St. Petersburg College Alumni Association Inc.
Wednesday, October 29, 2008

• Dental clinic part of $5.3-million UF grant
• Rays' rapper a familiar face at the college
• Palladium reopens with a full house
• Spring graduation May 9 at Tropicana Field
• SPC's First Lady Emeritus dies
• Kuttler receives award for outstanding service
• IRA Rollover is back!
  
• Education is a gift worth giving
• Alumni luncheon Jan. 21
  
• Lifelong Learning offers new classes
• Volleyball team opens play at state tournament Thursday
• Cultural Corner
• Need your SPC transcripts
• Update your information with our online tools

Photo: From left, Carl M. Kuttler Jr., the President of St. Petersburg College, Teresa Dolan, Dean, UF College of Dentistry and Rep. C.W. Bill Young.

The research, which will concentrate on prevention and early detection, is funded by a grant from the National Institutes of Health.

The announcement was made Wednesday at a ceremony at the Dennis L. Jones Seminole Community Library. Participants included Rep. C.W. Bill Young, a longtime supporter of UF dentistry; Carl M. Kuttler Jr., the President of St. Petersburg College who was instrumental in establishing a UF satellite dental clinic at the college; Larry Tabak, Director, National Institute of Dental and Craniofacial Research; Judy Sherman, Director, Congressional Affairs, American Dental Association; Teresa Dolan, Dean, UF College of Dentistry; and Henrietta Logan, Professor, UF College of Dentistry. View a slideshow from the event.

Officials thanked Young for his support in securing the funding.

“This is another example of how Bill Young has kept the best interests of Florida and of Pinellas County at the forefront,” Kuttler said.

Since 2005, the University of Florida College of Dentistry has operated a dental clinic serving about 18,000 residents of Pinellas County annually at the Seminole Campus.

The facility serves to train residents and foreign-trained dentists, and also provides continuing education for practitioners. 

The new UF research program is the first NIH-funded center to focus on head and neck cancer in the Southeast. Minority men suffer a disproportionate burden of death and impairment from head and neck cancers. Each year, more than 11,000 people die because of head and neck cancers in the U.S. and 34,000 new cases are diagnosed.

It is the 10th leading cause of death among African-American men, who suffer twice the mortality of white men. In Florida, African-Americans are diagnosed at a younger age and more advanced disease stage compared with whites. Most African-American men will survive about 21 months after diagnosis, while white men will survive about 40 months.

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Rays’ rapper a familiar face at the college
Around here, he’s Davie Gill, a well-known figure on the St. Petersburg/ Gibbs Campus, where he works as Coordinator of Student Activities and of the Male Outreach Initiative, which brings more male students to St. Petersburg College.

At other times, however, he is somebody else: Rapper Big Gill.

You may have seen him recently on the Jumbotron at Tropicana Field, at the Pier during the Tampa Bay Rays celebration after winning a spot in the World Series, or on one of several local news broadcasts.

Photo: From left, the aptly named Big Gill (he’s 6-foot-9) and his friends Herman “Cristol” Grant and James “Bay Boi” Peoples are enjoying the ride along with the Rays because they set the Rays’ improbable winning season to music in the rap song “It’s Our Season.”

The song is available for download on the Rays Web site. Watch the video on YouTube. The video had been viewed almost 25,000 times.

Gill, a long-time Rays fan, does private security work in his spare time, which puts him in touch with the local music scene. A few years ago, when he was working in SPC’s Brother to Brother program (a precursor to the Male Outreach Initiative), he reunited with Grant, whom he had known as a child.

The two became musical partners, along with Peoples.

Gill said he began thinking about putting the Rays song together when he saw how much talent the team had at the beginning of the season.

“I have been following the team for so long, since the beginning,” he said. “I thought this was going to be a pretty good season and I got to thinking that doing a rap song would be a great idea. Hip hop and baseball may not usually go together real well, but we kept it real simple.”

And they kept it clean. The chorus:

Let me get a handclap for the Tampa Bay Rays,
Let me get a handclap for the Tampa Bay Rays!

The song got some play in local clubs and on local radio stations, but it really took off when it was played at Tropicana Field.

“It first got played during the seventh inning at Tropicana Field in mid-summer, and that got people talking about it,” Gill said.

