Commentary: The King And Queen Of Clubs Give Back
With three Florida Powerboat Club treks to the Bahamas between now and August, club owners Stu and Jackie Jones—as reported—have opted out of their annual summer poker-run tour this year. There’s not enough time for the almost-empty-nest couple to haul their 38-foot Top Gun Flight 1130 Cigarette around the county and handle producing those events. But not wanting to completely bail on their tradition, they committed to flying to a few events and running with friends this summer.
Captured here during the Lake Cumberland Poker Run in Kentucky a few years ago, Stu and Jackie Jones rarely mentioned their charitable efforts.
During the eighth Kuttawa Cannonball Run in last weekend in Kentucky, new Cigarette Racing Team dealers Paul Michael Ison and Tiffany Crawford hosted the couple on their 42 Auroris Center Console. The weekend after next, the Joneses will ride with high-performance insurance and finance man Devin Wozencraft in his 34-foot Victory catamaran at the inaugural Bago Big Bet event in Wisconsin.
The Jones’ annual summer road-trip is, first and foremost, good marketing as many of the participants at poker runs around the country are Florida Powerboat Club members—meaning their customers. Being at an event without having to produce it frees them to just hang out and enjoy. And because they always have their eyes open, they still learn things from other event organizers.
They also give back. They don’t brag about it. Beyond what they’ll share with a few longtime friends—and I am blessed to count myself among them—they don’t even talk about it.
Take their recent visit to Kuttawa. Between two Florida Powerboat Club Key West Poker Run experience auction-items and a personal $2,000 donation, the Joneses accounted for $12,000 of the $80,000-plus raised for the event’s charities.
Stu Jones didn’t want me to write about it. But I didn’t give him a choice—with him or without him I was telling this story. (And I wonder why people don’t like journalists.)
So he cooperated. Grudgingly.
“I just wanted to give back,” he said. “I wasn’t even sure what the charity was, and I’m not even sure I still do. But I know that there are a lot of generous people there taking part in the auction and the organizers were worried about the low count of attendance after the Saturday lunch run got canceled.
“Honestly, I consider myself a bystander,” he added. “I was just happy to be involved.”
Jones paused for a moment.
“Everyone was so nice to Jackie and me,” he said softly. “They made us feel very special, and then has a funny way of triggering your emotions.”
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