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FLORIDA — As we reach the holiday season’s peak and look back at a year that brought happy times for many people but major struggles for even more, the stories of those who found the strength to overcome adversity often make the most inspiring impression.
Spectrum News catches up with some of the incredible individuals who taught us all a little bit about the best of humanity in 2023.
Storm devastation reveals strength of spirit
When Category 4 Hurricane Idalia stormed Florida’s Big Bend, it sent destructive storm surge into the Tampa Bay area and left parts of Central Florida flooded.
The floors of Beatrice Hall’s Rubonia home buckled and collapsed, but the great grandmother stood tall. She made fast friends with David Couzens, when he generously brought her a new refrigerator.
Days later, when a fall landed Hall in the hospital for 60 days, Couzens and a friend got to work, making her home safe to live in once again.
Some parts of hurricane recovery occur pretty rapidly, and areas that avoid a storm’s most destructive effects can sometimes slip from the headlines even fasterIn Orlo Vista, it didn’t take long for the waist-high flood waters to recede from Willie Wright Jr.’s family home on Hope Circle, but he’s been working to repair all the damage for more than a year.
Help from neighbors and kindhearted strangers meant the world in the beginning. Now, Wright’s mission to move his father back into the home he built decades ago fuels his determination to complete the massive task at hand.
Life’s obstacles provide unique perspectives
At 15 years old, Jasmine Zipperer found herself in the foster care system. When she aged out and faced the prospect of figuring life out all alone, she found a place to call home — and a family to help her prepare for the opportunities and responsibilities of adulthood.
It’s all because of a former NFL player, who was adopted by a loving family when he was just a week old. Jeff Faine says he always felt an obligation to share his blessings and give back. So he and his wife opened Faine House for 18-23-year-olds on the verge of homelessness.
When James McCallum was born with a large, bulging birthmark on his neck and back, his parents didn’t know how it would affect him. But after three surgeries and numerous trips to his doctor in Chicago, the two-year-old continues to inspire with his simply effortless smiles.
The painful process may not yet be over, but the McCallum family is certainly looking to the future. James’ mom, Kaitlyn, is pregnant.
She shared the moment of concern they made their way through, wondering if their second child would face the same struggles as their first. Then, they realized — they would just have to follow James’ example.
At this time last year, Janet Thompson had just undergone surgery for stage 1 pancreatic cancer and was scheduled to start chemotherapy right after Christmas.
The treatment took an expectedly harsher toll than she expected, but Thompson fought her way to ringing the cancer-free bell.
With her follow-up scans since then all giving her a clean bill of health, she’s back in the holiday spirit at her home in Titusville and grateful for life’s simply joys — like gathering with family in the kitchen to decorate Christmas cookies.
Culture fuels entrepreneurial purpose
Floridians are from everywhere, and that natural diversity of culture has cooked up a wide range of culinary options in small towns and big cities across the state.
An Orlando restaurant is serving up Filipino food that feeds a growing sense of community and is turning its small bungalow-style building into somewhat of a cultural center.
Milosz Gasior doesn’t speak much — but he doesn’t have to. The 2023 Gibbs High School graduate has developed a remarkable talent for talking with 88 black and white keys that, his mother hopes, will open doors to a bright and successful future.
Gasior has autism and is mostly non-verbal.
With prospects for holding down a job after graduation unlikely to manifest, he was connected with a professional musician who has since gotten him several paid piano gigs.
Good people find cool ways to help
Reasons for helping others vary as much as the ways people go about doing it.
For Brian Farr, a family tragedy moved him to put smiles on the faces of some incredible children — and keep them safe.
His daughter, Maddie, died three years ago. She had White-Sutton syndrome, a rare neurodevelopmental disorder, that caused her many difficulties in life. But every Friday night, they would head to the pool for swimming lessons, loving every minute of it.
Farr created a foundation in his daughter’s name to help special needs children learn swimming safety.
Now, Maddie’s legacy and love of the water lives on through other kids.
At 10-years-old, Greshaun Dabrezil has already made quite a name for himself.
You can call him “Cooler Boy.” It’s a moniker he both relishes and counts on to continue his mission, which is as simple as it is successful.
Dabrezil is a decorated gymnast and certainly understands the importance of hydration. So when he noticed the people who spend hot days on street corners, he decided to help.
For a while now, he has been handing out free bottles of water and leaving coolers at bus stops around Orlando. Each one has a straightforward sign on the handle. And Dabrezil isn’t finished. He hopes to partner with Lynx to put coolers on buses, too.
Sports can facilitate healing
On a sports field, the prospect of injury always lingers. But when an athlete gets badly hurt away from the game, sport can drive them down the road toward recovery.
Mona Rodriguez was a professional soccer player, and fitness has always been paramount. She was riding her motorcycle to the gym, when a driver making a turn didn’t see her.
Rodriguez woke up in the hospital with multiple major injuries — but her spirit never shattered.
Now, she lives by a simple mantra, and she’s using soccer to regain her mobility.
When a player suffers a personal loss, teammates often help heal the invisible wounds.
Bella Rodrigues was a flag football star at Robinson High School, where she helped lead the team to their 7th-straight championship her senior year. She did that while dealing with the loss of her father, who died of cancer during the season.
The Knights, and the rest of the school, rallied around her.
Now, even though she’s in college, Rodrigues loves to return and just enjoy a grueling workout with her family.
Faith inspires grand transformations
From barber to YouTube star, life looks a lot different for Travis Settineri these days.
He spent 18 years cutting hair for a living, but decided to take a leap of faith. He put a longtime passion for filming to use and started a channel focused on spreading kindness around Plant City and Lakeland.
A year-and-a-half later, he’s introducing his almost 4 million subscribers to the many different people he meets and helps with food, finances and shelter.
The massive following has given him the financial freedom to expand and focus all his time on making a difference.
When a group of teenage boys dove into Spring Bayou in January on a quest to retrieve the Epiphany cross, they continued a 118-year Tarpon Springs tradition.
George Stamas surfaced victorious, and he says, as promised by his Greek Orthodox faith, the cross brought him numerous blessings over the last year.
He led his high school football team to a 9-1 season, and his coach says he’s made a number of positive changes in his life.
Stamas’ family is no stranger to the Epiphany cross. His cousin retrieved it a few years back, and his great grandfather did the same 85 years go.
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Curtis McCloud
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