Special polo event in Sarasota will raise money to dig wells in Africa

On a trip to South Africa last summer, Pippa Campbell said she had matured enough to see what was going on around her.

Her parents, Victoria and Stuart Campbell, are both originally from Africa, so she travels there often. But last summer she had turned 15.

"While I was there, we drove through the villages," she said. "I couldn't believe the poverty there. Ladies were carrying five-gallon water buckets on their heads. They would walk miles and then would have five gallons of water for the whole week. It's literally all over, the poverty is so bad.

"I guess I saw it every time, but now I am older," she said. "It was the first time I really noticed it."

Now she has noticed it, she wants to do something about it.

Campbell, who is a junior at Lakewood Ranch High School, went to Jaymie Klauber, the owner of Epic Equine Experiences and the Epic Polo Club, and asked for help. She wanted to put together a benefit polo match.

"I thought it was so cool," Klauber said. "I really respected her. I remember the days when I was 16 when something would move us to action."

They put together the Well Wishes Benefit Polo Match, which will be held 3 p.m., Saturday, March 16 at Epic Polo Club's Fruitville Field, 13010 Fruitville Road, Sarasota. If they can raise $5,000, Campbell said they would have enough to build wells in Siandunda and Komanyana, Zambia.

The polo match will be between teams playing for corporate sponsors Sequoya Holdings and Charity & Weiss International Realty. Also included will be kids polo chukkers and demonstrations from different equestrian disciplines. General admission tickets are $10 while VIP tickets are $50. For more information or to buy tickets, go to epicpoloclub.com.

Campbell's dad is Stuart Campbell, a professional polo player who teaches the sport at the Sarasota Polo Club. Stuart Campbell was born in South Africa while Victoria Campbell was born in Zimbabwe.

While Stuart Campbell constantly travels for polo, his family, Victoria, Pippa (now 16) and 15-year-old Ian, make their home base in Tallahassee. Pippa, who attended Robert Willis Elementary in Lakewood Ranch before her dad had to move for work, has enrolled at Lakewood Ranch High for a semester to be closer to her dad and to refine her own polo skills.

And now she has a cause.

"I want to make a change," she said. "If one person can make a change, then other people will notice."