That initial interest led Gill, Grant and Peoples to hire a professional crew to come up with a music video, and that version was turned over to the Rays, who began playing it on the Jumbotron during games.

“Once we did that (video) and it got played at Tropicana Field, people really began paying attention,” Gill said. “That got the radio stations asking about it. We performed it at the Rays game on Saturday (Oct. 18), and to see the crowd getting into it was just amazing.”

Now, “It’s Our Season” is among the top songs getting air play in Central Florida, and there’s talk about it being the Rays’ officials song for next season.

“It’s something we didn’t do for the money – we just did it in the spirit of being fans. We gave the song to the Rays and they have just been running with it,” Gill said. “But it definitely has had a longer shelf life than we thought it would have.”

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Palladium reopens with a full house
After four months of renovations, the Palladium reopened Oct. 11 with a concert by the Statesmen of Jazz, attended by more than 500 people.

Photo: From left, Board of Trustees member Dick Johnston, his wife Linda, Board Chairman Deveron Gibbons and St. Petersburg Mayor Rick Baker were among almost 200 who celebrated the reopening at a VIP reception before the concert. Return to top of page.

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Spring graduation May 9 at Tropicana Field
With the Tampa Bay Rays still battling in the historic 2008 baseball season, their 2009 season already has been finalized enough to confirm the college’s Spring 2009 graduation ceremonies will be Saturday, May 9 at 10 a.m. at Tropicana Field.

The availability of Tropicana Field always is dictated by the Rays, who will be on the road that weekend.

The college’s Dec. 20 graduation ceremonies will be at the First Baptist Church of Indian Rocks because a football game has been scheduled on that date at Tropicana Field. Because of the new locale, the graduation ceremonies will be held in two parts — one at 10 a.m., and another at 1 p.m.

On Dec. 20, Tropicana Field will host the first-ever St. Petersburg Bowl, a college football post-season game that will feature bowl-eligible teams from the Big East Conference and Conference USA.

The First Baptist Church of Indian Rocks is at 12685 Ulmerton Road. The church features a 3,000-seat sanctuary with major audio and video performance enhancements.

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Kuttler receives award for outstanding service
The 2008 William C. “Bill” Lindsey Award of the Florida Chiropractic Association has been given to SPC President Carl M. Kuttler Jr. The award is for “outstanding service to your community and fellow citizens and to the chiropractic profession in Florida.”

In June, SPC announced a new partnership with National University of Health Sciences in Lombard, Ill. National offers advanced degrees in chiropractic medicine, naturopathic medicine, oriental medicine and acupuncture.

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The IRA Rollover is back!
This means that if you are 70 1/2 or older, you can donate funds from your Individual Retirement Account (IRA) to a charitable organization such as the St. Petersburg College Foundation without taxation.

The IRA Rollover provision expired at the end of 2007; however, the initiative was reinstated as part of President Bush’s economic bailout bill. The provision is retroactive to Jan. 1, 2008 and will apply to gifts made from that date through Dec. 31, 2009.

The following limitations apply:

• The donor must be 70 1/2 or older.
• The cap on annual IRA rollovers is $100,000.
• The contribution must be a direct gift to a charity (no planned gifts).

If you are thinking about end-of-year gifting, think of the students and programs at St. Petersburg College. Please call Cindy Tully at 727-341-3126 or e-mail her at tully.cindy@spcollege.edu. 

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SPC's First Lady Emeritus dies
Beverly Bennett, widow of onetime SPJC President Michael M. Bennett and a close friend and supporter of the college in her own right, died Oct. 7. She was 85.

Mrs. Bennett died at the home of her caregiver, where she has been since February.

“This college has lost a truly great friend,” President Carl M. Kuttler Jr. said Tuesday. “St. Petersburg College was a major portion of her life until the end.”

The week before her death, when she learned that the college and Kuttler were honored by the St. Petersburg Museum of History, she was disappointed that she couldn't attend. A gallery of photos were taken from the event. On Oct. 2, Kim Corry, Staff Assistant to the Board of Trustees, went through the photos with her.

“I took my laptop and we looked at the photos in her bed,” Corry said. “She really enjoyed looking at the older photos of Michael (Bennett).”

