Immokalee native uses golf to give back to children

It took a business acumen, a vision of reaching out to the less fortunate and a creative mind six years ago when Immokalee native Jimmy Garvin became president of Langston Legacy Golf, a corporation serving about 500 kids across Washington, D.C.

None of that would have been possible, though, if not for the divine intervention of Florence Jelks, who took Garvin, 14 at the time, away from a two-room shack with no running water or indoor plumbing after his father died in 1971.

While it was a dream of playing professional baseball that enabled Garvin to escape his poverty-stricken hometown on a baseball scholarship to Howard University in Washington, it would be a quite different game where he would make his mark.

More than two decades later, Garvin's memories of his upbringing in Immokalee remain indelibly etched in his mind.

"Those are the days I will never forget, simply because when you don't receive a Christmas present until you're about 8 years old, you don't really understand the meaning of Christmas," said Garvin, 49, a 1974 graduate of Immokalee High School. "We didn't have a lot as a family. My dad was a logger. My mom was a migrant worker. So we had a tough go of it. So, those days I'll never forget because I feel that they've actually helped me become the person I am today."

Through his humble beginnings, Garvin said he learned that the only way to succeed is to be persistent and prepared when the opportunity comes. Jelks, a former Immokalee High guidance counselor, reinforced those same values.

Courtesy photo

Jimmy Garvin never played golf while growing up in Immokalee. Now he makes a career out of it while helping inner-city kids in Washington, D.C. His work has earned him induction into the African American Golfers Hall of Fame.

"Florence Jelks was one of those people put in my life to support me," he said. "Once my dad died, then I was able to gain a lot of support from her as it relates to my living accommodations. She made sure I had all the resources I needed to be successful as it relates to going to school and getting hot meals every day."

Garvin said he was able to focus solely on what needed to be done to better himself.

The first step came in 1974 when he made his way to Howard. Garvin not only saw his baseball scholarship as a platform to reach the major leagues and better his life, but to also provide financial stability for his family.

As a talented pitcher who could throw 93 miles per hour, Garvin was destined to play professional baseball. But his career came to an end after suffering a shoulder injury during his junior year.

Before the team's spring trips at Clemson, Miami and South Carolina, Garvin was introduced to a new game. Garvin and baseball coach Chuck Hinton would go to the golf course and hit balls.

Garvin had no idea fate was calling.

"I never picked up a club (in Immokalee)," he said. "Golf was a foreign sport. The game kind of overtook me at that point in time and I felt that I had a passion for it. So my passion later on turned into a career. How about that?"

Garvin said he had hopes of coming back to Immokalee and sharing the fortune with his family and all the neighbors once making it to the major leagues.

Today, Garvin is living out a different dream by helping inner-city kids in the nation's capital fulfill their own. In addition to serving as president of Langston Legacy Golf, which provides educational and life skills programs, four courses and a host of golf schools to area youth, Garvin is a partner in Golf Course Specialists Inc., which operates three public golf courses in D.C., including Langston.

It's the selfless work Garvin does as an overseer of various programs at Langston which he treasures more than anything. The centerpiece of it all are the kids, who, as long as they study two hours a day in the learning center, can play on the complex's five greens.

"The course where I work is in Northeast D.C., in a part of town that's not, if you will, the best of conditions," said Garvin, who graduated from Howard in 1978 with a degree in secondary education. "Being able to pull those kids from the neighborhoods, get them into the computer center, get those parents in there ... that's why it's so meaningful to me. We have programs for parents who are actually looking to get their education as in relation to their GED."

Garvin said the lack of academic and monetary resources are big reasons parents don't do well with their kids at home. One of Langston's missions, Garvin added, is to make those things accessible to parents — those with kids and those who want to continue their education.

Now married to his wife, Lana, for 22 years and with a 19-year-old daughter in college, Garvin was among 10 inductees into the African-American Golfers Hall of Fame in May in Phoenix for his work as a philanthropist.

Next up for Garvin is a plan to bring the same type of program he has in Washington to Immokalee by developing a consortium throughout the community. He said Collier County can be essential in helping those efforts come to fruition.

"It would greatly benefit as it relates to our young folks," Garvin said. "Golf is a game that African-Americans have not been exposed to and I believe with the creation of junior golf progams throughout the community, it would give us more access to this game. There needs to be a teaching facility built in Immokalee for golf for juniors.

"Right now, Immokalee has a golf team but doesn't have a golf course. There are thousands of golf courses in Naples, but you don't have one in Immokalee and they're both in Collier County. So now we have to start to share those resources and find ways to develop and create opportunities for those folks in Immokalee."

Jelks, who has lived in Immokalee for 38 years, said she is proud of all that Garvin has accomplished and is trying to do with the community.

"He makes me even prouder when he says it's a reflection of the things I taught him," Jelks said. "I know that his mother is smiling down on him from where she is, and also is proud of him."

Even though Garvin has lost his dad, mom and two younger sisters along the way, he continues to refer to them as "angels lighting his path." He often thinks about what they would say if he could see them all one last time.

"I would want them say 'job well done,' " Garvin said. "I would want them to say that 'you are the young man we knew that you could be and hoped that you would be and we're proud of you.' They (my family) take pride in everything we've accomplished. They're all a part of my success."