A new scholarship is in the works that will target graduating Villages High School seniors with an interest in the fire service.

With that goal in mind, the fast-growing Villages Public Safety Department and Local 4770 The Professional Firefighters of The Villages is hosting an inaugural scholarship golf outing with the goal of making it an annual event.

Villages Public Safety Department Fire Chief Edmund Cain is encouraging area residents to participate in an Aug. 24 golf tournament that will raise money to pay for a scholarship for a Villages High School graduate interested in pursuing a career in the fire service.

The tournament will be held Aug. 24 at Evans Prairie Country Club. Check-in will be at 8 a.m. and the tournament will get under way 30 minutes later with a shotgun start. It will include lunch, raffles and auctions and several contests – hole-in-one, closet to the pin, long drive and putting.

Proceeds from the tournament will be used to sponsor a VHS graduate through fire standards and EMT training at Lake Technical College. The goal is to provide all necessary curriculums so that the student would then become a viable candidate for employment with The Villages Public Safety Department.

“Our mission is to foster a passion for fire service with local graduates that will provide a sustainable source of employees from the immediate area that will assist with accommodating our tremendous growth,” Fire Chief Edmund Cain said. “Our goal is to establish this as a yearly tournament that will allow us to reward successful Charter School students by providing them a career path to a position with their local fire department.”

Evans Prairie Country Club
Evans Prairie Country Club will host a scholarship golf tournament on Aug. 24 that’s being put on by The Villages Public Safety Department and Local 4770 The Professional Firefighters of The Villages.

The cost to participate is $100 per person. Carts and clubs are available to rent. And there are various sponsorship opportunities available.

Early registration for the scholarship tournament runs through Aug. 3. Click HERE to sign up or to make a donation to the cause.

The Villages Public Safety Department has been in a growth mode for several years. The Villages covers 70 square miles and the fire department currently has nine stations, 120 firefighters, 13 administrative staff and a much-envied cardiac save rate of 40 percent.

Those firefighters are arriving at emergency calls in an average time of 4.25 minutes – a number many fire departments can only dream about. Those quick arrival times give paramedics more precious seconds to begin treatment on injured or sick patients. And it’s a high standard the department has been able to maintain for many years despite the monstrous growth that’s going on in Florida’s Friendliest Hometown.

Firefighters from The Villages Public Safety Department battled a blaze recently at a residence in the Rio Grande Villas.