Feature Stories

Polo For A Purpose Expands Outreach To Include Local Organizations Charity Match

They say winning isn’t everything. But for Brandon Phillips, a pediatric cancer survivor and professional polo player, winning isn’t everything — it is the only thing. Especially when the game was his life.
The emotional will of an athlete can overcome many things — even a cancer diagnosis. Phillips was diagnosed with non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma when he was 14 years old. Doctors predicted he had just weeks to live. Yet, after months of hospitalization and unrelenting treatments, his rugged athletic spirit helped him survive.
This drive that enabled Phillips to conquer his boyhood battle with cancer keeps him devoted to helping others fight the disease that nearly took his life. Now, as founder of Polo for Life, Phillips uses his world-class status as a professional polo player to aid children and their families facing the same diagnosis.
In 2014, Brandon Phillips and Terrie Mooney created Polo for a Purpose, an annual charity polo match and dinner to benefit pediatric cancer patients in the local community. Collectively, Phillips and Mooney felt there was more to be done, so in 2018, they created Polo for Life, a nonprofit organization dedicated to raising funds to help support pediatric cancer patients and their families through direct impact initiatives. To date, Polo for Life has raised nearly $2 million for children battling pediatric cancer.
This year’s sixth annual Polo for a Purpose: Passage to India, presented by the Postage Stamp Farm Foundation and co-chaired by PJ Rizvi and Visse Wedell, raised more than half a million dollars. Held at the International Polo Club Palm Beach, more than 1,000 guests kicked off the warm and sunny January afternoon by exploring the Vendor Village and Kids Zone before the elite polo match began.
During the match’s opening ceremonies, the polo players each took the field joined by a pediatric cancer patient donning a matching polo jersey. Emma, 9, accompanied Ashley Busch; Lily, 4, accompanied Brandon Phillips; Johan, 9, accompanied Mariano Aguerre; Jonathan, 3, accompanied Kris Kampsen; Calliah, 5, accompanied Lucienne Elms; Johnny, 5, accompanied Martin Pepa; Geo, 15, accompanied Larin Zubiaurre; and Katherine, 10, accompanied Jeff Blake. Newly crowned Miss Florida USA Monique Evans made her debut by bowling in the ball to officially begin the match.
Team Monarch Reign, captained by Ashley Busch, a U.S. Polo Assn. brand ambassador, defeated Team Horse Scout, captained by Horse Scout CEO Lucienne Elms, 8-4 after a fast-paced match. Best Playing Pony, sponsored by Five Star Builders, went to Ashley Busch’s Ciril, and the game MVP, sponsored by the Wedell Family Foundation, was awarded to Mariano Aguerre.
During the match, guests enjoyed an Indian inspired cocktail reception, sponsored by Lisa Torell and Mark Finerman. Held on the Pavilion’s terrace, the cocktail reception featured lavish touches, including a live camel, henna tattoo artist, exquisite belly dancers and fine hors d’oeuvres.
However, the real party started at the end of the polo match. A sit-down dinner sponsored by the KVMB Foundation wowed the crowd with several courses of modern Indian cuisine, followed by a live auction. The highlight of the evening was listening to pediatric cancer patients and their families share their stories. In a particularly touching moment, pediatric cancer patient Emma LaPaglia, age 9, presented Phillips with a plaque declaring him a hero.
“This year’s event was a very special year for me,” Phillips said. “Not only was it Polo For Life’s inaugural year as an organization, but also it was very humbling to have Emma present me the Hero Award. I was not expecting that.”
All of the funds raised by Polo for Life go directly to their beneficiaries, which include the Pediatric Oncology Support Team in West Palm Beach, the Kids Cancer Foundation in Royal Palm Beach, the Joe DiMaggio Children’s Hospital Foundation in Hollywood, the Miami Cancer Institute in Miami and the local chapter of the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society. Polo for Life credits the Postage Stamp Farm Foundation and other generous friends for their continued support. “We are so grateful for the support of everyone who made this event possible,” Executive Director Terrie Mooney said. “The generosity at our Polo for a Purpose event exceeded all expectations.”
A little over a month after Polo for a Purpose, the Polo for Life team went on a goodwill tour visiting each of the organizations that the group supports. One by one, each of the five beneficiaries was surprised with a large check — both in size and in dollar amount. Gasps and cheers filled the rooms as the $90,000 amount was revealed. One by one, eyes grew watery and voices grew thick as recipients realized the magnitude of such a gift of charity and selflessness. Each beneficiary has plans to put its funding to good use.
Polo is a game full of complexities. It can be dangerous, as players gallop on horseback, swinging a four-foot mallet at a baseball-sized ball while pursued by the opposing team. In many ways, polo is courage and resiliency in motion. As polo players and horses thundered down IPC’s renowned Field One during Polo for a Purpose’s sunset charity match, children and their families battling cancer stood tall on the sidelines. They understood that much like their battle with cancer, the players were willing to do whatever it took to win that game.
Learn more about Polo for Life at www.poloforlife.org.

