Putt-Putt Service

The Jesuit High School Key Club renews its distinguished annual tradition, the Putt-Putt Fundraiser, Saturday (Dec. 12) from 9:00am to Noon at Grand Prix of Tampa.

In its 17^th year, the Putt-Putt Fundraiser has a tremendous history of helping local charitable organizations. It also has been a significant reason why Jesuit’s Key Club is recognized as one of the best in the world, having been names a Diamond Distinguished Club 13 times (top 5% worldwide), and the best Key Club in Florida a record five times.

This year’s event benefits children of the New Life Village, a local charity that assists kids in the foster care system. It is “an inter-generational community conceived to encourage more people to adopt children who have been languishing in the foster care system. New Life Village offers a place to live and a community that the children can, at last, call ‘Home.’”

On Saturday at Grand Prix Tampa on Nebraska Ave., your $15 donation includes a round of miniature golf, a t-shirt, game room tokens, and a bag of candy – and the knowledge that you’re helping to make a difference.

In the early years, among the inspirations and beneficiaries of the Putt-Putt Fundraiser were an orphanage in Burundi, Africa, schools in Haiti, and post-Katrina recovery efforts in Louisiana. Historically, the Putt-Putt Fundraiser has generated in the neighborhood of $10,000 annually. Some past examples include:

• In 2008-09, at the 10^th annual Putt-Putt Fundraiser, Key Club donated about $16,000 to Habitat for Humanity.
• In 2009-10, more than $11,000 was donated to the Joshua House.
• In 2010-11, the Putt-Putt Fundraiser benefited at risk children in Puerto Maldonado, Peru, where Jesuit alumnus Fr. Jose Maria Castillo (Orlando Castillo ’00) serves the destitute.
• In 2011-12, the fundraiser helped build a new home for a military veteran through Habitat for Humanity.
• In 2012-13, more than $15,000, which included a grant from the Kiwanis Club, was raised for New Life Village.

And the Key Club does much more than just donate money. For example, in 2010, Key Club members helped transform rooms at the Joshua House into a resource center and library for the teens and children who live there, by priming and patching walls, removing carpet, and cleaning. In 2013, for New Life Village, Key Club members spent several months in the Palm River section of Hillsborough County at a recently purchased New Life Village property, clearing dead trees and trimming others, cutting back hedges, and cleaning out signs of neglect inside the buildings.

This year Key Club’s fundraiser is once again connected with New Life Village. Key Club invites all Jesuit students, families, and friends to come to Grand Prix of Tampa on Saturday from 9am-Noon to support this annual Jesuit fundraising tradition to benefit the kids and families of New Life Village.

Homepage photo: Jesuit Key Club president – Joshua Heiman ’16; editor – Trace Arena ’16; secretary – Gantt Meredith ’16; treasurer – Andrew Mullan ’16; vice president – Trevor Wilson ’16.