FORT PIERCE FOLKS
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Name: Name: Scott Van Duzer
Age: 46
Occupation: Pizza maker, restaurant
owner and philanthropist
FORT
Family: Wife, Dawn; sons, Scott
Jr., 24; Jordan, 21
What most people don’t know
about me: “I am 46 years old, and
this is the only job I have ever
had. Not too many people can say that.”
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PIERCE
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WHITE HOUSE
In the bear hug heard and seen around the world, Scott Van Duzer hoists into
the air President Barack Obama after a surprise visit to the Big Apple Pizza
restaurant in Fort Pierce. Obama autographed the photo for his new friend.
The lines were out the door for more than six hours as firefighters,
police and strangers stopped by to donate and buy
dinner. All of the proceeds and tips went directly to McIntyre.
One elderly gentleman quietly walked up and dropped a
$500 check into the tip jar. “Here’s a guy (McIntyre) who is
trying to help people and I’m supposed to stand on the side,”
says Remer Prince, a retired NASA worker from Port St.
Lucie who drove to the Fort Pierce benefit with his wife. “We
decided to step up and help out.”
“We were trying to outdo each other as to who could do
the most for the community,” says Shamsher Singh, a Port
St. Lucie dermatologist who joined the board three years
ago. Van Duzer “has a big heart. It totally amazes me how
he keeps on doing it. He goes all out. He gives money out of
the restaurant. We as board members try and help out. There
was a lady with terminal cancer who wanted to go to Disney
World. We paid for the whole family and the hotel.”
Van Duzer had to be reminded to wear long pants when he
was invited to receive a Jefferson Award for Public Service in
2009, says Wendy Dwyer, a founding board member and part
of the foundation’s public relations machine. “Our board meetings
are an exercise in insanity, getting him (Van Duzer) to sit
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still. He never stops when he is totally focused on the event.”
It took a week to pin Van Duzer down for a 30-minute
interview, which happened the day after the McIntyre benefit.
Van Duzer said the bear hug, when he hoisted the president
off his feet, was spontaneous. The media frenzy catapulted
the foundation’s efforts to another level. There were more
than 100 calls from people who wanted to know how to start
similar foundations. >> 2807 Okeechobee Road • Fort Pierce, FL 34947
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