Palm Harbor Local
Welcome to Palm Harbor Local—where we celebrate the heart and soul of our community by sharing the stories of the incredible small businesses that make Palm Harbor thrive.
Hosted by Donnie Hathaway, a Florida native, real estate expert, and passionate community builder, this podcast is all about Building Community—connecting people, businesses, and ideas that shape our town.
Each episode, we sit down with local entrepreneurs, business owners, and changemakers to dive into their journeys—the dreams that sparked their businesses, the challenges they’ve overcome, and the impact they’re making. From brand-new startups to long-standing local favorites, we uncover what makes these businesses special and why they matter to the community.
Whether you're a fellow entrepreneur, a proud Palm Harbor resident, or someone who just loves supporting local, this podcast is your inside look at the passion, dedication, and creativity fueling our local economy.
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Palm Harbor Local
Hero Fest and Veteran Support Helping Palm Harbor FL Thrive
In this episode of Palm Harbor Local, we sit down with retired U.S. Air Force veteran and entrepreneur, David Vargas. As the owner of Veteran Laserworx and founder of the Pinellas County Veterans Association, David has dedicated his time to supporting local veterans and strengthening the Palm Harbor community.
What you’ll learn in this episode:
- How a road trip led David to an unexpected military career
- Why Palm Harbor felt like home after years of moving around
- How the Pinellas County Veterans Association is making a difference
- The story behind the Veteran Voices Book project
- What to expect at Palm Harbor Hero Fest on May 17th
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Welcome to Palm Harbor Local, where we bring you inspiring stories from the heart of our community. I'm your host, donnie Hathaway, and today we are joined by David Vargas, who is the owner and founder of Veteran Laser Works and the founder of Pinellas County Veterans Association. Now our show is all about celebrating those who've put in the sweat, overcome the hurdles and still find time to give back to the community. If you want to be inspired by how they got started, what keeps them going and what they're doing to make Palm Harbor even more awesome, you're in the right place. In today's talk with David, you'll learn why he decided to randomly join the United States Air Force, the veteran projects that he's currently working on for the community, and what to expect and how to get involved in the Palm Harbor Hero Fest on May 17th in downtown Palm Harbor. Now be sure to follow us on Instagram at palmharborlocal for behind the scenes content and join our weekly newsletter at palmharborlocalcom.
Speaker 1:Let's go meet David. David, thanks for being here on the podcast. Man, thanks for having me. Yeah, I'm excited to chat with you. We've had a few conversations before, but let's start with your background. We were just talking about your retired Air Force.
Speaker 2:Yes.
Speaker 1:Why did you want to join the Air Force?
Speaker 2:Oh, that's ironic, I wasn't even thinking. Military never even really crossed my mind. I was one of those people where, ironically, growing up I already did some of those things. I was always ironing my clothes, fixing my bed. I was that guy going through school. A lot of my friends had some family members in the military but most of it was my friends and I almost went into the Marines. I almost went into the army, almost went into the. Then I wound up at the air force I mean, because my best friend was air force okay. So I took a ride with him to anchorage alaska amador air force base from little rhode island and that's when I realized, yeah, I think I'll do the air force plus. You know, I realized the food and the billeting was a hell of a lot better.
Speaker 2:So yeah and that was it. You know, it was just I. I'd like to joke about it, to say I found a place that they force people to do what I already do. Yeah, so it was. The military was pretty easy for me, it was pretty easy for me at the beginning.
Speaker 1:So were your parents um strict or like detailed and and like teaching you all those things? Is that just something like you picked up just?
Speaker 2:I mean mom always kept the house super clean, of course, so that kind of stuck in but not some of those things that were brought into you don't really kick in until you're an adult yeah you start realizing things like be 2020 that it all came from, somewhere, but it was just what I did you know, yeah, no, we had. No one was really diagnosed with ADD back then. That's funny.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and so you drive to Alaska, yeah, and you're like, yeah, I think I'll join the Air Force.
Speaker 2:Yeah, After I left Alaska I moved down to California because that's where my sister was at the time. And then they were like, what are you going to do now? I'm like, oh you know, I started just entrepreneur stuff and I really said I'm going to join the military. So I made my way back to Rhode Island and then that was it, just signed up to the all recruiting stations. That's when I really said, well, before I sign the line at the Air Force, let me double check, let me look at the Marines, because who doesn't want to have a sword and a great uniform? Band of brothers. And then I looked around the Army and then they kind of talked to me more about the schooling and I started looking at what I wanted to do when I got out of the military, like in the civilian world, and it came down to the army and the air force as far as the schooling of what?
Speaker 1:they had and um that was it.
Speaker 2:So air force one, and I do joke, but it was the truth, because you know they just had better food at the end of the day.
Speaker 1:Yeah, they really did yeah.
Speaker 2:So that's ultimately what happened.
Speaker 1:What did you do in the Air Force? What was your job?
Speaker 2:Communications Okay, wideband radar satellite systems communications. So, basically you set up 20-foot parabolic dishes, you acquire satellites, send signals, stuff like that. Did that for the first four years and then when I went over afterwards, I switched over um and we I was a national guard and went to disaster preparedness, which is kind of like fema in the world stuff like that.
Speaker 2:Um, you have a thing in the military called mop levels, not level one, two, three and four. So that's when you see in movies, you see them wearing their chemical gears. Yeah, some of time you're fully geared up. Sometimes you just have it on your side. So it's those levels. So if an alert goes off, there's a mushroom cloud somewhere, and you have to kind of figure out trajectory, wind, what's the turf, or stuff like that without impeding the mission.
