Community News/Schools 41
Ponte Vedra Recorder · November 5, 2015
Photos provided by
the PGA Tour
Jim Furyk kicked off The
Player’s Month of Giving
this week by surprising
Brad Razlaff (right) and
his family with a trip to
Hawaii — and other
surprises.
The Players also made a
surprise $10K donation
to Dreams Come True.
Dream comes true for local golf fan this week
Sarah Wakefield Rosser
Brad Ratzlaff lowered his head, his eyes
welling up with tears as he squeezed his
mother’s hand. Orange and blue Hawaiian
leis were placed around the necks of Ratzlaff and his family after PGA Tour player
Jim Furyk announced the entire Ratzlaff
clan will be heading to Hawaii in January
to attend a Professional Golfer’s Association tournament.
“Knowing that you love the PGA tour,
we thought you might want to attend another golf tournament on the PGA tour,”
Furyk said at a Dreams Come True surprise party held at the TPC Sawgrass Clubhouse on Nov. 2. “You’re an inspiration to
all of us.”
Ratzlaff, 19, a 2014 graduate of Orange
Park High, is fighting acute lymphoblastic
lymphoma and is an avid golfer. He will
attend the tourney with his brother Tyler
and parents Guy and Laura, who were on
hand to watch in the dream presentation.
Brad Ratzlaff was extended the offer to
walk inside the ropes alongside Furyk at
the pro-am event in January.
“It’s going to be unexplainable, honestly,” Ratzlaff said, who was born and raised
in Orange Park. “I’m just so ready to walk
some holes with him, hit the ball around
and hopefully get a lot of good tips to help
my golf game.”
Ratzlaff is one of 3,000 young adults
with life-threatening illnesses who have
had specific dreams fulfilled by the Jacksonville-based nonprofit Dreams Come
True. The Players volunteer leadership
team, called the Red Coats, partnered with
Dreams Come True to plan and fund the
trip. The 19-year-old, who fell in love with
golf in the last two years, also received a
new set of Callaway golf clubs and $5,000
in spending money for the vacation.
“My family really needs that,” he said.
In May 2014, only weeks shy of graduating from Orange Park High, Ratzlaff was
diagnosed with acute lymphoblastic lymphoma, a type of non-Hodgkins lymphoma. Although he is still undergoing chemotherapy, his lymphoma is in remission.
Since his diagnosis, he has tried not to let
chemotherapy interfere with his course
load at Florida State College of Jacksonville
or his full time job at the Cecil Aquatics
Center, although treatments often left him
too exhausted to drive home. Although he
is back on the stand as a lifeguard, during
the roughest times, he manned the front
desk.
“There’s been a couple of times where
his supervisor has driven all the way to Orange Park to bring him home because he
couldn’t and didn’t want to call me,” said
his mother Laura Ratzlaff.
Brad Ratzlaff said he is feeling much
better these days.
“I have 10 more months of chemo and
I’ll be fully done and hopefully headed to
[the University of] Florida. Other than that,
I haven’t been bad at all. I’ve been strong,
I’ve been fighting, keeping my head up
and that’s about it,” he said.
Dealing with cancer is not a new experience for the Ratzlaff family. Nine years
ago, Ratzlaff’s father, Guy, was diagnosed
with multiple myeloma, a rare form of
blood cancer that causes cancer cells to accumulate in the bone marrow. After opting
to participate in a clinical drug study, he
had a stem cell transplant and has been in
remission since 2007. His mother said her
son’s determination to keep his commitments mirrored that of his father.
“Brad gets up every morning, goes to
school sick and then goes to work every
day and Guy did the same thing when
he was going through treatment,” Laura
Ratzlaff said. “It takes him a little time to
get going and then out the door he goes.
The only time he misses is when he has
Trunk or Treat at Accotink
Academy By the Sea
Last week, Accotink Academy By the Sea hosted its
annual “Trunk or Treat” and Halloween parade. Accotink is located at 171 Canal Blvd. in Ponte Vedra Beach
and serves pre-K, kindergarten, young preschool and
elementary students. For more information, visit www.
accotinkacademybytheseas.com.
Photos submitted by Rebecca Bowersox
[intrathecal] chemo, which he goes under
anesthesia for.”
Brad Ratzlaff said that seeing his father
go through a similar experience and treatment gave him the courage to fight.
“He’s been there before and it’s good
to look up to him,” Ratzlaff said about his
father. “He’s more of a hero to me because
he’s been there, done that.”
With two members experiencing cancer
in the past decade, Laura Ratzlaff is looking forward to spending time with her
famil