THE VILLAGES, Fla. \u2014 There\u2019s a nonprofit in The Villages that\u2019s run entirely by volunteers, and many of them lend a hand not because they have to. They just really want to be involved. Rich Salvini loves giving back. His efforts to help people by way of the Orange Blossom Gardens Lions Club started about a decade ago, and he\u2019s still lending a hand helping folks who want to practice their swing at the Bob Johnson Legacy Driving Range in Lady Lake.<\/p>\n
\u201cWell, I try to help in all aspects of the golf course itself. This is the area where we collect the balls and get them into the buckets and put them up to the counter to serve the customers. But it\u2019s enjoyable as it keeps me busy and gives me a chance to talk with the customers on an everyday basis, and I enjoy that,\u201d Rich Salvini said.<\/p>\n
All of this is being done for a good cause, which is the Orange Blossom Gardens Lions Club using the proceeds from the golf range to pour into scholarships throughout Central Florida.<\/p>\n
\u201cA lot of the reasons why the customers come here is the charity… they know it\u2019s everything goes to charity, there\u2019s not a penny here goes to anybody, there\u2019s no paid employees,\u201d Rich Salvini said.<\/p>\n
The efforts of those volunteers are going a long way toward helping people like Amari Smith get scholarships for school. Amari says he is grateful to Rich and others who help out to make the scholarships happen.<\/p>\n
\u201cMr. Rich actually was one that kind of poured into me and what I had going on and had some sort of connection with what I am doing. I\u2019m a pre-law student and had that kind of interest between sports and wanting to be an attorney,\u201d Amari Smith said.<\/p>\n
The efforts to give back don\u2019t stop at the golf course. Volunteers also raise money by way of bingo nights at North Lake Presbyterian Church.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey like the hall, they like the seating and the technology goes around the room because if they can\u2019t hear, they can look around and see it\u2019s on a board and then once it\u2019s called, you can see the big screen behind them,\u201d Rich said.<\/p>\n
All proceeds from the Friday night bingo games and the golf range go back into the community by way of scholarships, vision programs, youth initiatives, veteran support, and other charitable projects supported by the Orange Blossom Gardens Lions Club.<\/p>\n
Rich says this keeps him going but at the same time helps people like Amari within the local community.<\/p>\n
\u201cAt our age, we don\u2019t want to sit around. We want to get out and do stuff and be active. But it\u2019s rewarding, as simple as that. It\u2019s very touching, a lot of satisfaction,\u201d Rich said.<\/p>\n
Amari Smith added, \u201cOh man, Rich is just a prime example of what you would want out of a citizen in the area. I mean, when you have people who really love their community and pour into it, it sets a great example for people, young people like me coming up and makes you want to just work hard to kind of be like him.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"THE VILLAGES, Fla. \u2014 There\u2019s a nonprofit in The Villages that\u2019s run entirely by volunteers, and many of…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":59097,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[22010,22012,22009,22008,44,54,1754,22011,4023],"class_list":["post-59096","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-news","tag-app-everyday-heroes","tag-curtis-mccloud","tag-everyday-hero","tag-everyday-heroes","tag-golf","tag-news","tag-orlando","tag-the-villages","tag-vod"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/59096","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=59096"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/59096\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/59097"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=59096"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=59096"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=59096"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}