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Writer's pictureR.R. Keefer

Going to the PGA Championship!

Updated: Mar 23, 2023

Dentist and Local Family with Roots in the Community Supports Historical Society and Scores Tickets to One of this Year's Major Golf Tournaments.


A girl dressed all in white, in a golf caddy's outfit with green lettering on the back that spells "PENDER" and wearing a matching green cap and rubber toed boots, is standing on a porch, with her hands on her hips, looking away from the viewer and surveying the driveway before her.  Next to the girl is a small red bag that looks like a miniture golf club bag.
Dr. Erin Pender's daughter gets ready to play a round of golf

On Wednesday, March 23, 2023, the raffle drawing for a trip to 2023 PGA Championship took place in Fluvanna, supervised by various neighbors, friends of the Fluvanna Community Historical Society (FCHS) and members of the Fluvanna Community Church (FCC). While people throughout the region purchased tickets, a supporter of the Historical Society, living just minutes down the road, ended up winning the day. Dr. Erin Pender and her husband, Brian, purchased two raffle tickets while attending the March 18, 2023, History Talk by guest speaker, Fred Beltz, on the History of Golf, Historic Oak Hill and the PGA Championship. Both avid golfers, the Penders already planned on attending the PGA Championship this year in Rochester. Now they will be able to attend the final round of the tournament and see firsthand golf history in the making.


Winning Package

Tickets for the PGA Championship sold out months ago. Thanks to a charitable benefactor in our community, however, FCHS could offer supporters an opportunity to attend the historic event. For only twenty-dollars, one of our lucky supporters could win a trip to the PGA Championship. All this excitement and fun was made all the better knowing that each raffle ticket purchased would help the Historical Society's efforts to preserve our history, help save Fluvanna's historic Meeting House and bring us one step closer to building an even brighter future for our community.


The winning package includes:

  • Two general admission tickets to access the Oak Hill grounds for the final round of the tournament on Championship Sunday;

  • All-inclusive food and non-alcohol beverages at on-course concession venues;

  • Two entree items, two snack items and two non-alcoholic beverages each time one visits a concession venue;

  • Access to general merchandise shopping areas;

  • One night accommodation at a local Airbnb establishment from May 21-22, 2023.

The Pender Family's Roots in our Community

A family in two separate golf carts pose for a picture while out on a golf course. In the foreground is the mother wearing sunglasses and a baseball cap and two smiling girls in the one golf cart, and in the other golf cart is another girl sitting on the lap of her father.
Dr. Pender enjoys a day of golf with her husband, Brian, and three daughter.

Dr. Pender and her family certainly have roots in the community. The owner of Chautauqua Lake Dental, in Mayville, Dr. Pender graduated from the University of Buffalo School of Dental Medicine. She received her undergraduate degree and her master's degree in biology from John Carroll University. She received an additional master's degree in teaching from Dominican University. Dr. Pender started her dental career in public health with the National Health Service Corps. Dr. Pender worked for community health centers serving in Cleveland and Jamestown. Prior to becoming a dentist, Dr. Pender was a fourth-grade teacher in the Chicago Public Schools, but her true passion was to become a dentist like her father.


Dr. Pender fills as much time as possible with her family. She has been married to her husband, Brian, for over ten years. Brian and Erin met while they both played soccer for John Carroll University. Brian is the founder and president of Fairway Healthcare Partners where he advises dentist clients looking to buy, sell, value, protect and grow their practices. Brian shares with Erin a love for golf (he grew-up playing the sport at the historic Oak Hill Country Club). The Penders lived in many different areas including Chicago, Cleveland and Buffalo before moving to Chautauqua. Erin and Brian have three daughters, Eleanor, Gloria and Theodora, who enjoy playing with their own flock of chickens, helping their dad build projects, helping their mom in the garden and, true to their roots, playing golf.

A young girl dressed in a caddy's white outfit, wearing a green cap, green boots, holds her left hand up to her cheek and chin, seemingly in thought, with the other arm resting on a miniature red golf bag.
One of Dr. Pender's daughters poses in her golf outfit, pondering when she will win her first major golf tournament or what next project the Historical Society will take on.

The Pender family lives in Stow in a home that has been in the family for four generations. In the 1960s, Brian's grandparents, Don and Elsie Hoga opened Hogans Hut in Stow. The Penders look forward to sinking their roots deeper into the community and feel blessed to call such a wonderful community home.


Thank you!

Thank you and congratulations to the Pender family, the donors and volunteers who helped make this event possible, to everyone who purchased raffle tickets and helped spread the word. We appreciate your support!

 

The Fluvanna Community Historical Society is a registered 501(c)(3) organization, provisionally chartered by the Regents of the University of the State of New York, and dedicated to connecting our community with our past, with each other and with a brighter future.


A leans from the hip and at approximate the level of three young girls as they each try to put golf balls into the hole on a putting green.  A small flat marking the hole stands just to the left of the center of the picture.
Brian Pender is deeply engrossed in helping his daughters perfect their golf game on the putting green.

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