs.

According to Paul Berg, a member of the U.S. Foreign Services since 1983, diplomacy originated on the ideology that using words were important for countries to win wars. Then the U.S. brought in the “uniquely American win-win proposition,” he said.

This idea that would allow everyone to benefit is the key to diplomacy, said Skinner, since a reconstruction project with everyone involved would make terrorism extremely difficult because “they’re attacking the whole world.”

“There are problems in the world,” said Skinner. “Usually these problems are bigger than any country in the world, bigger than the United States. What (the world) needs to solve them is cooperation.”

Former ambassador Herman J. Cohen, who retired after serving as assistant secretary of state for African affairs under President George H. W. Bush, noted that the biggest change has been in communication.

Before the instant messaging of today, Cohen said, he was only able to receive messages during a set time frame at his location in Africa. He said that he found out President John F. Kennedy had been assassinated when he received a call that required phone lines to be turned on after hours.

Despite the revamped communication abilities and realization that unity was necessary for success, there is still room for improvement, Berg said.

America still doesn’t have the necessary institutions for success, he said, and when it does succeed, it is usually because of the efforts of individuals.

Experts mull the pain of opioid addiction

Chelsea Zukowski St. Petersburg 0 Comment
Anna Bryson | USFSP
“Americans have the idea that they should not have to feel pain,” said Dr. Donna Petersen (left), dean of the College of Public Health and senior associate vice president at USF Health.

By ANNA BRYSON
USFSP Student Reporter

Despite accounting for only 4 percent of the world’s population, the U.S. uses 96 percent of its opioids.

At least that’s what Iqbal Paroo, a speaker at the St. Petersburg Conference on World Affairs, told a crowd of about 60 people at a panel on Feb. 22.

Paroo, a Tampa Bay-based consultant on health care systems and investment strategies, moderated a panel titled “How’d we get hooked? The opioid pandemic and what to do about it.”

The panelists sought to clear up confusion surrounding the crisis, explain its deadly breadth, clarify the numbers thrown around by the news media and suggest solutions and preventive measures.

Opioid overdose is the leading cause of death for Americans under 50, said Susan Tuite, a Florida Bar board-certified health care attorney.

How did we get here?

Tuite explained that when Purdue Pharma petitioned the Food and Drug Administration to approve OxyContin in 1995, the company marketed it as a drug that was different from other opioids and would not cause addiction.

But since OxyContin hit the shelves in 1996, she said, more than 560,000 Americans have died from opioid abuse.

The opioid crisis has become a global issue, said Gilles Raguin, a medical doctor and infectious disease specialist who works with drug users internationally.

In Europe, substitution treatment for opioid addiction is free, Raguin said. But in the U.S. there are not a lot of facilities that use substitution treatment, and it is very expensive where it is available.

Another part of the disparity in addiction rates between the U.S. and other countries could be Americans’ attitudes toward pain relief, said Dr. Donna Petersen, dean of the College of Public Health and senior associate vice president at USF Health.

“Americans have the idea that they should not have to feel pain and it should be able to be managed,” said Petersen.

Petersen emphasized the importance of a public health approach, instead of a criminal one, because the opioid abuse crisis is a multifaceted public health challenge.

All of the panelists conveyed that compassion is a key part of the solution. People did not just wake up and decide to become addicts, they said.

As part of a comprehensive approach, they said, stigmas about substance abuse and mental health need to be addressed as part of the solution.

Prevention is key.

Petersen cited a Los Angeles Times article about how Purdue Pharma and a network of international companies known as Mundipharma are moving into Latin America, Asia, Africa, and the Middle East to promote opioids for pain relief.

“As the credits roll on the U.S.’s horrible experience, I hope the sequel is not about this moving out into the rest of the world,” Petersen said.

Campus may get three new majors, chancellor says

Chelsea Zukowski St. Petersburg 0 Comment
Tim Fanning | USFSP
Martin Tadlock (center), USF St. Petersburg’s interim regional chancellor, joined a panel at the St. Petersburg Conference of World Affairs on Feb. 22 to discuss whether students are getting schooling that is relevant to their futures.

