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Singles Focus On Fun, Friendship

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By LAURA FRAZIER, The Tampa Tribune

Published: October 17, 2007

BRANDON - Chris Tucker never imagined joining a singles group, let alone founding one. Then a difficult divorce in the 1990s left him suddenly single and feeling crushed.

'For almost a year, I just barely functioned,' he said.

Tucker put in long hours at work, joined a gym and spent time with his teenage sons, but it wasn't enough. Twelve months after the split, the Brandon resident was ready to start socializing again, but most of his friends were couples.

'I was always the odd man out, and it was very awkward. I really needed some single friends in the same boat as me,' he said.

In 1995, at a singles event he saw advertised in The Tampa Tribune, Tucker hooked up with a new group of friends. The pals kept in touch and established the Brandon Singles Group. They appointed Tucker president, an office he has held for 12 years running. Today, the group has 962 singles from Brandon and the Tampa area.

About 50 members turn out twice a month to socialize and plan activities at the club's general meetings at Taiga restaurant and lounge on Causeway Boulevard in Brandon.

Members can choose from a plethora of activities throughout the month, including dancing, dinners, parties and outdoor activities such as beach outings, golf and volleyball. They also meet at movies, plays and concerts.

Members sign up for activities and communicate on the group's Web site, but Tucker is quick to note it's not an online dating service.

Although some members date and others have married, he said, 'Brandon Singles is not for people just looking to hook up. We're also nonprofit, and we're not affiliated with any religious or political interests. Our only agenda is to have fun and make new friends.'

The group also makes time for charitable projects and events. They held a bachelor auction at Taiga this spring that netted $1,100 for St. Jude Children's Hospital in Tampa. This holiday season, they will hold a food drive to benefit Metropolitan Ministries in Tampa, which helps homeless and poor men, women and children.

Tucker said the holidays are particularly hard on single people. The club organizes several dinners and parties and extra activities between Halloween and New Year's Day.

Many members come to the group after they and their spouses relocate from other states hoping to save rocky marriages, Tucker said.

'We see it a lot - troubled marriages where the plan is to move to Florida and start all over again. Eventually, the marriage dissolves, and people are left here alone with no support group of family or friends. It's a pretty bad situation,' Tucker said.

Tucker, who met his girlfriend of five years and his best friend through the singles group, encourages newly single people to stop by one of the group's general meetings.

'There's a place you can come to make new friends with people in the same boat as you,' he said.

'You don't have to be alone.'

BRANDON SINGLES GROUP
WHAT: Free social and activity group open to single adults ages 35 to 59

WHERE: General meetings are 6 p.m. to 9 p.m. on the first and third Wednesday each month at Taiga, 10315 Causeway Blvd., Tampa. Members meet throughout the month for dinner, dancing and cocktails.

INFO: Call (813) 655-8777 or go to www.brandonsingles.com.

Reporter Laura Frazier can be reached at (813) 657-4523 or lfrazier@tampatrib.com.

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