Before a crowd of nearly 100 attendees, the Foliage Sertoma Club of Apopka honored Mike MacWithey with the 2025 Service to Mankind Award at the club’s annual community dinner on Tuesday, April 29, at the Fran Carlton Center in Apopka.
MacWithey, an Apopka native and 20-year Apopka High School teacher and head softball coach, was selected out of nine local honorees. In addition, he is the business manager for Apopka High School Athletics and occasionally operates the team bus.
Overwhelmed with emotion after the awards dinner, MacWithey recounted how he aims be a role model whether as a softball coach or as an engineering teacher who advises the high school robotics club.
Previously in the newspaper business, MacWithey switched careers in the late 1990s when the dawn of the internet posed as a threat to print media. He chose high school teacher as his new profession because he saw young people lacked a role model who could guide them in the right direction with honesty.
“When I took over the engineering program as well at Apopka High School, I had one goal, and that was to bridge the divide of how foreign countries are overtaking us,” MacWithey said. “I made a commitment that we are going to create more engineers at Apopka High School than any school in the state of Florida, and I do believe we do that.”
MacWithey emphasized the importance of the engineering profession.
“I kind of make fun of, sometimes, the medical profession,” he later said. “They’re great, but you know what they use to diagnose you? The things invented by engineers. So without engineers, we are at a definite [decline] in our country. It’s gone down the tubes if we don’t make this better in this country. So that’s kind of what I try to do every day.”
MacWithey said people have asked him about retiring at his current age of 68 years, yet he has resolved to continue providing guidance and opportunities to students. He credited his success in his mission to his students’ positive feedback and continued contact with them even after graduating high school. Alumni even return to help him host robotics events.
“As I said before, I believe the students that come back, the amount of them that I still have contact with after they graduate high school,” MacWithey said. “I had one [alumnus] two months ago. He said, ‘You’ve got to come to my wedding. And he said he had just met another girl at the University of North Florida, and they were going to get married, and they’re both engineers. … All you hear is negative stories. There’s too many negative stories in terms of public education, that there’s got to be positive stories.”
The eight other Service to Mankind award honorees hailed from all walks of life and were also recognized for their contributions to the community: Janice Dafeldecker, David Durre, Linda Lee, Police Officer Emmanuel Sosa, Othellus Swift, Pam Welker, Dr. Linus Adah Wodi and Bishop Johnnie Wright.
For each of the last five years, the Foliage Sertoma Club of Apopka has searched for and honored local individuals who exemplified dedication to community service, thus epitomizing the club’s mission of “meet[ing] the needs of communities through volunteer service.”
A statement from the Foliage Sertoma Club called MacWithey “a contradiction in talents” due to his certifications and experience as an engineering teacher and his career as a fast-pitch softball coach of an elite high school program.
“He has proudly impacted the lives of thousands of advanced students and hundreds of softball student athletes who have earned collegiate scholarships through his leadership,” the club statement said.
MacWithey has piled up more than 400 wins since becoming the Apopka varsity softball coach in 1995.
Roger Franklin Williams, radio host and Sertoma Club member, was the one who submitted MacWithey’s name as a nominee.
“The bonus that earns Mike the respect of his students and their parents is his degree as a Blue Darter from Apopka High School,” Williams said in a statement. “Apopka is his hometown. That makes all the team and robotics achievements for the students and the school even more meaningful.”
As the Service to Mankind Award winner, MacWithey gets many perks. His name will be submitted by a committee of 14 Foliage Sertoma Club members to the National Sertoma organization. He was given $250 to donate to the cause of his choice at the May 18 Saturday Sounds Concert in the Apopka Amphitheater. He will also get to ride in the Foliage Sertoma Club’s annual Apopka Christmas Parade.
Service to Mankind award winners of prior years were Linda Laurendeau for recording veterans’ graves in Edgewood-Greenwood Cemetery for Wreaths Across America Day, Deborah Green for leading volunteers in operating the Lake Apopka Wildlife Drive, Diann Haubner for launching the Jingle Mingle fundraiser at Camp Wewa, and Francina Boykin for her contributions to preserving Apopka’s cultural history.
The 51-year-old Foliage Sertoma Club supports many community programs through sponsorships and volunteer work, especially helping adults and children with hearing disorders and organizing the Apopka Christmas Parade every December.
The Apopka Chief is an award-winning weekly newspaper serving the greater Apopka area in Central Florida since 1923.
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