By TIM FANNING
USFSP Student Reporter

USF St. Petersburg may be getting engineering, hospitality and insurance risk management majors in the coming years.

Interim Regional Chancellor Martin Tadlock made that announcement on Feb. 22 during a panel discussion at the St. Petersburg Conference on World Affairs.

Although light on specifics, Tadlock said talks have already begun with the Tampa and Sarasota-Manatee campuses to bring those majors to St. Petersburg.

His comments came during a discussion titled “How do we make our education systems more relevant?”

Although they are still in the discussion stage, the three potential majors are gaining the interest of businesses in the Pinellas County community, Tadlock said.

TradeWinds Island Resorts on St. Pete Beach was part of a conversation last week with the Sarasota-Manatee campus and St. Petersburg administrators, he said.

“We got what the big picture would look like for students,” Tadlock said. “We talked about what (the resort’s) needs are, and what they’re looking for. We talked about internships and other opportunities they (would) have for our students so we can eventually build that relationship.”

Tadlock said he and Robert H. Bishop, the dean of the College of Engineering in Tampa, have begun discussions on a feasibility study that would identify the needs of Pinellas County and the specific engineering fields the college could offer in St. Petersburg.

Engineering is one of the three programs that leaders of the USF system have promised to invest in here if a proposal to abolish the St. Petersburg campus’ separate accreditation is enacted by the Legislature. The others are health care and marine science.

The controversial consolidation bill, which would put St. Petersburg and Sarasota-Manatee under the control of Tampa, is still pending in Tallahassee.

Insurance risk management, a program tied to the Tampa finance major, would be on the table for St. Petersburg, Tadlock said. The Sarasota-Manatee campus began offering a risk management and insurance major last fall.

The potential majors in hospitality, engineering and insurance risk management, like many of the majors at USF St. Petersburg, would be geared to meet future career needs in Pinellas County, Tadlock said.

Tadlock also discussed an increase in campus jobs for students. Since the school has established more relationships within the community, he said, the number of students involved in internships off campus has “dramatically increased” in the last five years.

Veteran diplomat dishes on Trump, world issues

Chelsea Zukowski St. Petersburg 0 Comment
Nancy McCann | USFSP
The decline of democratic norms in Washington and rise in high-speed electronic communication pose challenges for diplomacy, Thomas R. Pickering says.

By NANCY McCANN
USFSP Student Reporter

Today’s international environment is the strangest and most unpredictable he has ever seen.

That assessment came Feb. 20 from Thomas R. Pickering, a former U.S. ambassador to Russia, who told an audience of almost 500 at the opening of St. Petersburg’s Conference on World Affairs that the art of diplomacy is changing very quickly.

In the conference’s keynote address, Pickering said the rapid decline of democratic norms in Washington and high-speed electronic communication don’t leave us with “much time to think these days.”

China and Russia are “particularly challenging,” he said, but this does not mean we are “inevitably destined to enter into broad conflicts with either of them.”

Pickering said because of the “diminishment” of the United States’ popularity around the world, diplomatic relationships are vital.

It is also important to avoid unintended consequences by understanding how the problems of the world are “deeply intermeshed,” such as energy policy, the environment and climate change, he said.

Pickering’s career as a U.S. diplomat stretched over five decades. He was the under secretary of state for political affairs in 1997-2000 and served as ambassador to Russia, India, Israel, Nigeria, Jordan, El Salvador and the United Nations.

He has the title of career ambassador, the highest rank in the U.S. Foreign Service, and is now chairman of the board of the Institute for the Study of Diplomacy at Georgetown University’s School of Foreign Service.

Pickering’s address kicked off four days of presentations from more than 70 diplomats, academics, authors and business executives on the USF St. Petersburg campus.

The sixth annual international affairs conference is expected to draw about 2,000 people to hear from nearly 40 panels of experts. It ends Feb. 23.