Speaker 2:Just got to figure out at what level you have to keep them all prepared, stuff like that. Okay, but I was in the national guard at that time, so really it was a lot simpler for me.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:It was more of a one man shop instead of a 50 man shop. Okay, so the school was long and it was really tough, but it was. It served for a good career.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:Do you travel a lot?
Speaker 1:Not with the military believe it or not, I mean I had my options to.
Speaker 2:of course I chose not to. I stayed basically all stateside other than going to Alaska. But, I stayed stateside for the most part and I did more traveling on my own than I did with the military. So once again. Once I got into National Guard, it was just, you know, you're still a civilian. Yeah, you know, so I just hit the road. Yeah, as long as I was back for that one month of Guard duty. You know that one week in a month, but I traveled everywhere.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:I was definitely a nomad.
Speaker 1:So what brought you to? So you mentioned, like, rhode Island. What brought you to Palm Harbor? How long have you?
Speaker 2:been here, I've been to Florida.
Speaker 2:Now this is going on 12 years, I believe 11 years 12 years and I have family that's been in Jacksonville and the east coast of Florida down like Melbourne Brevard County area for at this point like 40-something years Navy family stuff like that, yeah, so, um, I don't. I've been coming back and forth to florida for decades for family, but I moved my mother out here about 20 something years ago and then I, just when I got tired of rhode island, it was done. My son was already on his own um, he's 29 now but when he was on his own as a grown man doing his things, I said all right time for me to go, so I just came down here.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:And I started off in Brevard County, was out there for about six years, seven years. I had a friend, had an opportunity up in Jacksonville, so I said, sure, why not? I have family up there, let's go see what's going on in Jacksonville. Nothing against Jacksonville, I'm just. You know, some places just don't work for you.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:And it's if I wanted that type of environment I could have been in Orlando, a little bit more city area, but it wasn't really for me and that was it. I was in Jacksonville for two and a half years and it was pretty miserable for a little while, because all I did was work six days a week and I was a head and center for this rodeo.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and then you work six days a week and I was a head of the senate for this rodeo. Yeah, and then you know, little by little I've had friends out this side, mainly down in saint pete, and clear water, whatnot.
Speaker 2:Handful of friends up in this neck of the woods okay and I would come visit once a month birthday, stuff like that and I'll say, oh, what's next on the list? And I came out here. And then, as soon as I came out here which was now going three and a half years ago, landed in Palm Harbor. I mean, we don't have time for it, but the details of how I got here and the home, the first place I went to, the realtor dropped the ball right when I was already packed. I had everything. I literally had my license chained over, I had utilities turned on, mailing was set, everything was set for this one location in Dunedin. And two days before I left Jacksville to come here, I was told that they basically dropped the ball with the HOA. Blah blah, blah blah Didn't work out. I said, well, figure it out. You have two days to figure it out, because that's when I hit the road.
Speaker 1:Yeah, crazy.
Speaker 2:And then I magically wound up here. They said oh, I found a place for you in Palm Harbor. I checked it out and I just fell in love with this town. Yeah, energetically. When I put my feet on the ground I felt home.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and I mean I've traveled everywhere and this is the first place I felt home. Interesting yeah, very much so. What is it about that? About Palm Harbor that makes it feel home to you.
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Speaker 2:I don't know, it's like I said, it's energetically. I just felt comfort, you know, I felt like I just felt like it was the right decision. I never it just felt comfort, you know, I felt like it was the right decision. I just felt really comfortable here, you know. Jimmy Buffett style, I was instantly looking at golf carts. For months, I was looking at golf carts.
Speaker 2:And you know I had to get over the other side of Belcher in order for that to happen, but I was just, oh, I needed to get the golf cart, but I just fell in love with it. I actually left palm harbor when I knew port richie for a little bit and I realized my energy level just went down. Yeah, not personal energy, just as far as you know, quality of life, stuff like that you know, um, or if you say yeah and then I, as soon as I came back to palm harbor, everything went right back up again.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so I was. Yeah, this is where I'm going to just make my roots. And that's big, because, out of all the places I've lived, I never wanted to make roots, even when I was over in Brevard County. I was there six, seven years and never once did I think about making roots.
Speaker 1:Did you like it there in Brevard County too? I enjoyed it yeah.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I definitely enjoyed it. But you know it was that thing of I'm living here. You know I was enjoying going out and doing things but I wasn't involved in the community like I am here or like I was back up north. I just wasn't. I didn't care about getting involved in the community, I was just living enjoying Florida Out here. I dug in and I said all right time to make roots and I dug into the community and you know, I loved it, yeah, so it just grows from there.
Speaker 1:So is that feeling of being home here in Palm Harbor, like that's what allowed you to be, like okay, let me learn more about the community, let me get involved 100%?
Speaker 2:Yeah, 100%.
Speaker 1:Never had that feeling any other place you lived California, crazy.
Speaker 2:Mississippi. Oh yeah, upstate that um feeling. Any other place you lived?
Speaker 1:california, crazy mississippi, mississippi oh yeah, upstate new york buffalo, syracuse and other places I actually physically lived.
Speaker 2:Yeah, none of them felt like home. Okay, that's why I just knew it when I knew it yeah, crazy so crazy. Don't know what it is about this town, but it got into me yeah, I love it.
Speaker 1:Um, all right, so you're, you're, uh, you have a business.
Speaker 2:Veteran laser works laser works at lseish. What do you do for that? Um, it's a laser engraver. Laser engraving and design company so my trait, my, one of my degrees is in graphic design and you know, just always I'm a lefty I'm a pisces. However you want to look at it, I just I'm artistic and I've always dabbled in there.
