Kiwanis Club of Lehigh Acres to hold annual Dean McNew Scholarship Golf Tournament April 6
Join the Kiwanis Club of Lehigh Acres for its third annual Dean McNew Scholarship Golf Tournament, which this year will be held at Copperhead Golf Course.
The tournament will be held Saturday, April 6, with a shotgun start of 7 a.m. Registration is $75 for a single golfer, or $250 for a foursome. Registration can be done by contacting Nick Dysert at nicholasjd@leeschools.net or (419)733-6931, or Dawn McNew at dawndm@leeschools.net or (239) 826-2664.
There will be prizes for first, second and third place finishes for men’s teams, mixed teams and women’s teams. The prizes are typically boxes of golf balls for each team member and tickets to support local FSW and FGCU men’s and women’s sports teams and golf certificates.
The tournament will also include a variety of raffle and auction items.
Olive Garden is catering the lunch and Texas Roadhouse is providing pulled pork sliders as the golfers make their way through the course.
McNew said the tournament began because she and her husband, Dean, used to coach multiple sports together at Lehigh Senior High School.
“When he passed, together with our local Lehigh Acres Kiwanis, our LSHS Athletic Department and I created the Dean McNew Athletic Scholarship to honor Dean and to allow him to continue to impact the lives of our youth,” she said.
McNew said her husband continues to leave a hole in the hearts of those who were blessed enough to know him.
Dean, a retired Army veteran, Green Beret Special Forces, Airborne, served for 20 years before retiring and becoming the sports director at the Fort Devens Army Base. She said her husband was also the USSSA New England Vice President, before transferring to the Golconda Job Corp in Illinois to try to rehabilitate gang members who were trying to escape the gang life.
“Dean and I met in 1990 when we each were chosen to represent the USSSA in a softball tour to Russia. The purpose was to teach the game of softball and baseball to the Russian athletes in hopes that softball and baseball would become Olympic sports. A few years later, they were,” McNew said. “Dean was a decorated veteran to include two purple hearts, was a USSSA Hall Of Fame Member as an umpire, and coached many sports at many different levels winning tournament championships, state championships, and national championships. Dean was always incredibly positive, encouraging, had an incredible sense of humor, and a huge heart. He was like a warm fire everyone would go to in order to feel better, someone who always had a joke, someone who had the ability to lift your spirit.”
The couple coached several sports together at Lehigh Senior High School, such as girls basketball, golf, softball and boys basketball. McNew said it was their mission to make everyone in the program feel that they were a part of and belonged to a family.
“The students and athletes knew Dean as a good listener, someone who could offer good advice, as someone they could count on in times of need, and as someone who always tried to help inspire them to be the very best they could be,” she said. “I’m so proud of the scholarship because it not only honors Dean and the amazing person who was, but also continues to allow him to make a difference in the lives of a deserving student athlete.”
One scholarship is provided per year to a Lehigh Senior High School senior student athlete in the amount of $8,000.
“Each recipient gets $1,000 per semester, or $2,000 per year as long as they remain in good standings with the university and meet and maintain academic requirements,” McNew said.
She said she is thankful to Rick Anglikis and the Lehigh Kiwanis, as well as the Lehigh Senior High School athletics for their help and determination in helping to create and provide the scholarship.
“I would also like to thank the many sponsors, donors, golfers, and the many volunteers who come out to support our golf tournament that helps to fund the scholarship. Thank you for honoring and remembering Dean,” McNew said.