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Wellington Health

Wellington’s Jordan Ray Used Her Personal Experiences To Create Limitless Medical Logs

At the top of her game, a junior in high school with promising prospects for a softball scholarship, Jordan Ray abruptly discovered that she had a debilitating medical condition. This began her journey through the world of chronic illness and led to the development of Limitless Medical Logs to help others combat the challenges she faced along the way.
April 13, 2015 was a normal game day. Ray was playing third base. She was about to run for a routine play. “Little did I know that it was the last day I would ever step on the field wearing my uniform,” she recalled. “As I moved toward the ball, suddenly everything went dark. I fell down and lost consciousness. In the five seconds or so it took my coaches to surround me, I came to. Being an athlete, I told everyone I was fine.”
But Ray realized very quickly that everything was not fine, as she looked at faces she no longer recognized. She felt extreme, intense pain in her head, neck and back.
A visit to the doctor yielded an initial diagnosis of severe whiplash. Fifty daily migraines later and a variety of doctors and tests, she became used to being drilled with questions she couldn’t remember the answers to: types of pain, intensity, longevity and much more. All they seemed to know was this was not merely whiplash.
Ray’s mother had fought cancer and experienced similar problems with the communication of important information during doctor visits. They started using notebooks to write down questions, answers from the doctors, results of lab tests, medications prescribed, side effects and more. Slowly, over three years, Ray developed a format for a log that would compile, all in one place at a patient’s fingertips, all the information collected on their personal health journey.
“Limitless Medical Logs grew from this,” Ray explained. “They allow a patient to take full control of their own health by collecting for themselves and supplying their doctors with all the information needed to treat their condition.”
Ray’s own medical log helped in the ultimate diagnosis of her own condition. The pain she experiences is an intense pressure in the back of her head caused by a rare congenital Chiari malformation in the base of her skull and cerebellum that seriously impacts the movement of spinal fluid. “What was a normal Tuesday for my friends was a day I went in for a 10-hour brain surgery to help the condition,” Ray said.
Just as her logs have an encouraging quote on every page, Ray’s words and her actions are an inspiration to others. Her continuing struggles fighting this chronic disease and her efforts developing her helpful product make Ray a popular speaker at events.
Ray explained that her condition has often meant she was operating at a mere percentage of the efficiency she could once muster. “Other people would be further along in building the business of putting Limitless Medical Logs in the hands of everyone fighting a medical issue, aiming for good health or striving for physical fitness, so the logs can be helping people,” she said.
Limitless Medical Logs were developed due to her experiences, and Ray’s family and friends have been using them for the past three years. The format is a handy spiral-bound journal that lays flat and won’t break at the spine from being folded back to the current page. A patient writes in the dates so a single log lasts 365 days and can start any month of the year. It costs about $20.
The copyright-protected material and format fit easily into a purse, backpack, brief case or oversize jacket pocket, and the log weighs in at less than a pound.
With sections to prompt the patient to write in everything from basic information to medical contacts and history, past and future tests and surgeries, billing and insurance information, prescription medications, treatments and side effects, a pharmacy contact, a sleep tracker, and symptom and pain diagrams. There is even a place to prepare for a doctor’s appointment by writing down questions and a space to note the physician’s answers.
Perhaps best of all, a new app version of Limitless Medical Logs will be launching in the coming weeks. “A companion to the logbook, it can pull up a daily or weekly summary of what you have in the app to show your doctor,” Ray said.
A college student studying business and entrepreneurship, Ray continues making miraculous strides in her recovery from her daunting condition.
“You can feel so isolated, so alone when you first receive a diagnosis like this,” she said. “There is so much you want to know and so much the doctors ask you. Questions they need the answers to in order to help you. That’s why I developed Limitless Medical Logs, to put the patient in the driver’s seat and provide them with unlimited potential in their recovery.”
For more information about Limitless Medical Logs, or to place an order, visit www.limitlessmedicallogs.com.

