Meet John Roberts

Meet John Roberts - TGO’s True Treasure

For over 25 years John Roberts has been a volunteer here at TGO, and has always strived to make ours the best RV, Golf and Nature Resort in the USA. In 1998, upon his arrival at TGO, John started fi shing for Largemouth Bass (his goal was to catch 100,000 Bass) and in so doing always carried a trash bag on his belt, picking up trash around the lakes, along the roads or wherever he saw it. John reached his 100,000 goal (a documented feat) several years ago. 63,000 plus of those have been caught right here in TGO. The remaining 37,000 Bass were caught in his RV travels from California to Nova Scotia. His largest Bass to date is 18 lbs. 4 oz. a stunning 29” long. John caught that fi sh here in TGO on December 10, 2016.

It was in 2005 that John started to help improve our lakes by personally asking the EPA for advise on plants that benefi ted our lakes. They gladly came to TGO and provided him the information. John and his crews and have planted Pickerelweed, Arrowhead, Canna Lilies, Blue Flag Iris, Ferns and other plants over the years in and around our 32 ponds. All the time picking up trash around our ponds. For 20 years John has been in charge of stocking our ponds, relying on assistance from our Nature Center volunteers to help with the project. Prior to this, CSA paid a supervisor and employees to do the stocking. John has done a monthly pond topic talk about our ponds at the Nature Center for the past 10-12 years. In addition, twice a year he provides CSA a written report about pond conditions and recommendations John was named TGO volunteer of the year for 20112012. In February, 2021 he was the only volunteer to be named an honorary CSA service staff member with a service employee shirt (which he wears proudly).

Volunteering For Our Community

He is responsible for procuring our present Grass Carp permit from the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Comission. He’s established TGO as a Monarch waystation with over 270 Milkweed plants for our butterfl ies and for past fi ve years has personally paid for and planted Milkweed plants along the ponds for the Monarchs to feed. Several years ago, John provided TGO homeowners and outsiders a Keep Brevard Beautiful tour of Lake Judy’s wetlands and what we are doing for our Monarch butterfl ies. For approximately 10 years, six days a week, John has weed-whacked the buff er zone around Lake Judy and its wetlands. In January 2022 he had to discontinue this work due to health issues but he still continues to pick up trash in the Maintenance Yard and along our roadways seven days a week

Some of John’s other achievements include: • He is the only original and present member of the Beautifi cation Committee formed by Lynn Jacobs many years ago. • For years he taught a fi shing seminar at TGO. • Organizing his volunteer pond monitors to pick up palm fronds after storms. • He is past/present Vice President of Condo VIII. • John appeared in the Ferbuary 10, 2010 edition of Florida Today recognizing him as an elete fi sherman. • As a result of all of this work, he has saved TGO thousands of dollars.

John has a solid support crew when it comes to restocking TGO’s 32 lakes. Here he is shown with his brother (left) Marshall, Ron Peoples and to his right, Jeff Shireman from Shongaloo Fisheries. This paragraph was printed in The Happenings, in Billy Specht’s letter, in the February 19, 2021 issue: “John’s contributions to the health of TGO’s lakes, wildlife and overall cleanliness of our community are immeasurable. As our Pond Monitor, John has single-handedly shaped Lake Judy into a Florida natural preserve by weeding and hand-planting native fl ora around the shoreline. He plants native fl owers to encourage the proliferation of the Monarch butterfl y. He leads a team of volunteers to conduct an annual fi sh-stocking that encourages a healthy population of native fi sh in our 32 lakes. He picks up trash throughout TGO every day. He monitors the health of our lakes and natural areas every day, documents the results, then provides a monthly report to the Board and me without fail. John is an incredible, selfl ess person with a kind heart for people, plants and animals, and I’m honored to know him.” As you can see, John is one of TGO’s True Treasures. His loyalty and love for our resort has made this park a better place for us all to live and enjoy. Thank you, John.

John’s photo from Florida Today - February 10, 2010

Restocking TGO’s 32 Lakes

Lots of buckets and lots of volunteers. TGO residents showed up in force to help John Roberts restock our 32 lakes with 5,260 Largemouth Bass and 2,955 Bluegill for a total of 8,215 fi sh. Each team of residents would grab a yellow bucket with a designated amount of fi sh (based on size of each lake) and drive their carts to that lake and release the fi sh. A well organized and fun event.

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