Things to do with your kids this summer on a budget

As the summer approaches finding things to do with your kids can be a challenge, especially if you are looking for things to do on a budget. If you are like me, you want to keep your kids busy during the summer doing fun activities, so they aren’t always on their electronics.  My girls are now teenagers at 13 and 14 years old. They love hanging out with their friends and this summer they will be busy playing softball, but on days they aren’t at the fields I wanted some go to activities I could entertain them with.  I have been doing several of these activities with my kids since they were toddlers and each year there are a few more things to choose from. It’s great to have more options. Here are a few of my favorites.

Since my girls are getting older they can now go to the gym and workout. We are fortunate to live in the city of Seminole and have a free gym at the Seminole Recreation Center. You have to be 12 years old to go with an adult, so they can both go with me. Be sure to check and see if your city’s recreation center offers free memberships to their residents. If you don’t have a free gym, you are in luck. This year Planet Fitness is offering free workouts for teens agers 15-18 all summer long from May 15 to September 1. You can find out more by clicking here. 

If your kids like going to the movies several of the theaters offer discounts on movies for kids during the summer. Cobb theaters offer Free Kids Summer Movie escape with free movies for kids starting June 11 and will continue every Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday at 10am through the August 1. Some of the movies include Smallfoot, Smurfs, Curious George and more. We have several Cobb theaters in the area you can find out more information by going to their website by clicking here.  AMC theaters is offering a $4 special for kids and it includes a movie ticket and kids pack including a drink and popcorn. It is every Wednesday and the movies include Trolls, Lego Movie 2, Teen Titans Go and more. Here’s a link for more information click here. Studio Movie Grill offers movies for $5 on Tuesdays all year long and you can see any movie for $5.

If your kids like to fish the Kiwanis Club of Seminole Breakfast has several free fishing days for kids ages 14 years and younger. This summer mark your calendar for Saturday, June 1 and August 3 from 8am-11am. Fishing is done at Taylor Park located at 1100 8th Avenue SW in Largo. They provide the bait and the fishing poles. On August 10 from 9am-3pm Angler Armory is hosting a back to school free fishing day at Madeira Beach Recreation Center, 200 Rex Place, Madeira Beach. They will have bounce houses, raffles, food, prizes and more. Every kid 15 years and younger will get a free membership to Angler Armory. For more information go to their website by clicking here.  Gates open at 8am that day to register.

If it’s too hot to be outdoors or maybe it’s raining and you want to get the kids out of the house, there are quite a few deals to go to museums for free this summer. If your child is a fourth grader they can get a voucher to go to museums for free this summer. The program is called Every Kid in a Park. Kids can get free admission by visiting the website by clicking here. There is also a program called Museums on Us if you are a Bank of America, Merrill Lynch or U.S Trust cardholder. You can get a free ticket on the first full weekend of every month at over 225 participating museums including The Florida Aquarium, Tampa Museum of Art, Florida Holocaust Museum and Museum of Fine Arts. You can find out more here. Don’t forget Glazer Children’s Museum always offers the Children’s Board of Hillsborough County free Tuesdays the first Tuesday of the month from noon to 6pm. They are located at 110 W. Gasparilla Plaza in Tampa. The museum is great for kids ages birth to 10 years old.

I know bowling and roller skating is fun to do with the kids. Did you know you can do it for free all summer long? The Kids Bowl Free program offers two games a day of bowling all summer long. All you have to do is pay for the shoes. If you have shoes you don’t pay a thing. You must register here. Locally we have some great bowling alleys all over Pinellas County participating in this program including Seminole Lanes in Seminole, Liberty Lanes in Largo, Sunrise and Ten Pin Lanes in St. Petersburg, Maple Lanes Countryside in Clearwater and Dunedin Lanes in Dunedin. Go to the website for other participating bowling alleys. Kids must be between 2-14 to register. 

I found locally Astro Skate in Pinellas Park, 10001 66th Street N. offers free skating for kids 12 years and younger. Skating passes are good for Wednesdays and Saturdays from 6:30 pm- 8:30 pm. You can find out other participating locations on the website and register here. 

It’s important for kids to read this summer and if they read they can get a free book at Barnes and Noble. Kids grades 1-6 can earn a free book. Go here to register your child and start reading. My girls have done this the past several years and it does seem to motivate them to read. You print out the reading log and when finished turn it in for a free book. 

I found a few other ideas for the summer with Microsoft and Apple. They have offer free workshops and camps for kids. Apple has their Apple camp for ages 8 to 12. It is free and is at area Apple stores. They are 90 minute sessions and include coding and robotics, moviemaking or musical storytelling. To find out more click here. All campers must be accompanied by a parent or legal guardian during the camp. Microsoft has a free camp at International Plaza. Most of their camps are for ages 8 and up and 13 and up. To find out more go to their website by clicking here and look for events for students. There you will find the different camps offered.

