Cover Credits (featured above):
Wardrobe: Robert Roubideaux, Neiman Marcus
Hair: Amanda Rosario, @theblowoutbae
Makeup: Jessica Baez, Bubbles & Blowouts
Getting older often results in letting go of our childhood dreams – especially the more outlandish, seemingly impossible ones. Luckily, that’s not always the case and sometimes those dreams evolve into something better than ever imagined.
Sidd Pagidipati’s childhood fascination with dinosaurs began after a family road trip to visit the American Museum of Natural History in New York City and the Smithsonian in Washington, D.C. Before that, Pagidipati was rather disinterested in school and learning. He came to America from India when he was five and watched his father build a life for their family with a mere $8 in his pocket – which wasn’t hard for a gritty and creative individual who once couldn’t afford shoes or medical school textbooks. Nevertheless, that family trip changed a young Pagidipati’s whole outlook on life and education – all from gazing upon his first dinosaur. Seeing the large fossils before his eyes did what no schoolbook ever did – it made him excited to learn and it sparked his curiosity.
“We went to these museums over the summertime and to see these incredibly beautiful creatures that existed at some point in our history and it brought things that were on a piece of paper into 3D, in real life,” Pagidipati says. “First dinosaurs and science were kind of the first dominos to fall and then that activated me to get more interested in all of these other topics.”
(Courtesy of Sidd and Ami Pagidipati)
That initial passion for learning only continued for Pagidipati, who went on to have a career in the finance industry on Wall Street and then partnered with his father to co-found HMO Freedom Health, Inc., which grew to become number seven on Inc. 500’s fastest-growing companies in America in 2009 and became the largest privately-owned Medicare Advantage HMO in the country before being sold in 2018. Pagidipati’s following project was developing Physician Partners, which has become one of the leading value-based healthcare provider networks in the country.
Each principle Pagidipati learned through investing, being an entrepreneur and growing a business from the ground up, he applied to his philanthropic efforts to create an even greater impact. Whether it was through the NAADAM charity founded by his parents, which gives back to underprivileged children in India to support their educational aspirations, or by becoming involved in XPRIZE, which awards prizes for developing industry-changing technology, Pagidipati began investing in the greater good.
As a married father of two, Pagidipati and his wife, Ami, an endodontist, founder of VIPcare Dental and an adjunct at Nova’s Dental School Campus, share a desire in wanting to inspire children and families to activate their interest in science and aim to use their resources to make Tampa the best place to raise a family.
“When we think about Tampa Bay as a community and wanting to make this the best place to raise children in America – raise a family in America. How do we create these experiential activities?” Sidd Pagidipati says. “Not everyone can go drive to D.C., New York, San Francisco or travel outside of this country. How do we create these experiential activities that can activate the interest and passion in the children in our community?”
Pagidipati’s answer: Buy a dinosaur.
Wanting to fulfill a childhood dream of his own and allow the children of Tampa Bay to experience the awe and amazement he felt seeing a dinosaur beyond the pages of a book, when Pagidipati learned of an auction to purchase the world’s largest fossil triceratops, he couldn’t turn it down and was committed to win the auction.
Scheduled to take place on his birthday in Paris, which he took as a sign of fate, Pagidipati sent a representative to bid against celebrities and royal families to take home the paleontological prize. While owning a dinosaur was the ultimate dream, his goal to share the prize – if he won it – with the people of Tampa to help make the city the best place in the country to raise a family.
(Courtesy Glazer Children’s Museum)
With a final bid of $7.7 million, Pagidipati won the auction of the 26-foot-long fossil fondly referred to as “Big John.” Named in honor of the owner of the South Dakota ranch where pieces of the skeleton were unearthed back in 2014, Pagidipati decided to loan Big John to the Glazer Children’s Museum, which has been serving kids and families in the Tampa Bay area for almost 40 years.
Shipping the triceratops from France to the States was a big effort and getting him into the museum was equally exciting and for Sarah Cole, the President and CEO of the Glazer Children’s Museum, admittedly nerve-wracking.
“The crates that the bones came in were huge and heavy, so each load up the elevator was a nail-biter. The skull crate was especially awesome. I think there were a few inches on either side of the crate in the elevator, but that was it. It was so big,” she recalls.
Assembling Big John in his new residence, done by technicians from the Italian company that originally preserved him, was like putting together a puzzle – the result of which brought a sense of astonishment to all who set eyes upon him.
“We were all amazed at how quickly we went from crates to having a dinosaur staring at us,” Cole says.
“We knew that kids would love him. Kids love dinosaurs, but it’s been amazing to see the reactions from adults. Some people just cannot believe that he’s real. Then they try to imagine him alive walking around and they get overwhelmed. It’s a truly awesome experience.”
Big John’s arrival at the museum has allowed local families to have the inspirational experience Pagidipati had as a boy, without the lengthy road trip. Following the Pagidipati family’s mission of accessibility, the museum made it a point to not charge a separate admission fee to see Big John and make museum-goers aware of free admission days, their Museums for All program, scholarships for Title 1 Schools to visit on field trips and the transition from being primarily a children’s museum to a museum for everyone even opening the museum during the day to adults without children because, as Cole notes, you’re never too old to play with dinosaurs.
“Having Big John here marks a changing point in our museum,” Cole says. “We are now a museum for all ages, but our core is still young children. That means we have to look at all new experiences differently. We know that the bar has been raised, so we are working hard to keep meeting it. I hope in 20 years we look back and see that this was the moment the Glazer Children’s Museum made it.”
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