SAN JUAN, PUERTO RICO – South Florida PGA Professionals of the Island Chapter in Puerto Rico, in conjunction with the South Florida PGA Foundation have refurbished a Habitat for Humanity home and gifted it to a deserving family today.
This is the eighth Habitat for Humanity Home that the South Florida PGA Foundation has funded and the first in Puerto Rico.
The home was dedicated to Luis Anthony Ortiz Lopez, 26, a community leader at Villa Cristiana employed by the Puerto Rico Golf Association and Angelica Maria Otiz Couvertier, 27, a pharmacy student at Inter-American University. Together, the couple has a one-year-old son.
The project, which was built in the boundaries of the SFPGA Island Chapter in Puerto Rico, began in late October when PGA Professionals began restoring the house in Loiza which was destroyed in the wake of Hurricane Maria.
“It all goes back to our mission and vision as golf professionals and as an Association,” said Tony Loyola, President of the South Florida PGA Island Chapter. “There is nothing that makes it more worthwhile as PGA Professionals than doing things like this and the South Florida PGA and the Island Chapter has allowed us that platform.”
Since the partnership with Habitat for Humanity began, the SFPGA Foundation has built eight homes and plans to build a total of 14, one in each county of the South Florida Section, which includes Puerto Rico.
Once all 14 homes have been built, the Foundation will have granted $800,000 to Habitat for Humanity and more than 15,000 volunteer hours.
The South Florida PGA Foundation believes it is important for PGA Professionals be involved in the community in a way that expands beyond golf.