Bonita Bay golfers swing into action to benefit center

Bonita Bay Club residents will be teeing up on April 1 as part of the 15th annual Maynard Cup Golf tournament to benefit the Guadalupe Center of Immokalee.

Golfers are pitching in by paying $150 to play a round of golf for charity and see if they can collect more than the $2.5 million raised last year.

“Our focus is to keep everything running and it costs money to do that,” said Patsy Graham, the co-chair of the event at the Bonita Bay Club.

Graham says the money is earmarked to help pay for the day-to-day operations of the center.

“This is going back to the 14 years that they have helped us, and seeing the center is believing that it works,” said Lorette Clevenger, of the Guadalupe Center.

The center was created in 1982 as a soup kitchen to serve the migrant community of Immokalee, and it has evolved to help children in need, or living at or near the poverty level in Collier County.

“It started out as a way for people to just donate money, and now we a full golf event and we have a lot of different things going on at once,” said Graham, whose husband, Lou, is a former U.S. Open champion.

Joe Wolf started the partnership with the club.

“Joe got some buddies together and collected $4,000 in the first year,” said Graham, who said the tournament will include raffles and prizes including Waterford Crystals and Jet Blue airline vouchers.

“Most of the people in Bonita Bay help in other ways like the soup kitchen but really it’s about raising the money to keep it open.”

The event will be a modified scramble format with a $50,000 putting contest preceding the event.

“It’s a really fun event and I try to keep it at a level where it’s not too expensive to play,” Graham said. “This is one of the least expensive charity golf tournaments.”