The United Way of South Sarasota County is proud to help our heroes and their families. 100% of the proceeds for this event will go to programs and services that directly help our heroes. This year one of the Highlight organizations will be My Warriors Place.
Come celebrate our heroes on November 4, 2023.
Carl Radke, Pittsburgh native and Syracuse University TV/Film grad has been working around the TV industry since he was 20 as a model/actor/production assistant. You may recognize Carl from starring as a TV personality on the hit Bravo reality series ‘Summer House’ which began airing in 2017 and currently in its 7th Season. He also currently serves as VP of Sales for Loverboy and is a founding member of the growing better for you alcohol brand. Carl has always had a close relationship to mental health advocacy with his involvement with Heal Our Heroes/Headstrong, a non-profit for mental health resources for our military veterans. Through his own mental health journey Carl has been focused on meditation, therapy, acupuncture to compliment his self care. Carl hopes to share his journey to help families and individuals to break the stigma around addiction and mental health in our society.
Florida native, Lindsay Hubbard is the original leading female cast member of BRAVO TV’s hit show,Summer House. After graduating from the University of Florida with a Bachelor’s degree in Public Relations in 2008, Hubbard began her PR career in New York City working for a lifestyle PR agency. She continued honing her craft for a few years in Los Angeles, CA working in hospitality PR until ultimately making her way back to NYC permanently in 2012, where she currently owns her own PR agency, Hubb House Public Relations. In 2016, Hubbard joined BRAVO’s Summer House, where she met her now fiancé Carl Radke. You can also find Hubbard on both seasons one and two of Winter House (premiering this fall), as well as numerous brand commercials for the network, including work for Paramount Pictures and Marshalls. In June 2022, Lindsay was nominated for a MTV unscripted award for “Best Reality Star.” Over the last decade, she has supported different veteran organizations and nonprofits, including Operation: Heal our Heroes, and the Headstrong Project. Hubbard currently resides in New York City with fiancé Carl Radke.
Rising Country music superstar Jason Brownie has a musical style that can be summed up in three words: American. Country. Rock. He’s always a fan favorite, personable, and works hard to bring good music to great people! After signing with Clearwater Records, Brownie has been on a meteoric trajectory, following the 2022 radio releases of “Pretty Girl On The Passenger Side” and “Ain’t How Whiskey Works.” The subsequent music videos have taken the internet by storm, the radio airplay keeps increasing, and booking requests are pouring in world-wide! Fans have been requesting more music, and Jason has delivered with the 2022 releases of “Must Be Summertime” and “Love You Every Time.”
Brownie has opened for many of country music’s biggest names, and his fan following – thanks to a combination of great music, fun live concerts, and personal attention to his fans – is growing throughout the United States and abroad.
He’s an especially grounded artist who comes from the “boondocks” of a small southwest Florida town and says his roots lie deep in his love for God and country. Influenced heavily by both country and rock and roll, Jason is passionate about both genres he grew up listening to.
A music journey different than many on the national country music scene, he chose a path of not relocating to Nashville after graduating high school and instead stayed rooted in his hometown perfecting his craft. Jason is the perfect example of the American Dream and through hard work has found himself immersed in his music and achieving those dreams sparked many years ago. While Florida is still home, Brownie is no stranger to the Nashville music scene where he’s spent time in the studio tracking vocals with country artist Jeff Bates.
Brownie comes from a long line of both military and first responders. He’s a third-generation law enforcement officer and has spent years serving and protecting his community, while raising his daughter in SW Florida. When not on stage or in the studio, Jason enjoys being a “girl dad,” boating, weightlifting, fishing, boxing, and playing basketball & billiards. He has a knack for collecting guitars and cowboy boots and states his influences come from many different artists and genres, and his own grandfather will forever be his hero.
From small-town to the big stage, Jason Brownie has stayed the same. Celebrity Direct is proud to have Jason on the team… give us a call today to discuss booking options.
Mark Guthrie is a former Major League Baseball relief pitcher who played for 15 years with several teams between 1989 and 2003 . Mark was a member of the 1991 World Series Champion Minnesota Twins where he pitched in 4 games. He is currently the owner and director of Burn Baseball which helps mentor and coach young baseball players and a member of the Board of Directors for the Special Athletes Boosters. In addition, Mark is a graduate of Venice High School and continues to help athletics in the community.
Mark is married to his wife Andrea and has three sons, Kevin, Dalton and Hayden. They reside in Sarasota.
Greg Steube has dedicated his life to service and comes from a family that has been in Florida for five generations. Greg earned his undergraduate and law degrees from the University of Florida, majoring in Beef Cattle Sciences and minoring in Agricultural Law. Upon completing law school, Greg decided to enlist in the U.S. Army after the September 11th attacks.
In the Army, Greg spent one year as a commissioned Airborne Infantry Officer, and three years in the U.S. Army JAG Corps, serving as a Captain with the 25th Infantry Division in Operation Iraqi Freedom.
Greg’s service continued with his election to the State House in 2010, and the State Senate in 2016. In the Florida legislature, Greg used his background in agriculture, law, and the military to build a record of accomplishment and strong defense of conservative principles.
Greg is bringing these conservative credentials to Congress, where he was elected in 2018 to represent Florida’s 17th District. The district is the largest citrus producing district in the country, covering all of Charlotte, DeSoto, Glades, Hardee, Highlands, and Okeechobee counties, as well parts of Sarasota, Lee, and Polk counties.
