Teen’s Annual Golf Tournament is Changing and Transforming Lives
COCONUT CREEK, Fla. (May 3, 2018) A young golfer is giving new meaning to the adage to “do what you love.” Rafe Cochran is using his love for the sport to transform the lives of those in need, something he’s been doing for the past five years. And he’s only 13.
Thanks to Rafe’s talents, determination and generous spirit, nearly 100 people formed 21 teams to compete in the Third Annual Rafe Cochran Golf Classic at Mayacoo Lakes Country Club in West Palm Beach, Fla., on April 28. They helped the teen reach his fundraising goal to build his second school in Jamaica through Food For The Poor.
“I am very pleased with the turnout for this third annual event and I sincerely want to thank everyone for their help,” Rafe said. “Doing what I love, to do something good, is an amazing feeling. After my visit last year with the children to the first school I built in Jamaica, I realized how truly important it is to help children to get a proper education, because an education will help secure their futures later in life.”
The current Runaway Bay All-Age School in St. Ann, Jamaica, is severely overcrowded and is in disrepair. The new school Rafe is building will have six classrooms, bathrooms with sanitation and an office for staff to provide more than 400 students with a safe and secure environment to learn. The new school also will have a system to capture rainwater that will be used to supply the school with potable water.
“We are thrilled by this young man’s enthusiasm and his deep sense of empathy,” said Food For The Poor Executive Director Angel Aloma. “Thanks to the success of Rafe’s golf tournament, hundreds of students will have a new school building in St. Ann this fall. Many of these children are excellent students and their teachers work hard to prepare them for the future, so this new school will enhance the learning experience for them and for the future generations to follow. We thank Rafe for this wonderful gift of learning.”
Rafe entered competitive golf at the age of 6, and when he was 9, he became one of Food For The Poor’s youngest donors. Using his skills on the golf course, he fundraised to build nine homes in Haiti and his first school in Jamaica by the time he was 12. Now at age 13, with the support of his third golf classic, he has raised enough funds to build his second and much larger school in Jamaica.
Rafe says he wants to continue growing his golf classic each year so that he can help others, but as for his future fundraising goals, the Palm Beach Academy seventh-grader said, “I am taking it one event at a time. My primary focus at the moment is to get the school built in Jamaica and then I’ll think about what’s next.”
To learn more about Rafe’s Food For The Poor projects visit: www.FoodForThePoor.org/rafe.
Event Sponsors: Bessemer Trust, Braman Porsche, Briana Lawson Foundation, Butler Construction Company, Café Sapori, CrossFit El Cid, Index Computer Remarketing, John & Monika Preston, McLaren Palm Beach, Mr. and Mrs. Richard Jones, Mrs. Abigail Pollak in Memory of FJ Pollak , Myers Auto Group LLC, Pizza Al Fresco of Palm Beach, Stone Family Fund, Susan P. Cochran, Mr. and Mrs. Ron Romeo, The Heard Family, The Schram Family and Flagler Bank, Victoria Matthews LLC, Visantha Siva, Voss Water and Web Capital and Development.
Food For The Poor, one of the largest international relief and development organizations in the nation, does much more than feed millions of the hungry poor primarily in 17 countries of the Caribbean and Latin America. This interdenominational Christian ministry provides emergency relief assistance, clean water, medicine, educational materials, homes, support for orphans and the aged, skills training and micro-enterprise development assistance. For more information, please visit www.FoodForThePoor.org.
Wanda Wright
Public Relations
954-427-2222 x 6079
[email protected]