In his keynote address, Pickering offered an overriding message: Avoid single solutions, like relying solely on the military to solve problems in countries like Iran, Syria and North Korea. He said he is nervous “in this day and age where presidents speak lightly of using nuclear weapons.”

Diplomacy should be “out in front” and the military should be used in instances where we have to defend the country, he said. “Diplomacy always works best when we have the world’s best military, the world’s best economy and the world’s best set of principles and values.”

Pickering said he agrees with President Donald Trump in “ratcheting up pressure on North Korea,” but said that needs to be linked with the opening of diplomatic channels.

He likened toughness without diplomacy to welding the top of a pressure cooker shut. If it keeps on going, he said, it will explode.

“We are not as a government well configured with this rapidly changing world,” said Pickering.

But in the end, he said, the fundamental checks and balances of our system will prevail.

Veteran firefighter takes the reins in South Pasadena

Chelsea Zukowski People, South Pasadena 0 Comment
Courtesy Dave Mixson
Mixson was one of 23 candidates for the job.

By EVY GUERRA
USFSP Student Reporter

SOUTH PASADENA – A passing fire truck changed Dave Mixson’s life.

As a teenager, he had planned to be a math teacher and baseball coach. But a couple of tough math courses in community college and a stint as a part-time teacher changed his thinking.

Unsure what to do next, Mixson went to his father for advice. At that moment, a fire truck went by, sirens blaring.

“I asked him, how would one become a fireman?” said Mixson.

Eighteen months later, he was a paramedic – the first step in a 23 1/2-year career as a paramedic and firefighter in Largo.

On July 5, that career carried him to South Pasadena, where he was sworn in as fire chief and director of public safety.

Mixson, 47, says his years in Largo prepared him well.

“I’m most looking forward to the unknown and the challenges it’ll bring,” he said. “I think it’s a great organization that I get the chance to lead.”

As deputy fire chief in Largo (population 84,500), Mixson helped manage a department with six fire stations and 136 firefighters and emergency medical technicians. His salary was $99,455 a year.

In South Pasadena (population 5,100), he will lead a department with one station and 17 people, including himself, and make $96,776.

But Mixson doesn’t view his new position as a step down.

He said he has always admired the South Pasadena department and Dayton Saltsman, who recently retired as chief.

“Working in Pinellas for (almost) 25 years, you run calls with them and you hear about calls that they’re on,” he said. “You hear it’s a well-run organization.”

Mixson also notes that his St. Petersburg home is only 3 miles from the fire house in South Pasadena, a town he knows well.

All three of his children, now 18, 15 and 12, attended the preschool at Pasadena Community Church, where he and his family have been members for 15 years, he said.

“I have a connection with the community,” he said. “We eat there. We bowl at Ten Pin Lanes. It’s a community.”

Over the years, Mixson earned a bachelor’s degree in business administration at St. Leo University in Pasco County and a master’s in emergency management through an online program at Eastern Kentucky University.

He holds local or state certifications in special weapons and tactics, the management of both hazardous materials and brush fires, and emergency management coordination.

According to Pinellas court records, he was cited for speeding four times and careless driving once between 1986 and 2007. He also got a citation for a watering violation in 2004.

He acknowledges the driving citations, four of which came more than 20 years ago. The watering violation happened because he misunderstood the municipal ordinance, said Mixson, whose personnel file in Largo is brimming with commendations and positive evaluations.

Mixson was one of 23 applicants for the South Pasadena job, according to Gail Neidinger, the city commissioner who oversees the fire department. A community group narrowed the field to six candidates, she said, then selected Mixson after two interviews.

As he gets started, Mixson said, he plans to do a lot of teaching about fall prevention and hurricane safety in a city where the median age is about 70.

The high-rise Fountains retirement facility at 1255 South Pasadena Blvd. is the No. 1 EMS address in the county because of the number of falls there, according to deputy fire chief Emery Culverhouse.

