Members of The Villages Pound 335 of the Military Order of the Devil Dogs celebrated the Fourth of July in part by hosting their third annual poker run for charity. Sixty-eight red, white and blue clad participants took off in golf carts from Lake Miona Recreation Center.
They stopped at the five participating recreation centers, Pennecamp, Buttonwood, St. James, Seabreeze and Bacall and picked one card. Upon return the poker hands were judged for best and worst. Also, the most patriotically decorated golf card was awarded.
A lot of laughter accompanied the awarding of prizes. Craig Szydlowski accepted the prize for worst hand. Best hand went to Casey Newton, daughter of event organizer Tom Newton. She is visiting from Georgia and extended her stay one day to participate in the poker run.
The second best hand went to Bob St. Pierre. He and his wife Aggie found out about the event from a friend. They both enjoyed the event.
“Today is a real double hitter. You get to have fun and help out a charity,” said St. Pierre.
The award for best decorated golf cart as judged by Jack and Sandy Carroll went to Bob and Chris Kasprzak.
The Devil Dogs are the fun and honor society within the Marine Corps League. Members are all active members of the Col. Phillip C. Delong Detachment. They gather six times a year for social activities and to raise money through their golf cart poker run. Roy Thacker, recently designated as Devil Dog of the Year by the state of Florida had the idea for the poker run. “I had seen it done at other clubs and I wanted to give ours a political twist so we planned it for July 4th holiday,” said Thacker. ”The first year we didn’t know how it would go. We didn’t know if we would make money or lose money. But we made money and decided to keep going; this is our third year.”
The two organizations supported by proceeds from this year’s poker run are Operation Helping Hand and Lake Regional Medical Center Children’s Unit.
Operation Helping Hands is a special project of the Tampa Chapter of the Military Officers Association of America. It is dedicated to supporting and enhancing the lives of patients and the families of those active duty service members recovering at the James A. Haley Veteran’s Hospital in Tampa. The assistance provided by Operation Helping Hand ranges from roundtrip commercial airfare for immediate family members to paying for rental cars, prepaid cell phones and comfort items. The Phillip C. Delong Detachment 1267 here in the Villages has supported this program since 2007. Pound 335 of the Military Order of the Devil Dogs has chosen to provide additional support this year.
Lake Regional Medical Center, Children’s Unit is designed to care for children between the ages of 1 to 18. Proceeds are used to provide activity books, puzzles, and games to those children recovering from short and long term illnesses at LRMC. The items are placed in Treasure Box; the Villages Pound 335 of the Devil Dogs originated this charity.