Speaker 2:I did my drawings, whatnot. But once I found lasers which that was a funny story, just I had a laser engraver, a little hobby laser engraver I had for years working on, you know, doing gun lasering for guns and stuff like that different business that I had before and and I just collected dust and then I came out here and one of my best friends said hey, can you laser engrave a few rocks for me Business?
Speaker 2:So I did some rocks and then from her event, people fell in love with the rocks and I started doing rocks for people, garden centers, and I was just, oh boy, I'm lasering, engraving rocks, yeah. But that just turned into a bunch of wine glasses to one restaurant, to another and it just grew from there and then the fire department started doing work for them and it just grew. And then I remember it was one of the events that they had at Chamber of Commerce, because they normally give the awards for the. They call it the Hero Awards. Yeah, firefighter of the Year, law Enforcement of the Year, veteran of the Year. I remember asking if I could make a supplementary gift just for the Veteran of the Year. I wasn't a member of the chamber yet and I said, listen, I don't want to take anybody's place, I don't know what you do, I just want to supply something to the veteran that you provide. They said, sure, sure.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and that was the beginning of that you know.
Speaker 2:it just went north from there. Yeah, you know the company, just expanded, it grew up and you know just currently that's my bread and butter as long as my retirement and everything else.
Speaker 1:Yeah, so what you do, you'll help with people like creating the… image or graphic, or most people come to you with their. Is it like their logo or something like that?
Speaker 2:a lot of people come to me like um, they'll say, hey, I have some, uh, groomsmen gifts. I have a gentleman with three watches. I'm meeting like just for something simple like that, and then I get a lot of retirement gifts.
Speaker 2:I'm doing a lot of retirement gifts. Yes, we do wood, we do stainless steel, we do brick, we do everything. Most laser engravers can all do the same stuff. We pretty much shop at all the same stores, so to speak. Um, my niche is pretty much more wood, just because that's what everybody seems to love yeah I mean cutting boards galore on the on the holidays yeah, I did about three, four hundred cutting boards last year crazy, uh, yeah but more so like the retirement gifts.
Speaker 2:Yeah, law enforcement, military, you know, fire department, stuff like that okay that's where the most.
Speaker 1:I just I just realized something I think you did. You do like the the chamber golf tournament like cutting board one. I did I have one of those in my house because, like we, won that year, whatever, so I got one yeah yep, I did those.
Speaker 2:That's funny, the car show, when they do the car shows around here. I did all their awards.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, stuff like that.
Speaker 2:Yeah, okay, so I do a lot of them. A lot of my stuff is, it's everywhere, it's in. You go to some places, go to Curlew Hills, you walk in the door. My stuff is there also Just everywhere you go.
Speaker 1:You look around, my stuff is probably somewhere around there that's hilarious, all right, so you, one of the other things you've started has it been maybe a year that you've had the pinellas county veterans association?
Speaker 2:yes, yes, just about okay. So it's funny because when I came into the chamber of commerce here in palm harbor, it was right around january where the new ceo came and met and he came on in and yeah, you know, palm harbor is a different breed because we're unincorporated. Yeah, and what I found out just being spending some time around the chamber was that a lot of people were contacting the chamber just for your random stuff, because we don't have a city hall, and matt's just great because he's just answering every phone call like I don't, I'd be like hey, call somebody else. And uh, we were getting people asking questions about veteran benefits. And how do I do this? Where do I go? So he would ask me, and I'm like I couldn't really find what I wanted to find out here. So I said why don't we have anything? He said we'll create it. So I did.
Speaker 2:So it was February really, when I decided to love last year. So last Wednesday of February I opened up and made an open-door meeting for anyone to come down. It was a good report, you know. We had about a dozen, dozen and a half people show up and that was it. It was veterans. We talked. This was the beginning of it and then the following month, in March, I didn't put anything out there in the newsletters. I didn't remind anybody. I was told I should and I was like no, military people shouldn't need a reminder to go someplace that they want to be at, and I didn't. And then only four people showed up at that meeting. One of them no longer exists anywhere around here anyway.
Speaker 2:I think they moved out of the area, but the other three became my board members until this day are still on the board the original co-founders, so to speak, of the.
Speaker 2:Piedmont County Veteran Association. Cool yeah. And then the mission that we had was to just be a central hub, a resource of information and facilitate needs for veterans that have issues, Whether it be veteran benefits, needs of help at home, financial, whatever the case may be, mental health. But we never tried to be. Our goal was never to be everything for everybody. There's over 4,100 different veteran-based groups in Florida, over 400 just in Pinellas County. There's over 150,000 vets in Pinellas County alone and a lot of different organizations, a lot of different groups that I've realized and a lot of different organizations, a lot of different groups that I've realized.
Speaker 1:So we stay in our lane because there's a lot of being in this field, in this industry.
Speaker 2:We have connected with plenty of other veteran-based groups, agencies, government agencies, county-based or just local groups on Facebook, and some people are very strong in certain departments.
Speaker 2:So when we get a request or an ask somebody has PTSD issues we try to do things in-house. But if I find somebody else that I have connected with one of our collaborative partners at this point which the list is dozens at this point we find the expert for that one person and we streamline them directly to them. Yeah, dare I age myself by saying it's kind of like where the yellow pages for those that know, know what the yellow pages are. Yeah, right, so we just try to get people the the expert in their field for what they need to be effective. Yeah, because every person's different, you know, and sometimes they only want to deal with an army person or an air force person, and we have somebody from every branch in our, like all the other organizations do. But we've referred people to, you know, vfw 2520 in dunedin, we've referred people out in Oldsmar down in Orlando, so all these other organizations out there, we just share.
