Between The Palms VOL. 22 NO. 3
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Another Seabreeze Publication
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MARCH 2024
Tennis & Pickleball Team Up to Fight Disease By Andi Stern apstern123@gmail.com On January 28, tennis and pickleball players joined forces once again in their annual Play It Forward charity event. This year, the HPTA and HPPA committees chose the American Cancer Society and the Dubin Center (an agency providing services to families dealing with Alzheimer’s and dementia disease) for their charities. And wow, did our community step up!
L-R: Joy Weiner and Andi Stern at the awards table.
HPCO News By Lou Bottitta, HPCO Board member lbottitta@gmail.com Our 2nd annual HPCO dinner dance, An Evening in Paris, was held January 31. It was memorable evening, with the spirit of Paris filling the air while diners enjoyed French cuisine and time on the dance floor. The 2nd annual golf outing fundraiser will be held on April 14, 2024, and will include a helicopter ball drop and raffle with the winners receiving cash prizes. Please see the flyer on page 6 or our website for golf details. We want to express our gratitude to YOU, the members of HP, for supporting our efforts. HPCO President, The formation of HPCO and its continued existence has Anthony Plevniak, been well received and appreciated by our HP employees and Linda Cappella. and has gone a long way to lift morale in the face of numerous personal and family challenges. Since our inception through the end of 2023, HPCO has received donations and raised funds to be able to pay directly or indirectly $80,193.66 to HP employees to address their special financial needs, consistent with our charter. Fundraising expenses have been minimal. Our annual report, along with more dinner dance photos and the golf registration form can be found on the website: www.hpcononprofit.org.
Barb and Lou Bottitta. Between The Palms
L-R: HPCO Board member Miriam Shook, husband Bill, and dinner guest, Ursula Hammerling. PRSRT STD US POSTAGE PAID FT MYERS FL PERMIT 751
Generous HP members bought tennis balls, which were sold in the golf breezeway as well as on the tennis and pickleball courts, to be hit into targets. This year’s targets, painted by Marilyn Dorcak, depicted villains associated with super heroes. Befitting our theme, Super Heroes Fighting Cancer and Alzheimer’s, our tennis pros, dressed in super hero costumes, hit purchased balls coming from a tennis ball machine. An added element allowed members to purchase balls with their member numbers on them, and try themselves to hit them into the targets. It was really exciting to watch the action! From those that made it into the targets, winners of a 50/50 raffle were chosen - one $1,500 grand prize L-R: Anita Hershman, Mike & Carolyn Lawver, winner and four $400 runner-up and Daniel Camacho. winners. Following two sessions of tennis round robins and two hours of open pickleball play, participants enjoyed a delicious brunch buffet accompanied by a very successful silent auction. Each tennis team donated a creative and thoughtful basket, and the pickleball community donated several imaginative baskets. Additionally, all of the tennis/pickleball pros donated lessons and clinics. This year, the tennis and pickleball Play It Forward event raised over $3,000 to be donated to the two charities. A HUGE thank you to every member who stepped up to support this event!
Heather Receives Two Awards Our own PGA Director of Golf Instruction, Heather Angell, received two awards at the 2024 PGA Show in Orlando in January!
Heather was named Golf Range Assoc. of America (GRAA) Top 100 Growth of the Game Teaching Professional for the third year in a row.
Heather was also named US Kids Top 50 Instructor. The class of 2024 includes golf professionals from 24 states and 8 international countries... Canada, England, China, Italy, Kenya, Tanzania, Wales, and Vietnam. Heather was a Top 50 Honorable Mention the past two years.