By Ken Jackson
Staff Writer

There is still time to get on board for the public to support or play in the Oct. 22 Larry Godwin Memorial Scholarship of Kids Golf Classic, one the most entertaining and highest-grossing annual events put on by Education Foundation-Osceola County, a partnership started in 1985 designed to bolster the efforts of schools in creating quality education.

For the first time, the event takes on a benefactor’s name. Godwin, a Winter Park banker and real estate businessman, who had interests and relationships in Osceola County, was a longtime supporter of the foundation and the event, said foundation creator Tom Tompkins. Godwin passed away earlier this year at the age of 69.

The 19th annual installment of the tournament is being held at the ChampionsGate Golf Club and will include many of Godwin’s friends and former business associates.

Registration is available through Friday for $1,600 per group, and there are a few sponsorship opportunities also available. Contact Pattie Burdick at 407-343-8624 for more information.

Godwin lived in the Orlando area but became friends with Tompkins through local business contacts.

“He didn’t live in the area, but we had struck up a friendship and he felt compelled to use the influence he had to positively affect young lives,” Tompkins said. Godwin’s son, Rob, who was business partners with and “best friends” with his father, said the honor of naming such a successful event after Larry came as a surprise.

“It is a wonderful honor, we were not expecting it, but it does make sense,” Rob said. “I still hear stories months after his passing of the people he helped that I didn’t even know about. He had a big heart and when asked to get involved with something he’d do whatever he could do.”

Tompkins said the tournament has raised about $100,000 annually. Since 1985, the Education foundation has awarded over $2.5 million to graduating Osceola County high school students for college scholarships, and connected others to over $1 million in available other scholarships through a scholarship counseling and search program.

“Larry would be very happy,” Tompkins said. “He was a humble and most honorable man who didn’t seek recognition for his work. But, because of his actions, hundreds of county students have, and will continue to, go on to a school of higher learning through his and the Foundation’s support.”

Tompkins is even more impressed by the work the foundation has done in recent years despite a trying economy.

“When things are good, people don’t think about education,” he said. “When things aren’t and people start getting laid off, the first ones to go are those without the education.”