Greg lives in Sarasota with his wife, Jennifer, and son, Ethan.
My name is Nick Salerno. I joined the Army in 2009, deployed to Afghanistan with the 10th mountain division in March 2010. I stepped on an IED during a night patrol on November 19, 2010 and woke up two weeks later back in the states with part of my right leg missing. For the first 6 years, I didn’t do very much at all. I was on high blood pressure medicine, cholesterol medicine and just wasn’t happy. Eventually, I joined a gym and started exercising for about an hour a day and after a period, at my next VA annual lab appointment, they were shocked at how good my blood work was and took me off both of those meds. I’ve lived in Florida most of my life and now I am a high school physical education/ health teacher. I teach students how important it is to be active since I have personal experience with that.
Felicia “The FeeNom” Spencer grew up in Englewood, FL, with her parents Claire and Jimmy, and brothers Nathen and Derek. She trained in martial arts (mainly TaeKwonDo and Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu) from a young age at local gyms and graduated from Lemon Bay high school in the class of 2009. She then moved to Orlando to attend UCF, earning a degree in Math Education.
Spencer trained in Orlando at The Jungle MMA and Fitness under the instruction of Mike Lee (another Englewood native) and a number of dedicated coaches. She competed in amateur MMA around the nation while finishing her degree and working part time, and earned a professional contract with the most prestigious women’s MMA organization, Invicta FC. While competing in professional MMA, Spencer used her degree while working for Florida Virtual School teaching Algebra online.
In her time with InvictaFC she was undefeated with a record of 6-0 and won the featherweight title in November of 2018. From there, the biggest MMA organization in the world, the UFC, called her and she was signed to the UFC early 2019. The first fight she had in the UFC ended in a first round victory for The FeeNom, and prompted a fight with one of the greatest women’s fighters of all time, Cris Cyborg, in the co-main event of UFC 240. Though she lost, Spencer was recognized for her performance and toughness. After another first round victory she earned an opportunity to fight for the UFC Championship against another juggernaut and another all-time great of the sport, Amanda Nunes, at UFC 250.
Spencer made the decision to stop competing in the sport of MMA last year at 30 years old with a professional record of 9-3 (amatuer record 5-1). She wants to be an example to other professional athletes, and particularly fighters, to be mindful of their long-term health and plan for when transitioning to the next phase of their life makes sense. You can still find Spencer working in commentary for a variety of other MMA promotions. She is married to Todd Coppinger, has a daughter, Adelynn who is 12, and two big dogs named Fluffy and Hermione.
Born in Buenos Aires, Argentina, Martin Gramatica moved to LaBelle, Florida at the age of nine. While he was only interested in playing soccer in high school, he was invited to try out as the football team’s kicker, which marked the beginning of his football career during his senior year. Martin accepted a football scholarship from Kansas State University where he amassed statistics and records that earned him the nickname “Automatica“. Martin was selected by the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in the third round of the 1999 NFL Draft, and he went on to play nine seasons for the Buccaneers, Indianapolis Colts, Dallas Cowboys, and New Orleans Saints. Martin scored 12 points off of two field goals and six extra points during the Buccaneers victory in Super Bowl 37. Martin and his two brothers founded the Gramatica Family Foundation in 2012 with the mission to positively impact the lives of our community’s veterans through housing initiatives. Currently, Martin serves as Vice President of Business Development for Life Guard Imaging, color analyst for the Buccaneers Spanish Radio broadcasts, and as a U19 boys and U12 girls coach for the West Florida Flames East Lake soccer club.
Mike Bielecki is a former professional baseball player who pitched in the Major Leagues for five teams. In 1979, Bielecki was drafted to the Pittsburgh Pirates in the first round. He played for four seasons with the Pirates. He made his MLB debut in September of 1984, when he was Baseball America’s Minor League Player of the Year.
Bielecki moved over to the Chicago Cubs in 1988, where, in his first year, he helped lead the Cubs to a Division Title. Bielecki was nicknamed “BOOM BOOM” for the two-run single he collected against his former team the Pittsburgh Pirates in a game in 1991.
Bielecki went along to the Atlanta Braves (1991-1992), Cleveland Indians (1993), Atlanta Braves (1994), California Angels (1995) before ending his career back with the Atlanta Braves (1996-1997). He retired in 1998 following a rotator cuff injury.
Keeping himself in the game, but from a different perspective, Bielecki worked as a baseball analyst for Fox Sports Chicago Cubs from 1999-2002. Now, he is retired and splits his time between Ocean City, Maryland and Bradenton, Florida. He is married with two daughters and two stepdaughters.
With eight Top 5 singles, six No. 1s, and 1 Billion career on-demand streams under his belt, Atkins is one of Country music’s most prominent artists. Continuing to be recognized as a powerful voice on Country radio, his Platinum-selling No. 1 “Watching You” earned the songwriter a BMI “Million-Air” award and the top spot on Country Aircheck’s top-played songs of the decade list. Atkins was the second most-played male artist of the decade overall. He has also sold over 11 million units and earned ten career Gold, Platinum and Multi-Platinum RIAA certifications to date, including his latest Gold-certified single, “Caught Up In The Country (feat. The Fisk Jubilee Singers),” which also set the record for longest-running single in Billboard Country Airplay history at 57 weeks. Atkins recently performed on NBC’s TODAY Show, GMA’s Strahan & Sara, and FOX & Friends. Rodney’s latest single “A Little Good News” is available now.