Avatar golf tournament raises over $16,000 for Heavenly Hoofs

October 04, 2007

Thomasa Sanchez (far left), CEO of Heavenly Hoofs, accepts a check for $16,174.11 from representatives of Avatar Properties Inc. which will be used to create a new Pony Express visitation program that responds to children in crisis. Making the presentation for Avatar are (left to right) Bill Cowart, president home building operations; Jeff Pashley, vice president; and Stacy Horneij, options coordinator. Looking on is Candy, one of the ponies in Heavenly Hoofs' new Pony Express program. (Photo: Avatar Properties Inc.)

The 7th annual Avatar-Solivita® Charity Golf Tournament raised $16,174.11 for Heavenly Hoofs, a Kissimmee-based organization that uses equine therapy to enhance the physical, emotional and cognitive growth of children with life-threatening illnesses or disabilities, and other at-risk youngsters.

Last year Avatar’s donation went toward the purchase of a horse trailer. This year’s donation will go toward creating a new Pony Express visitation program that responds to children in crisis, according to Thomasa Sanchez, CEO of Heavenly Hoofs which has grown to assist more than 4,000 children each year since 2002.

Heavenly Hoofs operates out of Kissimmee’s Heritage Park and currently offers services to a number of children’s charities including Give Kids the World, a magical 51-acre resort near Walt Disney World where terminally ill children and their families stay while visiting Central Florida theme parks and attractions.

Avatar’s charity golf tournament, played annually at Solivita’s® Stonegate Golf Club in Poinciana^SM, has raised over $75,000 since its inception for local charities and organizations, according to Jeff Pashley, tournament chairman and a vice president with Avatar Properties Inc., developer of the master-planned communities of Solivita®, Bellalago^SM, the Isles of Bellalago^SM, and the primary homebuilder in Poinciana^SM, a 47,000-acre planned unit development in northwest Osceola and northeast Polk counties.

Previous beneficiaries of Avatar’s charity golf tournament include the Make-A-Wish Foundation of Central and North Florida, Give Kids the World Village, Osceola’s In-School Junior Achievement Programs, and Bellalago^SM Academy, Florida’s first charter school to be managed by a public school district (Osceola County).

For additional information about Heavenly Hoofs, contact Thomasa Sanchez at (407) 301-1085 or go to the organization’s web site at www.heavenlyhoofs.com. To learn more about Avatar’s charitable endeavors, contact Jeff Pashley at (407) 709-5595.