Younger kids can take part in the free Home Depot workshops for kids. The workshops are offered all year long, the first Saturday of the month from 9am to noon.  On June 1 the craft for the month is building a tabletop putting green. I know my kids loved going to Home Depot on Saturdays with their grandpa to make all sorts of wood items. Now they have outgrown it, but my sister and brother’s kids still go. It ’s a great place to learn basic skills of carpentry like how to use a hammer and how to paint. Kids get to build their item and either paint or put stickers on their craft. Kids receive a certificate and a workshop apron and commemorative pin all for free. 

I hope you are able to use at least one of these ideas. 

Catching history one signature at a time

Tom Cooney with one of the baseballs
signed by 11 United States Presidents

11 United States Presidents have signed this baseball.
Tom needs two signatures to complete his dream. He
needs President Trump and former President Obama.

It was back in 1951, Tom Cooney was 15 years old at the time, watching a baseball game on television with his older brother, Patrick, and President Dwight D. Eisenhower threw out the ceremonial first pitch at an opening day game. 

After watching this customary first pitch, Cooney told his brother he had the idea to start getting the president’s signatures on a baseball with each new administration. 

“Patrick was excited about the idea and encouraged me to go to the library and get the addresses of past presidents and go for my dream,” Cooney said. 

Cooney found out former President Herbert Hoover lived at the Waldorf Astoria hotel in New York City, and it wasn’t far from where Cooney was living at the time in New Jersey. So, he went to the hotel, but didn’t get the signature on his first try. 

It was a little more difficult for Cooney to communicate with the hotel staff what he wanted because Cooney was deaf and couldn’t talk. He wrote down what he wanted and handed the piece of paper to the hotel clerk, but the clerk told him “good luck – everyone wants to see the president.”

Cooney said someone overheard the clerk and wrote on a note to Cooney to come back and go to a certain elevator because Hoover took a walk every day and got off of that specific elevator. 

Cooney came back the next day and tried again. He found Hoover and followed him on his daily walk.

“President Hoover was a fast walker,” Cooney said. “He walked around the block with a deaf man and kept talking all the way and I pulled out the baseball and he signed it!

“He never knew I was deaf,” Cooney continued. “Little did I know this was the start of history.”

Cooney was born in 1935 and was adopted at birth. Cooney became deaf at a very young age due to a mastoid infection and lost his hearing in both ears. Not only was he deaf, but he was confined to a wheelchair for several years due to balance issues.

Cooney said he was made fun of by kids in his neighborhood, who called him names like “deaf and dumb” and even pushed over his wheelchair.

And while it was difficult communicating with neighborhood kids, Cooney said it was hard even communicating with family members. 

“My mom only knew very few signs,” Cooney said. “We would point to things. She knew things like bathroom, eat, television and sleep.”

Never to be daunted, Cooney did eventually teach himself how to walk at around 7 or 8 years old.

“My mom saw me for the first time get out of the wheelchair and walk and told me she had prayed every night on her knees I would be able to walk again,” Cooney said. 

Cooney eventually was enrolled in a boarding school for deaf people. 

Today, Cooney, 81, lives in Clearwater and is still completely deaf in both ears, but can talk to some degree. Since 2000, he’s had an interpreter and assistant, Camie Gallo, at his side interpreting for him. 

Having overcome so much in his life, Cooney is determined to accomplish his mission of 66 years – continuing to collect the signatures of former presidents and first ladies.

Cooney has 11 presidential signatures on one of the baseballs, including presidents Hoover, Truman, Eisenhower, Johnson, Nixon, Ford, Carter, Reagan, H.W. Bush, Clinton and G.W. Bush. 

A second baseball has the signatures of first ladies, including Jacqueline Kennedy, who signed both baseballs since her husband, John F. Kennedy, had passed away before Cooney could get him the baseball. 

Cooney said he only needs the signatures of President and Mrs. Trump and former President and Mrs. Barack Obama, as well as former first lady Hillary Clinton, to fulfill his dream. 

“These are the only baseballs in the world like this with this many signatures,” said Cooney.

Because these baseballs are so rare, Cooney keeps them under lock and key in a safe deposit box at a bank. The last time they were taken out was when President George Bush and First Lady Barbara Bush signed the balls during Thanksgiving a few years ago. 

“Gov. Jeb Bush helped us get the two signatures and even he had his secret service handle the baseballs because he was so scared to transport the baseballs,” said Cooney.

And Cooney, who has never let his limitations hold him back, is not one to give up. 

A former reporter for the Silent Jerseyette News in 1992, Cooney honored by President George Bush as the 745th Point of Light honoree for his work with kids in schools. He was the Grand Marshall for the Helen Keller Festival in Alabama, and signed the National Anthem for the 2001 Super Bowl in Tampa. Cooney has been a motivational speaker in classrooms, served as a deputy sheriff and court interpreter.

