Parks and organizations see the fruit of two events sponsored by the Lutz Civic Association and the Lutz Lizards Running Club.
By BILL COATS
Published August 27, 2004
LUTZ - The Lutz Nature Park, an 8-year creation of volunteers, got a $4,300 windfall from this year's record-breaking guv'na campaign and an Independence Day race.
"Hopefully, we're going to complete the boardwalk and put in an entranceway," said Auralee Buckingham, treasurer of the Nature Park's board.
At the Lutz Volunteer Fire Department, $3,500 from the guv'na competition will bolster revenues, and may help pay for a renovated picnic area.
"That will bring us up over what we were last year," said Ben Fisher, president of the Lutz Volunteer Fire Association. "Most of the bucks go into the general budget."
Another $3,000 went to the Old Lutz Schoolhouse, and will pay for insurance, said Phyllis Hoedt, one of the school's preservationists.
The schoolhouse, fire department and the nature park were among the leading beneficiaries last week when officers of the Lutz Civic Association and the Lutz Lizards Running Club distributed checks from their two fundraising events, which climaxed July 4.
Altogether, $24,761 was distributed to 17 different organizations. Of that, a record $12,452 had been raised by Dean Rivett, a Lutz private investigator who became guv'na on July 4. Rivett's fund-raising won a him one-year term as Lutz's mock chief of state.
The Civic Association, which sponsors guv'na, chose most of the recipients from among community organizations. Rivett was given say-so over $2,100, and spread that among five of the Civic Association's choices.
While the largest sums overall went to Lutz's top non-profit causes, at least four new projects received seed money.
Some $2,600 was set aside for improvements at Carolyn Meeker Park, an undeveloped county park south of Lutz's old downtown.
Another $2,500 will go for bathrooms next to the Nye Park Teen Center, which itself was the fruit of guv'na money in the late 1990s.
"We have like a hundred kids all summer, from eight in the morning till five," said Buckingham, a booster of Nye Park as well as the Nature Park.
Maniscalco and Lutz elementary schools received $1,000 apiece. Maniscalco plans to purchase computer software that will help the school monitor arrivals and departures of students and visitors, said Eleanor Cecil, vice president of the Civic Association. Lutz will use the money for materials in a local history program, Cecil said.
Other grants were $1,300 to the Joshua House children's home; $1,000 to the local chapter of the Civil Air Patrol; $2,350 to five different Scout troops; $600 to the local chapter of the Lions Club; $600 to the Junior Master Gardener program; $500 to the Friends of the Lutz Library and $500 to Heritage Park in Land O'Lakes.
"There are really a lot of worthwhile things that go on and good things happening," said Eleanor Cecil, vice president of the Civic Association. "This really makes you appreciate it."