Speaker 2:Collaborative partnerships for us are people that we shake hands and we just share events and share information. So our Facebook pages, our social media, they cross each other to get the word out. You know, somebody out there in Claremont wants us, you know, wants to kind of capture the market up here in the northern Pinellas area, throw it on our page. Yeah, you know, and if it falls on the same day as one of us having, because there were some events that overlap each other, sure as far as time-wise, but that doesn't bother us, you know, is this we are a mission first, organization period.
Speaker 1:No shams butts, yeah, it's mission first well, it kind of reminds me too, like I think we might have talked about this when we first met, but like you're basically the, the connector for veterans, right, but the book, the go-giver, like that's kind of like one of their central themes is like being a connector in the community or whatever, and people come to you and you have the resources and and connections to you know, like, hey, I can't help you, but I know somebody who can.
Speaker 2:Exactly. You know, in fact, like Dunedin yesterday, dunedin is very military centric. Yeah, of course they First town in the state of Florida to have a Purple Heart Park, second in the country, first in the state. And Dunedin has a military council by the town that's set up that they go out there.
Speaker 2:And I just visited them on their meeting on Wednesday and they asked me if we knew anybody that has a bed to donate to a veteran. I was 87 years old. His wife passed last year of 63 years that they were married. He lost a lot of stuff during the hurricanes In the past four months. He was sleeping on a cot. So as soon as they asked us, I said we got this. Even if we have to go buy it, it doesn't matter, we have this. And immediately one of our board members said dude, we have an extra bed sitting in our house.
Speaker 2:So we just went over there the very next day. Two of our board members just threw it in their truck, went over there, set it up for him and that was it, and the guy was ecstatically happy because he's been living on a cot. So it's things like that, just whatever we can do to help and give back.
Speaker 1:But people share their resources and that's what it is. Sharing resources, yeah, so that's the important part. What led you to to want to start this? Is it just like then you know it being a need for the community, or specifically yes, yeah, that's a.
Speaker 2:the initial conversation that ever came anywhere about this was because people were actually asking yeah, and I didn't have an answer because, me being fairly new out here, I didn't know anything myself other than the VA and the ones you would normally go to VFWs and Palm Harbor doesn't have a VFW or American Legion. So that's why I came up with it.
Speaker 2:And then, by doing that, that's when I started uncovering different groups already in the area yeah tried to shake hands with a lot of them, most of them, yes, some of them know, you know, just different, different missions, there's different things going and, like I said, we are strictly mission oriented. I don't know, we don't deal with ego or optics or finances you know, it's a mission first, only so. And sometimes you point someone in one direction and there's parameters for them to accept that. So we say nope and we just put them in a better direction where there's just no resistance.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, I like that. And then, um, so, with the association, like you guys are, are working on a couple of things. One of them is, like you just um published a book right.
Speaker 2:So the main thing was when I sat there and said well, if we want to truly help these veterans, first off they have to be able to know you exist. You can't help anybody if no one knows you exist. So I know there had to be a marketing campaign. There had to be things going out there. So one of the ABS marketing, abs Photo and Media he's a friend of mine, louis Silver. He works at the chamber, does work for them as well. We're just like-minded individuals when it comes to creativity and doing things and seeing things in a bigger picture. And we said we should have a book like this. And he started talking about it and it's not new information. Other people have told me before hey, you should do something like this, and sometimes it just takes that one person for you to click with the timing.
Speaker 2:Exactly it's just the timing is the timing, and we put this up in our head. We had a storyboard, we put it up the wall and basically we sat there and said anytime we come up with an idea, we're just what is holding us back, Because the short list is always what would stop you.
Speaker 1:That's the short list.
Speaker 2:So we always go with that's it, that's it, that's it Okay. And then we kind of reeled it back to the part where we know we can get it done, and we did so. Basically, we just started interviewing veterans. No age group doesn't matter, how long you serve, doesn't matter if you had war stories or you're decorated or not. As long as you are honorably discharged, we would just take an interview from them.
Speaker 2:And it wasn't about, like I said, the war stories. That's been done a million times over the years. It's more so about the men and women behind the uniform. What do they do in the community? Who are you? Where are you from? What made you join the military? Like you asked me, how many kids do you have? What do you do after the service? Sure, people sit there and expand upon their service, of course, so we do have good content, but that's completely optional. Some people don't even want to discuss it, but it's more so. Veteran you know veteran voices, stories, hometown heroes. You're walking around the block. I know what you're doing now with your podcast. People get to see the people. Oh, I know his story now.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and it's just an opportunity for these people who have a lot of inside to get it out there. Yeah and uh, last we checked there weren't anybody that was doing the format, like we were doing A very interactive book where it's a QR code, you can scan it and it gives you their full interview.
Speaker 2:So you know, in another 5, 10, 15 years somebody can watch their peepaw their father, brother, sister, whatever and just pull the memory up, listen to their words as it was done, and you know it turned out to be a much bigger thing than we thought it was going to be. We started it to be more of a benevolent reason, just to showcase some of them. We did completely for free, out of our own pockets. Yeah, um, we it was. Uh, some of it was sponsored by veteran-owned businesses or veteran-friendly businesses. Sylvan abbey, they came to the table, you know, and they said we love our veterans. We want to be part of that.
Speaker 2:A couple of other ones Florida Firearms Academy, stuff like that. They sponsored the book and that's how it was paid for. Make no mistake about it. There was hundreds of hours in there that we just put into this. How many veterans do you have in the book?
Speaker 1:This one was 40 of them, 40. Veterans you have in the book. This one was for. It was 40 of them, 40, 40 of them. So 40 interviews and and then the book themselves. That has like a little write-up on yeah, yeah, we can test it to about 500 words, because we had.