He’s a man who doesn’t give up and doesn’t let what some would consider a disability hold him back. 

“Deaf people can do anything they want to do, except hear,” said Cooney. 

Cooney has two sons, Tom and Ron, who were with him when he met some of the presidents. His family wants the balls once signed by all the living presidents and first ladies one day to go to the Smithsonian to be on display. 

“I just want these icons up to date, so they can be preserved and recognized for future generations,” said Cooney. 

To see photos and videos, visit www.f­acebo­ok.co­m/DCO­TUS.

The first time I met Tom Cooney in person. What a wonderful
story he has to share.

Go to bit.ly/DCOTUSpaper to read story in Clearwater Beacon

Helping others keeps this 80-year-old happy and active

Joan Windis

Meet Joan Windis. She is 80 years young and always on the move. 

“Busy, busy, busy keeps you young,” said Windis. “I’m hardly home because I choose to be busy.”

Windis is a native of New York – Manhattan to be exact. She moved to Florida about 25 years ago when her husband passed away. 

She is always on the go and very involved in the community, helping different service organizations and nonprofits.

One group she has been with since 2002, is New Horizon’s for Widowed People and Friends. She served as president for six years. This organization is for widowed, divorced or women with dying spouses who need support of other women. 

“We play cards, go to the theatre, have picnics, potlucks and a Christmas party. The whole idea of this group is so you are not alone,” she said.

The group meets once a month at the Imperial Palms Apartments in their clubhouse. Windis says she enjoys being a part of this wonderful group of people. 

One of Windis’ hobbies is knitting. She loves to knit. She makes hats for the troops and for cancer patients going through chemotherapy. When she knits the hats, the dark colored hats she says are for the troops and the bright colors are for the chemo patients. 

Hats for the troops

The military have a special place in Windis’ heart. “My husband was in the service and my brother was also in the service. I think 911 affected me. It was very upsetting. It made me want to do more for our troops. Since 911, I have been collecting and sending items to our troops. One organization she helps is the nonprofit Operation: Military Matters started by two Seminole fifth graders. For the past year, she has been bringing them hats and toiletry donations so they can send them overseas. “It gives me a good feeling to know I’m doing something for someone wherever, whoever.”

When she’s not knitting for the troops, she’s knitting for family. She has two daughters and a granddaughter who live in New York along with other family members. She recently made 14 infinity scarves and took them to her family in New York. Her favorite time to knit is when she is watching television. 

Joan Windis collects items
for the military and gives
them to Operation Military
Matters founder Graci Tubbs

You also will find Windis collecting items like diapers, juice boxes, clothes, onesies, toys and other items for children. She brings everything to the Pinellas County Sheriff’s Child Protection Agency for kids who are taken from their homes because of abuse or neglect.

She also gives clothes and food to the RCS Food Bank in Largo to help the poor. Another thing she likes to do is collect tabs from aluminum cans to donate to the Shriners Hospitals for Children. 

Not only does Windis do all of this in the community, but she also has a part time job working for S & S Casino Tours. She takes groups of people to Atlantic City. “Travel is fun,” said Windis. Even there she’s working her magic to collect items for the troops. “I give them tours and while on the bus, I tell them to save toiletries for the troops. I even ask the people who clean the rooms for extras. I tell them I have room in my suitcase to bring them back.” She’s been doing casino trips for 17 years. She loves this job and says her bosses are like family. 

Another place you’ll see Windis is at the Central Parks Performing Arts Center formerly the Largo Cultural Center. She’s the head usher and has been volunteering there since 2001. She also volunteers at the VA in St. Petersburg.

Windis has been active her whole life. She has had quite the career. Her past includes jobs like a medical assistant, real estate agent, travel agent, defensive driving instructor for AAA at the police department and she worked in a bank.

Windis is not only active, but healthy. “My doctor says I don’t have any health issues. I only take vitamins and minerals. So far, so good. I do my own cleaning and errands and cook a lot.” Windis says when she cooks, she cooks big and freezes meals. She even has an extra freezer for all her frozen meals. 

So what’s her secret to being active and healthy: “Do what pleases you, only be with happy people and stay away from negative people because that makes you negative.”

Windis says she doesn’t really need anything, so if she can help someone she tries to. She says she doesn’t have a lot of money, but likes to give it her all when she does something.

Her friends keep her busy too. Once a week she plays cards and the Chinese card game Mahjongg. 

She says even though she sees her friends weekly, they have a ritual every morning. “We call each other and say, ‘We made it. See you tomorrow.’”

And tomorrow is another day for Windis to help those around her. Because Windis is so busy, she tells her friends, “You’ll have to find me to bury me.”