Marking its 10th summer on Friday with the first of six sessions, the LB3 Foundation’s children’s golf camp is older than some of its campers.
PHOTO: Campers gather with LB3 Foundation and First Tee – Savannah staff during Friday’s youth golf session at Eastside Center. [Photo by Nathan Dominitz / Special to Prep Sports Report]
The annual series of clinics is aimed at underserved youth ages 9-12 in the Savannah community. For years, the free golf camps have given children access to a sport that they might not otherwise play.
“I really don’t think that any of them had held a golf club -- maybe they have, but maybe this is the first time being instructed the right way to do it,” said Lawrence Bryan III, president of the LB3 Foundation. “That’s very important. You never know, they might love it, they might like it.”
“It’s good. I like it,” confirmed Jay’shawn Worley, 12. “It’s shows different, other sports. We learn something new every single day.”
PHOTO: Landon Wiggins, 7, selects a club for a round of mini golf during the LB3 Foundation’s summer camp at Eastside Center. [Photo by Nathan Dominitz / Special to Prep Sports Report]
Worley and the dozen other participants on Friday are attending the sports camp at Eastside Center, which is a first-time host for all six golf sessions on Friday as well as June 30 and July 1, 2, 7, and 14. The other sessions, Bryan said, will include children from summer camps at the W.W. Law, C.B. Grant, John S. Delaware, Windsor Forest, and Hudson Hill community centers, who will be transported to Eastside.
The Savannah Golf Club had, until this summer, been the host site, as the club and its members have supported the LB3 Foundation and Bryan, a former longtime employee. The facility is unavailable because of construction for course renovations, said Bryan, who plans to bring the camps there again next summer.
Bryan said he likes giving the young golfers a chance to see the facility, “something different from their environment.”
“It’s a private golf course, and we’ve been blessed to be a part of it,” he said.
Needing an alternative site for 2025, Bryan talked with a supporter of the camps, Peter Maierhofer, Assistant Director of the City of Savannah Recreation and Leisure Services Department.
Eastside is not only hosting the camps, but Bryan said he came out of retirement and works at the community center as a recreation coach.
“They keep me busy, man,” Bryan said of the sports campers. “I love it more than they do.”
The golf camp has adapted to its new home, Eastside’s open field, which on Friday included nine miniature golf holes brought in by Savannah Area Mini Golf Rental. Spencer Wertz, who operates the business with his wife, owner Jessica Wertz, said the LB3 Foundation is a great organization.
“(Bryan has) got a great vision and wants to help the community to experience things they otherwise might not get the chance to,” he said.
The golf holes had Savannah-area themes with a Tybee Island lighthouse, Talmadge Memorial Bridge, crab trap, alligator, and “pirate stuff” – cannon, cannonball, and a treasure chest.
PHOTO: Campers take on the lighthouse-themed hole during mini golf at the LB3 Foundation’s summer camp at Eastside Center. [Photo by Nathan Dominitz / Special to Prep Sports Report]
Wertz told the campers that it’s a par-3 course, but each golfer is “really playing against yourself.”
Self-improvement and having fun were the focuses of the day, but it was safety first, which only makes sense when handing children sticks to hit projectiles – in other words, play golf. In addition to the miniature golf, the camp set up a driving range and an area for a baseball-style game using golf clubs such as bats and a tennis ball instead of a golf ball.
“We’ll basically run them through three stations. They’ll get to putt, full swing and some game play,” said John Parker, CEO of First Tee – Savannah.
Golf and much more
This is Parker’s third year working with the LB3 Foundation. The Savannah chapter is part of a national youth development organization that integrates character education through golf. Ariel Brown, the chapter’s director of programming, also coached the children on Friday.
PHOTO: First Tee – Savannah CEO John Parker (right) and LB3 Foundation President Lawrence Bryan III (center) greet campers as Friday’s session begins at Eastside Center. [Photo by Nathan Dominitz / Special to Prep Sports Report]
“Most kids are really familiar with baseball, basketball, football,” Parker said. “It’s exposing them to a new sport, and if there’s some potential there, maybe they’ll come out and join us at a class and who knows?”
He and Bryan both noted the potential for children to make golf a lifetime sport as well as a vehicle for some to earn college scholarships and continue their education.
More immediately, there is building character through playing the sport – even if they may not realize it.
“Things that I’m hoping they’ll take away from today are teamwork and respect for other people,” Parker said. “We’re going to do some things that will put them in personal spaces to where they have to talk and say, ‘excuse me,’ and put them in some areas where they may not be comfortable. We’ll be creating opportunity for them to learn so whenever they’re further on in their lives and they come across situations, that they have options, they know how to maybe talk it out or just walk away.”
In the big picture, lessons learned through children’s camps could be life-changing.
“We know the city of Savannah, Savannah as a whole, does have a little bit more difficulty with gun violence and gang activity,” Parker said. “It’s becoming younger and younger. It’s helping them basically learn that there are other options out there so they don’t follow that same path and, hopefully, we’ll change the cycle a little bit.”
PHOTO: Ariel Brown (right), First Tee – Savannah’s director of programming, coaches a camper during Friday’s session at Eastside Center. [Photo by Nathan Dominitz / Special to Prep Sports Report]
Advocates for change
The very Foundation that for years has organized the golf camps and many other community events – sports and non-sports related – grew out of tragedy for Bryan, his wife Linda Wilder-Bryan, and their family.
The couple formed what was called the LB4 & After Foundation, a local nonprofit organization for community programming and advocacy. It was named for their son Lawrence Bryan IV, who was murdered at age 23 in an attempted armed robbery on Aug. 7, 2015.
The Foundation’s annual Celebration of Life on Aug. 2 from 1-8 p.m. at Forsyth Park is open to the public and will include live entertainment, games, and prize giveaways such as new basketballs and bicycles. Bryan estimated the Foundation, with sponsorships, has purchased and given away about 2,500 new bicycles.
“The golf camp is only a part of what we do throughout the year in terms of the LB3 Foundation,” said Lawrence Bryan, whose wife, the District 3 Alderwoman on the Savannah City Council, visited Friday’s camp and encouraged the children. “We got a lot of irons in the fire. This golf camp is very important to these kids; it gives them something else to do other than basketball, baseball, and football and teaches them life lessons.
“We tell the parents, if you can get your kids involved in sports, it will teach them a lot more than that particular sport,” he continued. “It can teach them how to have a good work ethic, teach them how to get along with other people, teach them how to be competitive. They’re going to have to be competitive in this world – your job, your career, whatever you do. Teach them how to handle adversity. You can learn a lot from sports. That’s what we try to do.”
Bryan said that children have more distractions than he had growing up and may come from broken homes.
“We firmly believe that it’s easier to build strong children than it is to repair broken men,” he said. “We’ve got some good kids here. We try to help them navigate through this thing called life. It’s difficult for a lot of them.”
For more information, visit https://Lb3Foundation.org
For more information on First Tee -- Savannah, visit https://firstteesavannah.org
PHOTO CREDIT: CourtseyNathan Dominitz for the Prep Sports Report
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