Speaker 2:They have a two page, two page spread for the for them. Okay, and you don't have the book here, probably, but I do have one over there, okay, yeah. But so you open it up, there's two pages picture of the veteran, about 500 words to fit the page, and then QR code and that's it. It's a summary of their words so you can skip through it, but it's on every platform. So it's now on. We're releasing one, one per week. You know, just one interview, one interview per week. We're releasing outside of the book. So podcast, spotify, you can look it up on there.
Speaker 2:And youtube look at there and basically every single platform, the veteran voices. You can look them up and find them all interesting.
Speaker 1:That's a cool idea, and we'll link it in the description too, like if anybody wants to purchase the book.
Speaker 2:Absolutely, yeah, well, that's the other thing we we weren't trying to do it to sell the book. Yeah, by any means. But we didn't look at the other side how how many people would want to have it afterwards. Yeah, when we did the book launch over at LBC, a local brewing company there on 19, palm Harbor, we did it. We tried to release it on Veterans Day High goal. It wasn't going to happen. We said we wanted to do this starting in March and we wanted to release it in November. Luis is very used to doing marketing when he's his home country in Brazil. Okay, and we started asking different people who do this stuff in the normal range was two to three, four years, two to three or four years how long it would take to do. Yeah, we did it in seven months. Okay, yeah, so you're hustling. Yeah, yeah, we did in seven months. Okay, yeah, so you're hustling.
Speaker 1:Yeah, we hustled on it, but uh, it was, it was a lot more challenging than we thought it was going to be.
Speaker 2:So the one we overlooked some things as far as, like we didn't realize how many people would want to have it for their home and their family members yeah so when we did the big book release, the launch party at lbc, uh, there were people wanting 10 at a time, 11 at a time, six at a time to give for gifts and everything else.
Speaker 1:We didn't even think about that, yeah.
Speaker 2:Yeah, cool, we're doing it now. Every single year we have a different edition. We'll be running every concurrently in multiple different counties, and then we're branching off as well. It has not just the veteran voices, but now we're talking to the spouses of all the veterans, and then one for just straight female veterans. And now the fire department. We're going to create a book just for the fire department as well. They want a piece of it. Cool, yeah, so it turned out to be a really beautiful thing yeah um, and I love to see that.
Speaker 2:You know, I just love to see the community get behind something like that yeah, yeah, that's neat and then.
Speaker 2:So something else you guys are working on too the is a purple heart park in palm harbor yep, yep, that's not the end of it, like I said, it's not even a full year old yet. So we did that. But then we started having um information and resource clinics over at the palm harbor library, which we try to do it quarterly but we get tied up. So, yeah, at least two, three times a year we set up just to provide free information. And then late last year I was sitting with David Eggers, commissioner, after the Purple Heart event down in Dunedin, august 7th, purple Heart Day, and I just remember asking him I'm like how come we don't have one in Palm Harbor, because I know Oldsmar has one as well? Okay, and there is 78, 77, I forget the exact number other towns in the state of Florida that actually have a Purple Heart Park or monument, and that goes directly up to Congress. So your congressional recognized with the military order of Purple Heart that you're a Purple Heart town.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:And the answer was we don't know, no one's ever done it, asked about it, so I did. Yeah, I asked the powers that be. I had to clear it with Parks and Recs and I obviously tried to get a piece of property around here. We looked at a couple locations. I didn't like any of them and then I asked around the CSA Nancy McKinnon, erica Langford got us all over at the table and just between all of us we figured out okay, so now we got commissioned to it. We said okay, we got the approval and now currently we're getting.
Speaker 2:The cat came out of the bag a little bit. I didn't want to say anything until we started getting permits, but the cat snuck out the bag and yeah, so we're putting a purple heart park right at harbor hall, right downtown palm harbor cool, and that'll be this year. So, as per my norm, I'm trying to get it done by august 7th. Um, it's a tall order to get it done by august 7th because the stone that they use is not like a normal piece of granite that you can find locally here. It's a certain redstone that you have to get and you have to quarry it. So we're looking at about four or five months for us to receive that as soon as we start putting the down payment on the deposit. So, yeah, it's going to be close. If not by August 7th, then August itself is Purple Heart Month. Yeah, so that's what we're going for.
Speaker 1:Where will it be by Harbor?
Speaker 2:Hall. So right there at the corner of what's that? 11th and Georgia, yeah, 11th and Georgia Harbor Hall, they have the utilities right there at the corner, okay, right where they normally put the Christmas tree. Yeah, so on that same piece of grass that goes east towards the parking lot entrance.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:Right at the end where the parking lot entrance is, oh, cool. So basically you have two parking spots there. That part they're trying to just get approved, which is not going to be a problem. Well, it shouldn't be, yeah, but it's going to be right there on the corner, okay. So if you've been to the one in Dunedin, it's going to be slightly smaller, because the one in Dunedin, as far as from the pavers to the retaining wall they have in the house, I believe I remember it was like 12 by 24, and we have 17 by 42 space over there, so it's going to be a little smaller replica of what they have in Dunedin. The monument is the monument. That going to be a smaller, little smaller replica of what they have in dunnean. The monument is the monument. That's. That's not going to change, okay, but the actual retaining brick wall and stuff like that the pavers.
Speaker 2:Of course we're going to be able to have pavers available for people to purchase, of course, just so they can, you know, um, you know, help with the growth of that and put purple heart recipients names in there as well, oh, cool. So this way we can actually now have palm harbor as up in congressional record, and palm harbor will be a purple heart town yeah and give us an actual destination place for someone to look up, say, hey, let's come over here for this reason.
Speaker 2:Yeah, that's something palm harbor has been missing, other than palm harbor fest that they have going on. Um, there's really not anything around here for people to come here on purpose, yeah, right yeah and a lot of people go to dunedin for that stuff.
