Echo Lake Country Club Celebrates Caddie Program At Annual Chandler Breakfast

Wednesday, July 10, 2013

Echo Lake Country Club’s Caddie Scholarship Committee hosted the Program’s annual Chandler Family Scholarship Breakfast. Present to honor the Chandler family’s gift to Echo Lake caddie scholars were current and former scholarship recipients, Echo Lake Country Club donors, and individuals influential in the Program, including Marty Crown, Caddie Master; Mike Preston, Head Professional; Catherine Rose, Controller; and NJSGA Caddie Scholarship Foundation club representatives Brian Steller and John Rochford.

The Chandler Family Scholarship was initiated in 1996 by Roger Chandler, a devoted Echo Lake member and longtime executive with Exxon Mobil. The Exxon Mobil stock he invested to the Caddie Scholarship Program augmented the NJSGA award to the top Echo Lake Country Club applicant for four years. Today, Beverly Chandler continues the Chandler scholarship from Cincinnati, OH. Since its establishment, the award has benefited eight young men from Echo Lake.

The Club has the largest program in the state with 13 caddie scholars who are receiving $83,650 for the 2013-14 academic year. Last year, ELCC was a Top 3 Contributing Club and the number one 18-Hole Contributing Club in the Caddie Scholarship Program with a total Club donation of $43,400.

Current Chandler scholars, Tim Scherer, a senior at Rowan University, Brendan Farrell, a junior at Virginia Polytechnic Institute, and Troy Skibitsky, a sophomore at The College of New Jersey, welcomed Andrew Citera as the newest award recipient.

Citera will be a freshman at the University of Virginia this fall. He shared that he wrote about caddieing in his college common application.

“Caddieing is more than carrying a bag and more about golf. Caddieing is about the conversations and the relationships made on the course.”

After thanking the Chandlers, Citera vowed to work hard in school. “I have to make people proud,” he said.

Also in attendance were Conor Byrnes, Jimmy Arbus, and Peter Fredericks, former Chandler recipients who provided updates on their successes since their college graduations. Alumni Andrew McGlynn and Daniel Sullivan did the same via letters.

Daniel Sullivan, a recent graduate of Quinnipiac University and current leadership consultant, wrote:

“I have realized that the best leaders leave an impression that forever alters the lives of future generations. [Mr. Chandler] had a vision and I truly believe in his vision. In time, I aim to continue his legacy by being involved in the scholarship and perpetrating the Chandler family’s spirit in every way possible.”

Echo Lake Country Club members Mr. and Mrs. Gilligan presented Janeclare McCann with the first Vince Gilligan Memorial Scholarship. McCann will study nursing at Catholic University.

Erich Fredericks, a junior mathematics major at Rutgers University, receives full tuition through the Nestor J. MacDonald award.

“I work hard in school because I have a reason to keep working,” he admitted, referring to the NJSGA scholarship.

Marty Crown, Caddie Master, who plays a fatherly role to the young caddies, acknowledges that many of the kids are where they are today because of the assistance of the membership.

“They want the kids to do well,” he said.

A member and Program supporter who boasts the successes of these caddies is David O’Connor.

“I learned that aspirations make America succeed; incentives make those aspirations come true, and hard work really does pay off. The Caddie Program comes at the intersection of education and hard work. You, the caddies, are armed and dangerous in America…you have an education.”