Beverly Backus, an SPJC graduate, met her husband at the college, and their relationship started when Mrs. Bennett invited him to a hillbilly-themed sorority dance.

“The night of the event, I heard a loud knock on my front door,” Mrs. Bennett said recently. “When my father answered, there was a man in overalls, a long red beard and a shotgun who said, ‘I’ve come to get my woman.’”

She married Mike Bennett in 1942, just a few years after he had graduated from SPJC and then joined the college as Registrar. At that time he also taught three classes, managed the bookstore and served as the Secretary of the college’s Alumni Association.

To make ends meet, he worked at the local U.S. Post Office and caught flounder in the Gulf of Mexico.

“We had it pretty bad,” he told an interviewer years later. “We lived on love and $90 a month. Love and flounder.”

By 1950, Mike Bennett was Dean of Men. When President Roland Wakefield decided to take early retirement, Bennett applied for the job. He was chosen to head the school at just 34, and he led the institution through the tumultuous ‘50s, ‘60s and ‘70s, retiring after 28 years.

Beverly Bennett played a key role throughout her husband’s presidency. An accomplished vocalist (who taught voice at the college for a number of years), she urged her husband to encourage the arts, and her efforts helped produce many concerts, art exhibits, stage productions and the Lyceum Series, which brought in such notables as columnist Drew Pearson, actor John Carradine and journalist/TV commentator Shana Alexander.

Mike Bennett stepped down as President in 1978, at age 61. At the May 1978 commencement, the college family remembered both Bennetts — Mike Bennett was presented with an honorary Associate in Arts in College Leadership degree, while Beverly Bennett was presented with an honorary A.A. in Cultural Leadership. In 2002, Beverly Bennett received an honorary bachelor’s degree.

Both the Bennetts remained active and involved in college affairs long after Mike Bennett’s retirement. Beverly Bennett remained active in the SPC Foundation, and was named to its Hall of Distinction. In 1998, she received the college’s Outstanding Alumnus Award. In 2003, the college bestowed on her the title of First Lady Emeritus.

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Education is a gift worth giving
When you are planning your end-of-year gifting, think of St. Petersburg College and the many students who will benefit from your generosity. The gift of education is a lifetime gift of knowledge, insight and opportunity.

There are so many ways to help deserving students through scholarships or support for specific academic programs. You can:

Designate your dollars for a particular scholarship fund or program

Initiate your own scholarship compatible with your specific education interests

Create a lasting legacy through annual gifts or bequests.

Please visit the St. Petersburg College Foundation Web site to watch an inspirational video on how your gift of education can make a difference.

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Alumni luncheon Jan. 21
Mark your calendars for Wednesday, Jan. 21, for the 2009 Alumni Luncheon. This year's event will be held at the Government Institute Conference Center on the Seminole Campus. More details coming soon.

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Lifelong Learning offers new classes
Check out the following updates to our Lifelong Learning Arts, Antiques and Gardens offerings:

• Irish Rover's Christmas at Ruth Eckerd hall - Dec. 9
  
• Visit historic Ybor City and Victorian Christmas Stroll - Dec. 11
• Carnival Cruise to the Western Caribbean - Jan. 31-Feb 4

For information call 727-341-3185.

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Volleyball teamopens play at state tournament Thursday
With the state tournament beginning Thursday, six players from the college’s volleyball team have been selected for the Suncoast Conference team.

The team begins play Thursday in the state tournament at Polk Community College in Winter Haven. SPC, which finished third in the conference, plays conference champion Hillsborough CC at 1 p.m. The double-elimination tournament continues through Saturday.

First Team All Conference
Ingrid Mosquera	Jingyu Zhang

Second Team All Conference
Lorean Gomez	Mengmeng Xu

Honorable Mention
Megan Roark	Kristina Little

For the results please visit www.spcollege.edu/athletics.

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Need your SPC transcripts?
Need an official copy of your SPC transcripts. Login to MySPC, then look in the Student Services column on the right for "Records". You will find an option for "Request Official Transcript."

Once you complete the form, click "Save" at the bottom of the screen. You will receive a confirmation message that your request was submitted.

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Update your information with our online tools
We encourage you to take a few minutes to update us with current information. Our online membership tools make the process simple.

Local arts and entertainment events
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Three new trips
set for SPC Travelers
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