Speaker 1:So yeah, so the only other um cities in pinellas county that have a purple heart park is dunedin and oldsmar, right, and so the Palm Harbor will be the third one, right? That's pretty neat.
Speaker 2:Now they have a Purple Heart Road trail that Father Bob Swick was able to put together, and he was the one that started the Florida Veterans Coalition which is I think the second or third name of it at this point, after 20-something years. They created it. I think the second or third name of it at this point. After 20-something years. They created it, but he was the one that was pretty much responsible for the entire. I always say that's. Gulf to Bay Okay, 60, I believe.
Speaker 1:Yeah, 60. I'm still trying to learn it. Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2:That's actually the Purple Heart Trail, I believe.
Speaker 1:Oh, so like that road itself is Purple Heart Trail, if I have that correct, yeah, if I have that correct, yeah.
Speaker 2:If I have it correct. So you know obviously again Dunedin people, they're very military-centric. Yeah, they have their own council in their town, everything else. But we're unincorporated. So again, it's good and it's bad. Yeah, it's good because we can move things around a little faster, but you know, getting support is sometimes a little tougher.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it is interesting that Palm Harbor is unincorporated, Right, but it seems like there's like everything that you're doing, everything that we're doing with the Main Street organization and other business owners down here. It seems like there's a lot of momentum for Palm Harbor. There is Like the growth of Palm Harbor and creating things for the community and that sort of stuff. So it's really cool to see.
Speaker 2:I really like that, by the way, because we've talked before and you and I are alike, at the point where we always got to go from a place of abundance versus scarcity.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:Always, always. Abundance over scarcity, mindset right. Yeah, and all ships rise with the tide and it seems like you said that's what. It just seems like the buzz around town just seems like there's more activity, more people doing things together to try to bring it out Right, and we're all working in the same direction.
Speaker 1:Almost right, correct, even though it might not be to work on the same thing but, I think the community wants Palm Harbor to be something True, More so than what it is when I first started identifying.
Speaker 2:I know that there was a certain population that says don't Dunedin our Palm Harbor. And then there's another part of the population that says, well, we want to bring people here, let's see what's the other thing. St Pete, Visit St Pete. It's about the bed tax, everything else they just want to. How can we bring people to this destination? So I see, the push is to do that, to bring something here. So I said well, why not start with?
Speaker 1:something big, yeah, and it's even like Safety Harbor too. I know there's a lot of pushback on like some of the developments in downtown Safety Harbor but it's like you know, like that's a beautiful spot to go and hang out on main street and stuff there in Safety Harbor and it would be cool to like I get like keeping it a quiet town or whatever. But I mean we're in Pinellas County, like it. It's almost like the growth is going to happen.
Speaker 2:Right, you know it's only a matter of time, right, so you can be part of it. Yeah, watch it go by.
Speaker 1:And I always fall back to the mindset of like if you're not growing, you're like you're dying and like personally, right, like your area, like if your area, if your city is not growing, then people aren't going to want to come here and spend money and like quality of life. Life is going to be different, 100%, you know.
Speaker 2:Everything you said is exactly right. Yeah, it's all connected because, again, if people don't come here and you don't have money injected into here, then there's not much more that will happen. It's easier, like you said, for it to go on a decline than on an incline and that affects everybody right, Not just the businesses.
Speaker 1:But it affects home values, it affects all of that right. Absolutely 100%. It's all tied together. Something else I was just thinking about this the amount of stuff that you've done in one year with the association is just crazy. And you still run a business. I don't know how you have time for all that. I could tell you. So the Hero Fest.
Speaker 2:Yes.
Speaker 1:That's the first one that's coming to Palm.
Speaker 2:Harbor, so Palm Harbor Hero Fest. So that was the other thing. We looked around and this was happening just before Main street came back on board, okay, before it was development, because we were looking at one of the board meetings at the chamber, because I sit on the board director's chamber of commerce as well. So we were talking about just we were looking to see what we can fill in this the blank, the space between, you know, the golf tournament and the christmas stuff up until palm harbor fest, which is, you know, april. So there's kind Christmas stuff up until Palm Harbor Fest, which is, you know, april. So there's kind of a lot of dead area in there. And then I looked around, I was asking Matt the president and I was like, well, what about Memorial?
Speaker 2:Day and I was like, oh, let's not do Memorial Day because you have Hero Fest. I mean, you have Honor Fest down in Clearwater. But it says what can we do around here? And then I said, well, let's celebrate and honor you know everybody, all the heroes around here, because the title of our book is Hometown Heroes. So why don't we just celebrate the hometown heroes some more? And we brought in basically the fire department, palm Harbor Fire Rescue and the Penalty County Sheriff's Department, and why not honor and take care of the people that literally are the backbone of this community? Yeah, we had the hurricanes. They were the heroes of this community. I mean, I'll be honest with you, when the first hurricane hit last year, I was in the road. I was out there 13 days in a row, nonstop. Me and my wonder dog Molly were out there every day. I would pin my locationlly were out there every day. I would pin my location, put it out there and say everyone dawn upon me chicken salad, chick.
Speaker 2:I just went up there that's the first time I literally connected with them say, hey, listen, can you provide us with sandwiches so we can give them, like how much it goes many you can give us? And to my surprise, you know, didn't know paul raw was like everyone knows him, didn't know he was a veteran, didn't know Sarah Strickler, the whole nine, and they just gave me bags after bags and we just went out and helped out everybody and it was really good to see everyone just show up.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:Like just like that, and I said there's something within this community. That's when I really realized what this community can be or what it is. You just maybe have to blow the dust off it or something. And one thing I've learned a long time ago we kind of touched base on this before. People will follow people if they know where they're going and how they're going to get there. Sometimes they just need that one person to put two sticks together and go for it.