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Feature Stories

Faces of Dressage

Faces of Dressage

The elegance of dressage has returned to Wellington once again with the 2020 Adequan Global Dressage Festival, where some of the best horse-and-rider combinations can be seen in action, from top-level Grand Prix events to the ever-popular musical Freestyle classes. Dressage is often called “ballet with horses.” It’s a simplistic idea, but it helps people understand the magnificent level of dedication, training and effort it takes for a rider and horse to become one in a sport dating back to ancient times. While many riders taking part in the AGDF are not top-level professionals, many of the sport’s top riders are here this winter with their eyes on Tokyo, where the 2020 Olympic Games will be held this summer. From elite, international dressage to the sport’s more introductory levels, to the uplifting sport of para-dressage, all levels of this unique discipline are on display here in Wellington. On the following pages, we highlight just a few of these riders in Faces of Dressage 2020.

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Feature Stories

Heather Blitz

Heather Blitz

Heather Blitz is an American dressage rider who won the team gold and individual silver medals at the 2011 Pan American Games in Guadalajara. She was also part of the U.S. Olympic team at the 2012 games in London. A Kansas native, Blitz began competing in dressage in 1994. She rode in Grand Prix competitions in Florida on the Danish horse Rambo, then moved to Denmark for several years. While living in Denmark, she competed across Europe on another Danish Warmblood, Otto. Currently, she is based in Wellington year-round, where she is a familiar face at the Adequan Global Dressage Festival. She had a strong season in 2019, ending on a high note when Blitz and her mount Semper Fidelis kicked off the final week of competition with a win in the FEI Grand Prix CDI3*, presented by Brooke USA. The pair is back in action this season in Wellington. When not riding herself, Blitz is a well-known trainer. She has worked closely with top U.S. Paralympian Annie Peavy.

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Nicholas Fyffe

Nicholas Fyffe

Australian native Nicholas Fyffe began his riding career as an international three-day eventer. After choosing to focus solely on dressage, he trained intensively in Germany under top international riders, gaining a wealth of information that guides his approach today. Fyffe contributed to the Australian team’s gold medal at the 2007 Tri-Nations Cup in Johannesburg, South Africa, and he has ridden on five Nations Cup Teams here in Wellington. Helping Australia make history by clinching the team bronze medal at the 2018 CDIO3* Nations Cup. Fyffe also claimed an individual bronze medal in the Intermediate I Freestyle aboard Louise Cote’s Hitchcock. Today, Fyffe is also a sought-after trainer here in the Wellington area based at Marcus Fyffe Dressage with partner David Marcus. Fyffe has qualified multiple horses for the World Young Horse Championships and has shown six horses to Grand Prix.

 

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Jill Irving

Jill Irving

Canadian Jill Irving has taken top honors in some of the sport’s top competitions. In 2014, she won the Everglades Dressage Rider Achievement Award at the Adequan Global Dressage Festival. Irving, who had not previously ridden on a championship team, headed to Europe in 2017 to compete. She showed at the CDI 4* Achleiten in Austria, earning great scores and getting named Red Scarf Equestrian Dressage Athlete of the Month. This helped her secure a spot on Canada’s dressage team for the World Equestrian Games Tryon 2018. Last year, she represented Canada at the 2019 Pan American Games, helping her team win the gold medal. Aside from her work in the ring, Irving has spearheaded the Canadian Youth Equestrian Mentorship Program since 2015, which offers opportunities for young Canadian equestrians to attend training camps in Wellington. Irving is back in action in Wellington this season, kicking off the year by winning the FEI Dressage World Cup Grand Prix Freestyle aboard Degas 12 in the opening week of the AGDF.

