April Acts of Kindness- Randy Ruch '67

The final fundraiser for this year is our Monte Carlo /Sinatra Night. Of course great raffle and silent auction items are needed and Randall R. “Randy” emailed me and offered to donate two time share weeks through the World International Vacation Club. Wow! This timeshare allows you to choose from four locations in Mexica, Spain, Colorado, Palm Desert and Florida. Our Event isn’t until the end of April, but you can be sure that this will raise a substantial amount of money. So who is this Springtime Santa Clause? Randy writes: I graduated from Villanova University in 1967. Immediately following graduation I started work at Burroughs (now Unisys) Corporation in Paoli, PA as an engineering programmer. After two and a half years, I changed employment to Philco-Ford in North Philadelphia. After fighting traffic during my daily commute from Phoenixville, PA, I decided I needed to start my own business. In August, 1971, I founded Schuylkill Valley Sporting Goods in Audubon, PA, a suburb of Philadelphia. Things went well and in 1979 I opened a second store in Quakertown, PA. By the time I retired in 2010 we were operating 19 stores in Eastern PA. Our business consisted of 70% retail business and 30% school and team business. I was active in the industry as I served on the board of the Athletic Dealers of America (ADA) for ten years and as the chairman for three years. I participated on the advisory board of the trade publication, Sporting Goods Business. In addition, I served on the board of

the National Sporting Goods Association (NSGA) for six years and on the Hall of Fame Committee for the sporting goods industry for eight years, two years as chairman. Then in 2012 I was elected to the Sporting Goods Industry Hall of Fame.

I am grateful to have the opportunity to help the Blue White Scholarship Foundation with its critical mission. I can identify with financial need, as I was a recipient of a Food Fair Scholarship, awarded to children of employees, upon entering Villanova. Note: to those too young to have heard of that name, Food Fair was a supermarket chain much like Acme. Without that assistance, Villanova would not be part of my biography. I would not want a worthy Villanova student to be unable to finish their education due to financial hardship. I feel I am paying forward the assistance I received and the opportunities I was afforded as a graduate of our wonderful institution.