Speaker 2:And ultimately, yeah, so the Hero Fest fest that's happening on may 17th didn't want to invade on memorial day, that's strictly for veterans, yeah. So we wanted to keep it within may, because that is kind of a veteran friendly month, kind of like november. So, uh, right now it's kind of a three-headed monster. Not kind of it is. It's a three-headed monster, it's three events built into one. I sat with the powers that be at the fire department, the big house at 65. Talked with them some of the sheriffs and said we want to honor you. So, however, you would normally hold an event, I want you to just hold it on this day in this area. So, basically, we're going to have the fire department in one section, I'm going to have the sheriffs in another section and us honoring, taking care of all the veterans on the third. So it's a cool relief type style yeah and we're going to have three bands.
Speaker 2:We have crossfire, creek is headlining, then we have a couple other ones prior to them. Okay, starts at 12 o'clock till Palm Harbor says no, which is 10 pm, and the bands will start right around that 1 o'clock area. Of course we have a lot of other things going to be happening, so the sheriffs are going to already been approved, so I can actually say it. But they're going to come down with the K-9 unit, the MRAP, the armored vehicle, a cruiser. The fire department is going to do a touch of truck. Probably most likely I don't know if it's official yet but most likely they're going to be doing the extrication unit show over there. So it's going to be a family fun event. You know, up over towards a little bit closer towards Omaha Circle, it's going to be more so. The kids zone, education area, Make it a little bit more family friendly over there.
Speaker 2:Face painters, food trucks yeah and then a little closer obviously to downtown, will be, you know, crafty brew, um, lbc, divine. They're all participating at that. Of course, the stage will be right around there. It'll sell, so it's going to be a great time. Crabby bills just opened up, yay, yeah, so we're gracefully, uh, worked out with them. They're going to be using their upper deck, their crow's nest up there. Yeah, we're using that as the vip section up there. We have a couple little special things and guests, little celebrities that are going to be up there that I'm not going to mention yet.
Speaker 1:So vip, is that like you got to buy like a vip ticket ticket available?
Speaker 2:okay to purchase for up there. So this way just have. You don't have to deal with anything, just stay up there. The ticket comes with food and drink and whatnot, and it's kind of it's just a different experience. It's just at one price. You're up there and you have everything that you need. You know, and, like I said, some people are going to be putting up there, there's going to be other special opportunities for people who are in the VIP area. Yeah opportunities for people who are in the vip area.
Speaker 1:Yeah, um, some people might be signing some jerseys and doing giveaways and stuff like that. Yeah, yeah, that'll be cool. I mean, I'm just thinking like for palm harbor and we just don't have anything like that where you can sit up there and watch the stage and that sort of stuff at night. So that'll be, that'll be fun. Yeah, um yeah, is this the first event you've put on?
Speaker 2:yeah, first time you've done that, absolutely. Yeah, I feel like so, and I was asked by the chamber. So what have you done one before? What do you know about events? I'm like, what do I need to know? Yeah, I mean, I have an idea and I have passion, that's all right, yeah and, uh, you surround yourself with people who are better than you, right?
Speaker 2:so, yeah, um, the, the team that I put together are people who are always either there's a few of them together, but one of them is an alignment collective. You know, they're known for everything from weddings to, you know, working with Iron man doing stuff for them forever and also being able to do multi-million dollar trade shows across the country.
Speaker 2:So they know what they know their stuff, but maybe a little bit short on doing, uh, street closure events in smaller towns so then, I went ahead and grabbed some people car shows for charity, people like that who actually sit there, who have that knowledge, along with the knowledge from the chamber direction, from the ceo, you know, matt, uh, so I just got people who were smarter than me, who lived in that world, and I just provided the vision and a little bit of what I would like. Avs Media. He's a guru when it comes to this type of stuff as far as promoting and videos and whatnot. So there's a lot of videos that are going to be dropping very soon. We have a full-blown, literally a full movie trailer that's coming out with that. It's a lot happening with that. So we have a lot of really experienced people in town that everyone knows that are putting together to make this happen.
Speaker 2:Yeah, that's awesome, yeah it worked out really well once people start seeing the vision and understand why we're doing this. Um, people want to help yeah and that's really what it comes down. That's really a lot easier for me than I would have expected, because no one's out trying to get the spotlight. It's getting no ego, nothing like that, it's just mission first. If you get a lot of people aligned with the same mission, then anything's possible. It really is.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and just going back to what we were talking about, the community, right, people want to be involved and and help out in any way they can and and, just like we've experienced at the main street, like people are you know showing up for that too and um, yeah, it's fun to see. So may 17th may 17th.
Speaker 2:It's a saturday, the weekend before memorial day snowbirds, some people will be traveling around. They're already going to be here anyways. People have time before. They're already going to have it. They're already into that mode because Memorial Day is coming around. Yeah, we're going to have a radio station there. The news coverage is going to be there.
Speaker 1:Everything is falling into places where it's supposed to be yeah, and you have vendor spots available too. So if any any businesses are interested in being a vendor, just to go to palm Harbor hero festcom palm Harbor hero festcom.
Speaker 2:Right on there there's the vendor applications, um, sponsorship deck, the whole thing is on there. They can look at anything they need to multiple different sponsorship opportunities, the thing down from the kids zone up to, you know, title sponsor, stage sponsor, vip stuff like that. So, um, we already a lot of them already coming in between Fran hash, of course, it's their name is everywhere. Um, you know, curlew Hills, kenan, we love them over there. Of course, florida farm Academy, florida farms academy, these type of people are already starting to sponsor. Yeah, you know, they were just the first adapters, you know, to get on it.
