Rhonda Thompson saw the signs – and they pointed toward love.
The compliance analyst with TECO’s Quality Assurance and Compliance department is the winner of a contest for company team members, sponsored by Tampa Electric’s Manatee Viewing Center, to name an oak tree and cabbage palm growing together along the center’s habitat trail. The trees will receive a sign identifying them with the name she submitted.
Thompson’s winning idea: Tampa Electric’s Manatee Viewing Center’s Love Trees.
As she described it in her contest entry, “My Poppo (my grandfather who was part Cherokee Indian) used to tell us grand girls that [trees like this grew together] many years ago when our Native Indian women were working with palm trees and sitting under a shaded oak tree. Somehow the seeds of the two trees were blown in the wind together and buried in the soil together to become one tree.”
She said she was also inspired by the Love Trees of St. Augustine, Fla., which similarly grow together to the delight of local residents and tourists. About seven love trees are reportedly identified in and around the city, the oldest in the United States.
“The legend is that if you kiss your loved one under the love tree, you’ll seal your love for eternity,” Thompson said.
While Manatee Viewing Center team members declined to comment about the prospect of public displays of affection at the site of the newly named trees, they thanked Thompson for her great idea and awarded her several tokens of appreciation from the Manatee Viewing Center gift shop.
“We received more than 70 suggestions and each one was great,” said Jamie Woodlee, environmental specialist at the Manatee Viewing Center. “We salute Rhonda for her enthusiasm to support our goal of making environmental education fun above all at a unique place that’s both free to visit and perfect for the whole family.”
Thompson can claim a special connection to the Manatee Viewing Center with a grandfather who helped build Tampa Electric’s Big Bend Power Station, source of warm water that draws manatees by the hundreds in the winter months and provides lifesaving protection from the cold. She also had two uncles and an aunt who worked for Tampa Electric.
And with her longtime family home near one of the many renowned springs in Hernando County, she said she’s always been at home in natural Florida.
“I’ve always appreciated Florida’s beauty, and it makes me proud to work for a company that offers a showcase for that beauty free to the public in the Manatee Viewing Center,” she said. “I know that people from around the world love the center, which is why that word – love – seemed like the perfect way to characterize these incredible trees.”
Tampa Electric’s Manatee Viewing Center is open to the public from Nov. 1 through April 15 annually.
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