We receive a lot of press releases in our Neighborhood News inbox, but I honestly can’t remember ever having seen a press release saying that someone was donating a million dollars in a ceremony in Wesley Chapel we were invited to attend.
So of course, when we were invited by the Community Foundation Tampa Bay to visit the Kirkland Ranch property on Curley Rd. on Dec. 8 because the Foundation was going to be presenting a $1 million grant “on behalf of the Marvin & Elizabeth Holloway Foundation to the Alpha Gamma Education Foundation,” I knew that I wanted to be on hand for it — even though I had never even heard of the Holloway or Alpha Gamma foundations before.
And, while we never just run press releases, as it turns out, this is the best way to understand why the event was being held: “The philanthropic investment builds on the recent sale and permanent conservation of nearly 1,000 acres of Kirkland Ranch, a historic Pasco County property owned by the Kirkland family for generations. The State of Florida purchased the ranch earlier this year following a multiyear effort championed by Florida Commissioner of Agriculture Wilton Simpson and supported by the ranch’s leadership and shareholders. The sale preserved the land in perpetuity and generated more than $20 million in philanthropic assets now stewarded by Community Foundation Tampa Bay.”
OK, but who are Marvin and Elizabeth Holloway? Elizabeth Kirkland Holloway, who passed away at age 103 in 2024, was the sister of Cicero Kirkland, who began developing the Kirkland Ranch in 1949 with his son Raymond…