Speaker 2:When people see something that's valuable, they want to be on top of right away. So, yeah, we definitely want as much help as humanly possible. We want the community to come out and support it. Of course, because, again, don't lose sight of what this is for it's the ones that when your house burns down, you lose everything. Fire department comes out with their foundation and they supply you with things and all proceeds 100 of all proceeds that we get are going to each of the department's foundations and charities. Cool, so the fire department has their own charities. We have a sponsorship package just for the fire department. So if someone doesn't want to deal with anything else but they love firemen, they can sponsor just the fire department section and then that percentage goes directly to their foundation.
Speaker 1:Cool Same.
Speaker 2:thing with the sheriff's department Same thing with us. We have two different, since we don't have a foundation ourselves. We are a 501c3 nonprofit charity, yeah, but we don't have a foundation. So we're taking the Red Star Foundation, we're taking a few other ones and we're donating money to them as well. Okay, so all proceeds go back to helping out the town directly. Cool, so this way, this money goes directly back into the town directly to support all the people in the community.
Speaker 1:Yeah, so it's a win-win all the way around. No excuses to be involved, right, absolutely Show up, have a good time.
Speaker 2:Oh, unless you hate veterans police and fire departments right and you're not a community person.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, All right. So one last question how can people, what's the best way for people to get in touch with you about laser engraving and your business there?
Speaker 2:Well, veteranlaserworkscom Perfect. I'm on Google. I have five-star reviews all the way through. You can pretty much find me anywhere. You can almost always find me at the Chamber of Commerce in Palm Harbor. I'm an ambassador there as well, so that's almost my second home, because, again, it's right in the middle of the community and that's where I stay.
Speaker 2:So that's where I operate. One of the benefits of the chamber is you utilize that as an office space, so that's how pretty much you can always find me Either go through website or go onto social media and go find the account there for Veteran Laserworks. Laserworks is L-A-S-E-R-W-O-R-X. Okay, just a little twist. Laser Laserworks is L-A-S-E-R-W-O-R-X. Okay, just a little twist. Laserworks.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and then same thing with the Pinellas County Veterans Association. We have pinellascountyveteranassociationorg. Okay, we meet at the last Wednesday of every single month at the Chamber of Commerce at 12 noon. It's an open-door policy. People have come in They've asked us to help out with, have come in they've asked us to, you know, help out with them, or they just want to be a part of something bigger than themselves. Real quick, the other thing that we have done, because somebody walked into us. We had carrie whitfield from highland lakes. She's the event coordinator there for for them, highland lakes assisted living facility, and they started to create a little wall of honor oh yeah didn't work out too well as far as if you're listening.
Speaker 2:Sorry, but it was like a hobby lobby thing that they did, yeah. So she just asked if we could help out to do some. You make it more honorable, and our board of directors. Normally we look over things, we talk about it. A month later we come back and deliberate and it was like no brainer for us. We immediately jumped on it and we made this 31 foot gorgeous wall called wall of honor, handcrafted everything it made full page ahead in in the beacon and whatnot. And we're now doing walls of honor for meese life. So st mark's is on the list, so it's another mission we do.
Speaker 2:We go out there just create walls of honor. So yeah, yeah, so that's how you find us what is next?
Speaker 1:you got you know who knows we'll figure it out.
Speaker 2:but the next, by the time we next, I guarantee you there's something else that will be on the list. Yeah, I mean.
Speaker 1:It's incredible.
Speaker 2:God gives us energy for only so long, right? Yeah, so I just want to be used up and dried up and I want to use everything I can and when I'm 70, I want to sit back and say, yep, I helped to do this and that's really what I'm doing it for, just to have a legacy, get some roots, yeah, and say, hey, palm harbor is on the map in congress and everything else. Yeah, that's pretty cool.
Speaker 1:My community and we'll have um, if anybody's interested. We'll have like the links and all that in the description below. So if anybody can can check those out, um. But yeah, I mean, david, appreciate you being here, appreciate you having me, thanks for your service too well, thank you so much yeah, thanks for being worth it.
Speaker 2:That's what he told me. Just thanks for being worth it. Yeah, love that. It's really tough. I will say this one last piece. It's exactly what I was going to say. It reminded me of Harry Beck. Harry Beck's 92? Wow, 91, 92 years old. He resides over at Highland Lake Assisted Living Facility. When we did the book release he was sitting in the front row with his wife, and when we were all done I don't know if you remember that part in Forrest Gump when he was getting ready to stand they brought him up to talk about the Vietnam War. They unplugged everything. When they plugged it back in, he was like that's all I got to say about the Vietnam War. So he said, can I say something? And by the time I got up to him with the microphone, he was done.
Speaker 1:But the people that heard him in the front that were all there.
Speaker 2:He was saying this is the sad part, unfortunately he's like it's things like this that made all the dirt, all the screaming, all that stuff worth it, because in Vietnam they weren't the most popular veterans when they came back home and at the end of the day, that translates into 42 years. This guy this is where you know our country failed these people Mm-hmm. 42, 44 years, whatever it was. He sat back, however many years, right that he sat back and he dealt with everything he dealt with and he never felt like it was worth it. Yeah, never felt like it was worth it.
Speaker 2:Yeah, never felt like it was worth it and then when we did that wall of honor and then we celebrated them with this book, he cried and he said it's worth it. Wow, that alone. Yeah, all of us were just like because you feel it now. You know, all of us are damn you don't realize the impact that you have until you do, yeah, and imagine just like his.
Speaker 1:You know just his life and what that did for him in that moment. You know.
Speaker 2:Exactly so, yeah, so that's what I wanted to add with that. So, yeah, thank you, thanks for having us, thank you.
