John Wash Receives the “Community Giants” Founders Award from Inner City Youth Golfers, Inc.
December 13, 2013 – John Wash, president of the International Polo Club and The Wanderers Club Wellington, received the Founders Award at the Inner City Youth Golfers (ICYG) Recognition Dinner on December 7, 2013.
The ICYG Community Giants Recognition Dinner, Auction & Dance celebration, hosted at Bear Lakes Country Club in West Palm Beach, included an impressive lineup of community leaders. The awards are granted annually to community leaders, organizations, and sporting venues that generously give of their time and resources to further the mission of ICYG. The Community Giants awards recognize leaders in four categories: Management, Community Service, Leadership, and Founders.
Mr. Wash was privileged to be one of the esteemed recipients recognized by ICYG founder, Malachi Knowles, for the prestigious Founders Award. Esmeralda H. Knowles, executive director of the organization, said, “We are pleased to honor IPC’s outstanding service to our community by introducing our schoolchildren to polo; and for spearheading economic development by providing jobs for our families.”
In addition, Knowles stated, “We are inspired by IPC’s continuous work through the Polo Training Foundation, and their overall commitment to the sport of polo and the South Florida equestrian community. For these reasons, this year’s highest honor is awarded to the International Polo Club.”
Since 2002, the International Polo Club Palm Beach has hosted a day of polo for as many as 1,400 fourth-grade students from area schools. This equates to more than 14,000 local students being introduced to the sport in the last decade. Teams of boys and girls were trained by the world’s greatest professional polo players to wield mallets on mounted polo ponies and charge down the field. Students cheered on their schoolmates during the exhibition match, then joined them on the field to participate in the divot stomp, and afterward, were treated to lunch.
John Wash accepted the award along with the IPC executive team. “It is an honor to receive the Founders Award from ICYG,” he said. “We really enjoy teaching children about polo, and the smiles on their faces are priceless.”
The 2013 award winners included John Wash, International Polo Club; George W. Linley, Palm Beach County Sports Commission; Clarence D. Williams III, Riviera Beach Police Chief; Tony T. Brown, Riviera Beach Community Redevelopment Agency; Marcia J. Andrews, Palm Beach County School Board; Iris Jones, BB&T Bank; Joanna Aiken, Rebuilding Together of the Palm Beaches; and Lt. Beverly J. Elliott-Morrison, retired, Palm Beach County Sheriff’s Department. Also honored were Carol A. Roberts, Chair, Palm Beach County Health Care District; Attorney F. Martin Perry, Boys & Girls Clubs of the Palm Beaches; and Herman McCray (deceased).
About Inner City Youth Golfers, Inc. ICYG was incorporated in the state of Florida in 2000 as a 501(c) (3) organization, with a vision toward enhancing the lives of children and families in the inner cities of Palm Beach County. ICYG is an academic excellence and golf program that uses the excitement, etiquette, rules, behavior, dress, and speech associated with the sport to help inner city children focus on the positive, mold them into good citizens, and make them future role models. Teachers, law enforcement, and amateur and professional golfers provide golf instruction utilizing the rules and code of conduct of the PGA, LPGA, and the USGA.
About International Polo Club Palm Beach International Polo Club Palm Beach is located in Wellington, Fla., in the heart of South Florida’s famed horse country. Founded in 2002, IPC is host to major tournaments and world-class events throughout the year, including the highest goal polo played in the United States from January through April.
Media Contact Enid Atwater, Venue Marketing Group 561-844-1778, ext. 21 enida@venueadv.com