Because most of the city is in a Level A hurricane evacuation zone, “it is that much more important to prepare for,” said Mixson. “An educated public has a better chance of being a prepared public.”

A tree grows in Gulfport (and what a tree it is)

Chelsea Zukowski Gulfport, People 0 Comment
Ryan Callihan | USFSP
The tree Dimitra Pastras inherited from her father doesn’t require much – just “Florida rain and Florida sunshine,” she says.

By RYAN CALLIHAN
USFSP Student Reporter

GULFPORT – She ate as many as she could. She gave them to family and friends. She even gave them to the homeless.

But no matter what she did, Dimitra Pastras still had too many avocados. Way too many.

“Even when I was giving them away, I was throwing away bushels of them,” she said.

Determined to find a use for all that fruit, Pastras learned how to convert avocados into body care products and avocado pits into jewelry.

Now, her Avocado Tree Project has a website and a booth at Gulfport’s Tuesday Fresh Market, where she hawks her wares and donates a dollar from every sale to St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital.

“It’s really not a business,” she said. “It’s a project. I do it, I meet people and I give back.”

Pastras, 60, moved to Gulfport in 2008 to take care of her elderly parents. When they died, she said, she decided to stay in Gulfport, where she inherited her parents’ house and a fertile, 25-foot-tall avocado tree.

Her father, Harry Pastras, planted the tree in the fall of 2001. He emigrated from Katakolon, Greece, in 1988 to Michigan, where he owned a garden shop.

“When my dad was in Michigan, he was a florist and he actually had a garden center,” said Pastras. “He was very big into botany and he was the same way in Greece.”

He grafted the tree from a Florida avocado and a Haas avocado.

Courtesy of Dimitra Pastras
The products made from Pastras’ avocados are featured at the Tuesday Fresh Market in Gulfport.

“A Florida avocado is a very large fruit,” she said. “They’re very large and watery. The Haas are smaller and very meaty with nutrition that you want from an avocado. When you graft them together, you get a bigger Haas avocado with a lot of oils in it.”

Pastras said she planted a sister tree a few years ago. Now the two trees produce 200 to 300 pounds of avocados a year. But that isn’t because Pastras has a green thumb.

“Believe me, I’m not proficient in growing avocados,” she said. “I don’t water them. I don’t fertilize them. I don’t put insecticides on them. They just grow on their own. Florida rain and Florida sunshine – that’s it.”

When she decided to try to turn her abundant avocado crop into other products, she ran into a problem.

“They come in all at once – usually in September,” said Pastras. “After that, they’re gone and they don’t come back for another year.”

The internet wasn’t much help, she said, so she spent a year of trial and error before she found a way to keep the avocados fresh.

“I started teaching myself how to process (avocados),” she said. “And I had plenty of avocados to be able to do it with.”

Even when Pastras was using the meat of the avocado for body care products, she felt that she was wasting too much of the fruit. So she began incorporating the pits into her projects, too.

Courtesy of Dimitra Pastras
The pits of avocados end up in jewelry like this pendant.

To make pendants, she carves each pit into a certain design. Next, she puts the carved pit through a drying process for seven to 14 days. Pastras said that she couldn’t duplicate the exact style of a piece if she wanted to because the pit takes on its own character once it’s dry.

“They’re as unique as anyone who buys them,” she said.

Pastras’ jewelry ranges from $15 to $60, but she says the time she invests makes them worth more than that.

In November, Pastras became one of the dozens of vendors at the Tuesday Fresh Market, an open-air bazaar on Beach Boulevard near the Gulfport waterfront. The response was so good she decided to keep making her wares.

Her father, who died of cancer in 2009, was a generous man who “always took care of young people,” she said. “He wanted to give back, and I wanted to give back, too.”

She said she donates one dollar from every sale to St. Jude’s Children’s Research Hospital to honor her father’s memory and others who are battling cancer. So far, she’s raised over $125.

“I know it’s not a lot, but every little bit helps,” she said. “It’s definitely a good cause.”