Friday means "free-day" today

Free frozen treat No. 1: Today is the first day of spring, and for the 17th year, Rita’s Italian Ice is celebrating by giving away a free, 10 oz. cup of frozen deliciousness from noon to 10 p.m. You can cool off at any one of Rita’s Tampa Bay locations, including Brooksville, Clearwater, New Port Richey and Tampa. Visit Ritasice.com for a complete list. 

Free frozen treat No. 2: Everyone knows vampires only come out at night, and vampire fans will be out in force tonight as the Blockbuster at 13610 Bruce B. Downs Blvd. in Tampa celebrates the DVD release of Twilight at midnight. In addition to being among the first to buy or rent the DVD, the first 50 people who volunteer to give a pint of blood to Florida Blood Services will receive a free pint of Edy’s ice cream. The fun — or fright — starts at 8 p.m. and will also feature trivia games, giveaways, face painting, drawings for special prizes and appearances by radio stations Mix 100.7 and 93.3 FLZ. Free. 

Frozen fun with donation: The shelves at America’s Second Harvest of Tampa Bay are critically bare, so they’re teaming up with Disney on Ice to collect donated canned goods in exchange for tickets to Worlds of Fantasy, running May 14-17 at the St. Pete Times Forum in Tampa. A donation of 10 cans of non-perishable food entitles each consumer to one ticket for opening night only, with a limit of four tickets per family. You can make your donation today at the Forum box office from 10 a.m.-1 p.m. Worlds of Fantasy, features characters from Cars, The Lion King and The Little Mermaid, as well as fairies from Tinker Bell. If you can’t make a donation, tickets go on sale today at all Ticketmaster outlets. Prices start at $16. 

Ryan Sheckler does a kickflip over the 12-foot bank to bank at the 2006 Tampa Pro. (Photo from Times files)

Dude alert! Top skateboarders converge on Skate Park of Tampa this weekend for the 15th Annual Tampa Pro. The contest showcases the best skateboarders and attracts some of the top skaters who typically don’t enter contests, so the cool dude count is high.  This year’s purse is $100,000 between the top finishers with $20,000 going to the top street course skater. Some of the riders this year include Red Bull athletes Jereme Rogers, Joey Brezinski, Zared Bassett and Nick Dompierre at SPoT, 4215 E Columbus Drive in Tampa. Tickets are $5-$15. See www.skateparkoftampa.com for a schedule.

Tongues a-blazing: The Chili Blaze, a Pinellas Park Firefighters’ event, will have a chili cook-off, Born to Ride motorcycle show, live music by Tropical Brain Freezes and the St. Pete All Stars and crafts show. It all benefits the Muscular Dystrophy Association from 6 to 11 p.m. today at the England Brothers Bandshell, 5121 80th Ave. N, Pinellas Park. Free admission and an all-you-can-sample chili armband is $7. (727) 687-4494. chiliblaze.com.