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Dong-seon Kim

Dong-seon Kim

Dong-seon Kim is a South Korean dressage rider who represented his native country at the 2014 World Equestrian Games in Normandy with his horse Bukowski. He also competed at three Asian Games in 2006, 2010 and 2014, where he altogether won three team gold medals and an individual silver medal. He later qualified for the 2014 Dressage World Cup Final in Lyon, France, where he finished in 17th position. Kim also competed with Bukowski at the Rio de Janeiro Olympics in 2016 and the 2018 World Equestrian Games in Tryon. Kim is competing this season in Wellington with his new mounts Belstaff and Bordolino. He recently placed fifth with Bellstaff in the FEI Grand Prix CDI5*, presented by CaptiveOne Advisors, during AGDF Week 7. A well-known horse owner, his mounts have also done well when paired with other riders.

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Janine Little

Janine Little

Janine Little is a rider who competes in Wellington during the winter season and for the rest of the year is based just south of Brockville, near Canada’s capital of Ottawa. Raised in a “non-horsey” family, Little’s love for horses and riding inspired her to work her way up Pony Club levels. By age 16, she realized dressage was her passion. Partnered with an unconventional mount she brought along herself, she was named Canadian National Junior Champion in 2000. After studying psychology — a background that benefits her as a rider and coach — Little earned her Equine Canada coaching certification and began working professionally. She later trained in the Netherlands with three-time Olympic gold medalist Anky van Grunsven. Upon her return, Little received the ride on Dominic LHF, a horse she developed from Training Level to Grand Prix. The pair were FEI Advanced Level Champions at the 2010 Western Regionals, the Alberta Provincials and the Pacific Regionals, and declared for the 2012 Olympics. Today, she is a rider and a well-known trainer and coach.

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Yvonne Losos de Muñiz

Yvonne Losos de Muñiz

Born to Canadian parents in Nigeria, Yvonne Losos de Muñiz rides for the Dominican Republic, which has been her home since 1990. She became the first Dominican rider to participate in the Olympics when competing in the Rio de Janeiro 2016 Games. Her career began at an early age with support from her parents before formal training in Germany. Listed among the best riders in all of Latin America, Losos de Muñiz has many awards under her belt. She won a bronze medal at the 2007 Pan-American Games in Rio, repeating the feat of the 2003 Pan-American Games in Santo Domingo. Prior to her Pan-American medals, Losos de Muñiz won individual gold and bronze as a team in the Central American Games 2002 in El Salvador, and she has won several medals since at the Central American Games. Competing locally, she secured several big wins at the 2018 AGDF, qualifying for the FEI World Cup that year in Paris. She is back in action this year at the AGDF riding Aquamarijn to third place in the FEI Grand Prix CDI5* during Week 7.

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Adrienne Lyle

Adrienne Lyle

Adrienne Lyle was raised on a small cattle farm in Whidbey Island, Washington and has always spent time around horses. She originally rode western, then switched to English at age seven. She tried eventing before dressage became her calling. Lyle began competing at age 13. She was a member of the silver medal team at the 2002 Cosequin Junior Dressage Championships and the bronze medal Region 6 team at the 2004 North American Young Rider Championships. Career highlights include competing in the 2012 Olympic Games in London and contributing to a fourth-place team finish at the 2014 World Equestrian Games in France. Lyle and her mount Salvino had a string of wins at the 2018 AGDF. The pair qualified for the World Equestrian Games Tryon 2018, where they helped the U.S. team win the silver medal. Lyle had a great 2019 season in Wellington, including riding Harmony’s Duval to victory in the FEI Grand Prix Special CDI3* during Week 10. The pair followed that up with impressive wins later in the season at Tryon and in Europe.

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