FORT PIERCE FOLKS
THE PRESIDENTIAL
BEAR HUGGER
Scott Van Duzer takes the order from one of many fire academy students at the recent benefit for Jahwann McIntyre, a Martin County firefighter burned in
an arson fire in December. More than 1,500 people turned out at Big Apple Pizza in Fort Pierce to help raise almost $20,000 for the injured fireman.
BY GREG GARDNER
While the buzz over the presidential bear hug seen
48
around the world may have died off, an accompanying
surge in enthusiasm for communitybased
giving is going viral across the country.
Since last year, when Scott Van Duzer hugged Barack
Obama during a surprise visit by the president to his Big
Apple Pizza Restaurant in Fort Pierce, donations and calls to
the Van Duzer Foundation have been pouring in. For almost
five years the foundation, whose motto is “Helping St. Lucie
Families,” has come to the assistance of dozens of individuals
and families in need with more than $700,000 from fundraising
efforts.
“You want your children to volunteer for someone like
Scott so they can emulate a person with such superior character,”
says Laurie Denig, whose son Cody survived cancer.
“As a family we have tried to help out at the events. We love
Scott dearly. And we love the foundation and the passion
he feels for the community.” Cody, the only cancer survivor
in a group of 31 children at the Texas hospital where he was
GREG GARDNER
treated, met Van Duzer in 2009 when he quietly walked up
and gave a $500 check to the Circle of Hope cancer awareness
organization the boy had founded.
Backed by more than 50 local businesses, the Van Duzer
Foundation’s seven-member board of directors — with Scott
as president — is more like a small family. They meet several
times a year over dinner to discuss upcoming benefits (9-10
annually) and decide which families in the coming months
will receive assistance. “Choosing the right family to help is
an almost unbearable situation to make that decision — not
being able to help all of the families and having to choose one
family over another,” says Van Duzer.
When Martin County firefighter Jahwann McIntyre was
badly burned as he fought an arson fire late last year, Van Duzer
immediately knew what he had to do. For years, students
from the nearby fire academy at Indian River State College —
including McIntyre — had been volunteering at foundation
fund-raisers. The recent benefit, with 50 volunteers serving
an estimated 1,500 people, was one of the largest ever, raising
almost $20,000 for the 22-year-old, who was burned over half
his body.
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