Bernardo Feitosa, Bill Stewart, Mardy Fish, Brandon Cochran and Trevor Bird. PHOTO BY JOSHUA KODIS

Golfers teed up to enjoy a glorious day on the course of the Windsor Golf Club while at the same time doing their part to support local children during the annual Mardy Fish Children’s Foundation Charity Golf Fundraiser. The tournament was followed by a luncheon and awards presentation on the clubhouse patio overlooking the course.

Founded by Fish in 2007 as a way to support underserved children in his hometown, the MFCF is focused on providing children with opportunities they would not otherwise have to participate in fitness, nutritional and enrichment programs, and encouraging them to live healthy and productive lives.

Despite being better known for his tennis prowess – as a former top 10 tennis player, Olympic silver medalist, former U.S. Davis Cup Captain and 2024 USTA Florida Hall of Fame inductee – Fish exhibited why he is now regarded as one of the country’s best celebrity golfers, as he played through with each of the foursomes on the 17th hole.

“We’re really happy to have Mardy here. It’s the one time of year everybody looks forward to, where he can participate and gets to play with them. So it makes everybody happy. And helps us raise even more money,” said Lynn Southerly, MFCF executive director.

“We are now up to helping about 4,000 children a year in Indian River County,” said Southerly.
She explained that they fundraise all year through their various events, and take grant requests three times a year. Their fall and spring grants generally fund afterschool programs and the summer grant cycle provides scholarships to local camps.

In addition to supporting elementary, middle and high school tennis, they fund a vast array of children’s activities that take place through the school district and other nonprofits.

“We’re not just tennis. We’re supporting kids that are doing activities like golf, swimming, an equine program, gardening, lots of cheerleading, basketball and gymnastics,” said Southerly
“And our tennis programs over at Riverside Park are really exciting. Things are going really well.

We’re very excited,” said Southerly.

“We are just wrapping up our winter/spring grant cycle and getting ready to review that. We anticipate more requests for tutoring, and a focus on mental health is being added to a lot of our programs. We have other volunteers working with the kids on their schoolwork. We’re getting approached by a lot of organizations to see if we can support that,” she added.

Up next, she said they will host a couple wildcard tennis tournaments leading up to their Pro Circuit Tennis Tournament, April 21-27 at the Vero Beach Tennis and Fitness Club. They hope to also host another Mahjong fundraising event.

For more information, visit MardyFishChildrensFoundation.org.

Photos by Joshua Kodis