Gary Player Foundation, 501 (c) 3 organization

GARY PLAYER FOUNDATION ADOPTS PLEASANT CITY ELEMENTARY SCHOOL TO FURTHER ITS SUPPORT FOR CHILDREN ON A GLOBAL SCALE

The Gary Player Foundation is proud to announce the recent adoption of Pleasant City Elementary School in West Palm Beach, Florida. This relationship entails that, through its charitable events around the world, The Player Foundation will support the school by providing funding, educational material as well as day-to-day necessities for the children…

Twenty years ago, Gary Player founded and established Blair Atholl School near his home outside Johannesburg, South Africa for one good reason … there was a dire need for it. People in this area were living below the bread line, medical care was practically nonexistent, and most importantly, children had nowhere to go to receive a wholesome education. Little did Gary Player know that, more than twenty years down the road, he would encounter the same situation in a community that overlooks one of the world’s most affluent societies – Palm Beach. The parallels between the areas surrounding Blair Atholl School and Pleasant City Elementary are astonishing.

Pleasant City is the oldest African American community in the city of West Palm Beach and Palm Beach County, settled in 1900 by families who came to the area to extend the Florida East Coast Railroad. Once a beautiful single-family home neighborhood, with a deep devotion to family, business and society, Pleasant City has now become a depressed, drug-infested community with a stigma of crime and low self esteem that nobody wishes to identify with.

In order to reunite and refurbish the community, Pleasant City Elementary was built three years ago. Under the leadership of a remarkable Principal, Andrea Peppers, the school provides each child with a quality education, a 24-hour safe haven, guidance and most importantly, love. Children attend classes in their neighborhood for the first time since 1965. Prior to this, students from this community had to board buses to go to 14 different schools, further breaking up the neighborhood and spreading its children throughout the city.

Due to the genuine commitment of Andrea Peppers and her shared vision with Gary Player that we must ensure a positive future for our youth, The Player Foundation has agreed to take Pleasant City Elementary under its wing as a sister school to Blair Atholl. What began as a small vision to educate a handful of children near Mr Player’s estate in South Africa has now grown to support underprivileged children on a global scale.

The Gary Player Foundation is a registered non-profit 501 (c) 3 organization. For further information, contact Gida Campbell, The Player Foundation, USA at gida@garyplayer.com.