CLERMONT – Waterfront Park in Clermont is buzzing with excitement. Tents and carnival rides dot the popular park’s landscape as the 24th annual Pig on the Pond Community Festival is set to kick off today. It’s the largest event in south Lake County, attracting 25,000 attendees. The popular festival will run today through Sunday and feature a carnival, barbecue contests, a Kids Zone presented by Orlando Health South Lake Hospital, and continuous live entertainment and much more.
While the festival has become a signature event for South Lake residents, the real purpose of the festival is to raise funds for college scholarships. To date, Project Scholars, the nonprofit organization hosting the event, has raised more than $400,000 to support hundreds of south Lake County students who would not otherwise be able to fulfill their dream of a college education.
Charita Budram, 19, is one of the current scholarship recipients. She is majoring in nursing at the University of Central Florida and understands the serious purpose of the festival. She plans to volunteer at Orlando Health South Lake’s Kids Zone. Along with her studies, Budram has volunteered at the hospital.
“I’m so grateful for the scholarship,” Budram said. “It has allowed me to attend college and have practical experience working at the hospital.”
“Our history in South Lake began when a group of community-minded citizens came together in 1938 to form the Clermont Welfare League,” said Lance Sewell, president, Orlando Health South Lake. “Their foresight, passion and commitment have allowed our hospital to continue serving our communities 75 years later. We take pride in knowing our team members continue this legacy by coming alongside the next generation of nurses and clinicians to show them, firsthand, what it means to provide the best care possible,” said Sewell.
Pig on the Pond relies heavily on sponsors, said Project Scholars Board President Paul Rountree.
“It is our community partners who make the festival possible,” Rountree said. “It’s a double blessing: Families can come out and make memories together, and each year we can send four more local students to the college of their choice.”
The Pig on the Pond Scholarship is worth up to $10,000 and is awarded each spring to four South Lake students who have outstanding academic records and have demonstrated leadership, community service, and a need for financial assistance.
More about the festival and scholarship program at www.PigonthePond.org.
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About Orlando Health
Orlando Health, headquartered in Orlando, Florida, is a not-for-profit healthcare organization with $8 billion of assets under management that serves the southeastern United States.
Founded more than 100 years ago, the healthcare system is recognized around the world for Central Florida’s only pediatric and adult Level One Trauma program as well as the only state-accredited Level Two Adult Trauma Center in the St. Petersburg region. It is the home of the nation’s largest neonatal intensive care unit under one roof, the only system in the southeast to offer open fetal surgery to repair the most severe forms of spina bifida, the site of an Olympic athlete training facility and operator of one of the largest and highest performing clinically integrated networks in the region. Orlando Health has pioneered life-changing medical research and its Graduate Medical Education program hosts more than 350 residents and fellows. The 3,200-bed system includes 10 award-winning hospitals, 9 hospital-based ERs, and 7 free-standing emergency rooms; rehabilitation services, cancer and heart institutes, imaging and laboratory services, wound care centers, physician offices for adults and pediatrics, skilled nursing facilities, an in-patient behavioral health facility, home healthcare services in partnership with LHC Group, and urgent care centers in partnership with FastMed Urgent Care. More than 4,200 physicians, representing more than 100 medical specialties and subspecialties have privileges across the Orlando Health system, which employs more than 23,000 team members. In FY21, Orlando Health served more than 160,000 inpatients and 3.6 million outpatients. During that same time period, Orlando Health provided approximately $648 million in total value to the communities it serves in the form of charity care, community benefit programs and services, community building activities and more. Additional information can be found at http://www.orlandohealth.com, or follow us on LinkedIn, Facebook, Instagram and Twitter @orlandohealth.
About Project Scholars
Project Scholars is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization dedicated to providing deserving students with four-year scholarships. Each year, four south Lake County students are selected to receive scholarships worth up to $10,000. The main fundraiser is Pig on the Pond Community Festival, which is currently running through Sunday at Waterfront Park in Clermont. More at www.pigonthepond.org and www.ourprojectscholars.org.
