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Help the Chiles Elementary "Donate cash … take a splash" fundraiser for salaries for the media center aide and computer lab teacher. If the $16,000 goal is met, each student gets a snow cone.

The Heritage Elementary Craft night is 5 p.m. Thursday (Dec. 4).

Help children and earn volunteer hours helping the YMCA Success Afterschool Program from 2 to 6 p.m. weekdays in the cafeteria at Tampa Palms Elementary. Call (941) 628-3108.

Volunteers and donated items are needed for the Jaguar outpost, the new Benito Middle school store. Tutors also are needed to help students at least one hour a week at the school. Call (813) 746-9232.

The Freedom High chorus Winter Holiday Concert is at 7 p.m. Thursday i(Dec. 4) in the auditorium.  The chorus also is selling ornaments for $7 or $5 each for two or more. The ornament features the school name and logo. Call (813) 746-6658 or (813) 948-3949.

Case study in the foreclosure crisis

Read this investigative story about house-flipping, involving a Meadow Pointe homeowner.

Indulging middle-class desires inflates economic struggles

It's 40 miles from New Tampa's Freedom High School to the Clearwater dance studio where Tish Lewis's daughter trains three afternoons a week.

To get her there, Lewis pays a driver $55 weekly to take her child to Westchase, where another mother drives the girls the remaining 13.5 miles.

Later, Lewis sometimes drives the full 27 miles from her job in north Tampa to the Clearwater studio, then another 38 back to their home in Lutz.

All of this — the gas, the two hours in traffic — is on top of $275 for six weeks' tuition.

"You want to do so much for your kids, and sometimes you do dumb things like this,'' said Lewis, a former stay-at-home mom now working to help her family weather the recession.

Multiply the Lewis family by tens of millions and you have middle-class America at the close of 2008: extravagant consumers who want to cut back, but are trapped by social convention, children's expectations, technology, even laws and institutions.

For more than a decade we reveled in paper wealth from stock market gains and ballooning real estate values, empowering us to buy the big home, hire the personal trainer, or bid online for that $500 Christmas Wii.

While tragedy strikes at families in foreclosure and charities confront the holidays with bare cupboards, those more fortunate are pondering their own ill-considered spending habits that give new meaning to the term "disposable income."

Notes Eckerd College economics professor Tom Oberhofer, Americans "are completely living up to their income and beyond."

Looking for live music?

Looking for live music this weekend? Head to Skipper's Smokehouse, 910 Skipper Road. Ages 21-plus or with parent. Call Skipper's at 1-800-594-8499.

• WMNF presents James McMurtry live in concert with Ronny Elliott at 8 tonight. $17-20. Call WMNF at (813) 238-8001.
• Matt Stubbs, Terry Hanck, Gordon Beadle and the Gary Brown Blues Band play at 8 p.m. $12-15.
• Toubab Krewe fuses Malian and American music at 5 p.m. Sunday. $10-13.

Piece of the past returns for West Meadows woman

Kim Polidoro waited in the car line at school to pick up her son last week, contemplating which of the antique china sets from her great-grandmother she should use for Thanksgiving. Chatting with her dad, she spoke of how grateful she was to own such sentimental pieces and the significance of passing things on.

Polidoro lamented that she didn't possess a single item from her maternal grandmother. Nana, who died in 1991, did not own much. She cared for her parents and her in-laws as they aged. Many of her belongings were items they bequeathed to her.

"It's just really sad," Polidoro told her dad, Ken Anderson. "It would have been nice to have something that belonged to her."

That same day, 1,200 miles away in Frankenmuth, Mich., someone walked into a thrift store to donate a very special item.

Interest in Wharton's Stout increasing

A big reason why Wharton is heading into Friday's Class 5A region semifinal riding a nine-game winning streak is the play of its offensive line.

And the anchor of the Wildcats' line is senior left tackle Hunter Stout, who has begun receiving a lot more attention from college scouts.

"By the time it's all said and done, I think he will be a legitimate Division I recruit," Wharton offensive coordinator Craig Rainey said of the 6-foot-4, 265-pound Stout.

Rainey said Stout has an offer from Middle Tennessee State  and that he's received interest from UConn, Boston College, The Citadel and Stony Brook.

-- EDUARDO A. ENCINA

Wharton wins another one

By Rod Gipson, Times Correspondent

TAMPA — Playing a ball-hawking style of offense coupled with just enough defense, Wharton picked up its third win of the season Tuesday while sending Newsome to its first loss.

Wharton got two goals from standout senior forward Joe Layton and eight saves from goalkeeper Alex Stickley to defeat Newsome 2-1. Wharton, the defending Class 5A state champions, is 3-1-1.

"Newsome did more in the second half; they're a good team," Wharton coach Scott Ware said. "They attack well and they do not give up. But this really was the first game we've played so far this season where we came out playing well from the first whistle.

"And Layton really turned it on for us. He's a dangerous player when he's on the attack."

USF plays Harvard in soccer playoffs

The second round match of the playoffs pits USF (14-4-2) against Harvard (12-5) at 7:30 p.m. tonight (Nov. 25) at the soccer stadium at USF, 4202 E Fowler Ave. Cost is $7 for adults and $3 for children 18 and under.

USF soccer boast's best from area including Wharton

By Greg Auman

TAMPA — USF men's soccer coach George Kiefer has a geographically eclectic roster, with four Bulls from Trinidad and Tobago, three from Venezuela, two from Colombia and others from England and Peru.

But down the middle of his Big East champions, you'll find local players from Hillsborough and Pinellas counties, proud to host an NCAA Tournament game on their homefield, at 7:30 tonight against Harvard.

"Everyone focuses on the international guys we have, but it's been a huge priority for us from Day 1 to get the top local guys," Kiefer said. "If you look, they're playing right up the middle of the team. That's the heart of the team."

Goalkeeper Jeff Attinella, a Countryside graduate, has 10 shutouts this season, and the Bulls start two locals in midfielders Fernando Gonzalez (Gaither) and Sebastien Thuriere (Seminole).

"I've known Sebastien and Fernando and (Wharton's) Ogi (Perucica) a long time from playing with them," Attinella said. "When we used to play club and high school, Florida was always tough competition, especially this area. Just to have people from this area on a team that's very diverse — a bunch of people from a bunch of countries — means a lot for this area."

Percussion performance tonight

The USF Percussion Ensemble will perform at 8 p.m. tonight (Nov. 25) in the theater at the School of Music at USF, 4202 E Fowler Ave. Cost is $10 for students and seniors and $15 for adults at the door.