Every year on Veterans Day since 2012, residents of the Legends Golf and Country Club community in Fort Myers, Florida, work with the staff at the Legends Golf and Country Club, and organize a charity golf and tennis tournament, which supports the Stand Up and Play Foundation, a nonprofit 501(c)(3) 100% volunteer-based organization whose mission is to make active standing therapy a reality for everyone with mobility challenges.
The residential community comes together in organizing and participating in the annual fundraiser which includes a golf tournament and court sports tournaments to raise money for the Stand Up and Play Foundation. The proceeds go to purchasing a VertaCat, an all-terrain mobility rider, that elevates the user into a standing position.
“Twelve years ago, Legends Golf and Country Club, and Anthony Netto, the Founder of the Stand Up and Play Foundation, began holding an annual Veterans Day Golf and Court Sports Tournament fundraiser for disabled veterans, raising over $350,000,” explains Ranae Frazier, General Manager / Chief Operating Officer, Legends Golf and Country Club. “The inner reward and good that surrounds the Legends Community, raising funds for disabled veterans that are wheelchair bound, is amazing. It’s heartwarming to see the gratitude of the disabled veterans and their families able to do the simple things in life that we take for granted; standing up with the use of a VertaCat, swinging a golf club, and most importantly the positive psychological effect that offers a new level of freedom and independence.”
The fundraiser, which takes place on Veterans Day, November 11, this year, sells out every year.
“We have many veterans who want to support the event, and the entire community gets involved,” added Tom Michaud, a retired Chief of Police and Army vet, who lives in the Legends Golf and Country Club community and who has been involved in the fundraiser since its inception 12 years ago.
“As a person who has been personally affected with disability and having a strong connection with the military, I thought it would be an outstanding idea for our community to make the lives of disabled veterans better.”
Michaud has Multiple Sclerosis and uses an adaptive mobility device to play golf, travel, and to do many other activities. “I personally have found that it can be a life changing event because there are so many obstacles and limitations in a wheelchair user’s life. The adaptive equipment provides the mobility that we’ve lost, and we can now once again experience a somewhat normal life.”
The Stand Up and Play Foundation has chapters throughout the country. Last year, Karen Atkinson, a veteran, and an adaptive athlete, was the beneficiary of a VertaCat at the Award’s Dinner, and this year, Kim Seevers, a Paralympic participant, is slated to get a vehicle for use by adaptive athletes affiliated with the newly established Stand Up and Play Foundation chapter in the Clearwater/St. Petersburg, Florida area, that Atkinson and Seevers are organizing.
“To be there and to see, first-hand, the joy that our VertaCat brings to veterans who are paralyzed and who can literally be elevated to a standing position, is incredible,” says Netto, an adaptive golf instructor, who co-developed the revolutionary vehicle. It’s so very gratifying to help so many people through our Stand Up and Play Foundation. We’re proud of the work we’re doing to help those who sacrificed their lives for us.”
To make donations and for more information, contact:
Stand Up and Play Foundation
Angelica Amador-Jaspert
Email: Standupandplay3@gmail.com
941-320-9688
www.standupandplayfoundation.org
