Residents from across St. Johns County gathered last week for the annual Tristyn Bailey Foundation golf tournament and family day, keeping the torch of her memory blazing as brightly as ever.
More than 400 people packed the St. Johns Golf & Country Club to joyfully remember the Durbin Crossing teen, raise money, and celebrate her life through communal cheer and collective support.
As an intense game of cornhole unfolded nearby, Tristyn’s father, Forrest Bailey, told The Citizen that the event echoed his daughter’s uplifting personality.
“It’s special for all of these folks to come together for this,” Bailey said with a smile. “It means a lot to us, it really does.”
An early count had the day’s brisk fundraising efforts surpassing $30,000.
The event kicked off with the band Better Days playing a moving rendition of the National Anthem, followed by a group prayer and a helicopter flyover from the St. Johns County Sheriff’s Office.
Sheriff Rob Hardwick kicked off a festive round of golf with a ceremonial tee shot.
Sources told The Citizen that the ball ended up in a retention pond, but the department has refused to turn over body camera footage of the top cop’s swing.
Jacksonville airwave icons Dan Hicken and Jeff Prosser broadcasted their popular 1010XL morning show from the premises as kids crowded into a bouncy house and cooed over an SJSO K-9.
Foundation president Matt Hinson, a close friend of the Bailey family and their attorney, said the charity event captured the teen’s unique spirit.
“The goal of the foundation is to focus on Tristyn and her life and legacy and not how she died,” he said. “The foundation and every event we have is focused on the concept of being kind and doing the right thing, befriending those who wouldn’t normally be befriended, that’s how she was as a person.”
Storm, a St. Johns County an all-star cheerleading group, performed for the crowd in honor of Tristyn’s love of the sport. The teen died in 2021 at the age of 13.
State Attorney R.J. Larizza, of the 7th Judicial District, prosecutor Jennifer Dunton and Judge Kenneth Janesk also participated in the event.
“The atmosphere was in the exact spirit that Tristyn would want,” Hinson said. “It was families and friends coming together to enjoy each other and to enjoy the community.”
