It's not your typical corporate fundraising pitch.
"Wait!" begins the letter from Chad Angell, president of Angell Construction of Tampa. "Before you toss "just another charity golf tournament' flyer into your circular file, I beg you to read the letter . . . enclosed in this mailing."
The letter from Highwoods Properties vice president Stephen Meyers describes in excruciating detail the plight of 22-year-old Bradley Kendell, sole survivor of a crash of a twin-engine plane as it approached Clearwater Airpark in August.
Two men pulled Kendell from the burning wreckage of the Piper Navajo before it exploded. After stopping the internal bleeding and closing a tear in his aorta, doctors gave him a 50-50 chance to live through the night. He subsequently had both legs amputated above the knees, surgery for broken bones in his arm and shoulder and multiple skin grafts.
His father, Highwoods construction director Bruce Kendell, died in the crash along with Daniel Griffith, a friend and a flight instructor.
"Brad will require months of rehabilitation after his stay at Tampa General," Meyers wrote. "While (his mother) has some funds and there will be some insurance proceeds, they are not a substitute for Bruce's earnings."
Chad Angell read the letter and decided to host a charity golf tournament for Kendell at the Eagles Golf & Country Club on Nov 18. Net proceeds from entry fees, sponsorships and a silent auction will go to the Bradley J. Kendell Family Trust at Old Harbor Bank in Clearwater.
