The John Land Apopka Community Trust named former city commissioner Bill Arrowsmith Humanitarian of the Year at the trust’s annual Legacy Gala last week. 

Named after former Mayor John Land, the trust held its annual event on Nov. 6 at Highland Manor. The gala raises money to support the trust’s mission of serving the greater Apopka community through philanthropic funding and support for civic and youth organizations.

The trust was founded in 2014 with $200,000 in seed money from the city of Apopka. At the event, the trust announced it has now surpassed that original amount in donations to the community, totaling $208,659 to youth teams and organizations over the years.

In addition to honoring Arrowsmith, a long-time community leader, the evening featured a tribute to Mayor John Land’s legacy. Land made history as one of the nation’s longest serving and the state’s longest serving mayor, having served a cumulative 61 years in office, from 1950 to 1968, and then from 1971 to 2014.

Under Land’s leadership, Apopka grew from a small agricultural community population of an estimated 2,500 people to Orange County’s second largest municipality with a population of over 40,000.

Humanitarian of the Year
A retired banker, Arrowsmith was recognized for his extensive contributions to Apopka in civic, business and youth activities. The U.S. Army veteran and retired banker is a founding trust board member. He was a youth athletics director and coach and held several organization roles, including founding member of the Foliage Sertoma Club. He was chair of the North Orange Memorial Hospital, and trustee and scholarship committee, paving the way for Florida Hospital Apopka.

Among his community leadership roles were past president of the Apopka Area Chamber of Commerce, and president of the Lake Apopka Natural Gas District. He served as city commissioner and vice mayor for 39 years.

“It’s been a great board to serve on, and it’s given back to the youth of this community, basically just been a great story over the last 14 years,” Arrowsmith said in his acceptance remarks. “My mother once told me, she said, ‘The best thing that you do in life are the ones you don’t care to get the credit for.’”

Michelle Gomez Hinden, a fellow trust board member who emceed the event, praised Arrowsmith’s work. 

“It’s an honor to work with someone like Bill Arrowsmith,” she said. “He’s been a great mentor, and I’m so thankful to have him in my life and having been a part of the board.”
This year marks the seventh time the trust has awarded the Humanitarian of the Year Award, which recognizes the individual who best embodies John Land’s legacy through community service.

Past recipients include former Apopka Chief publisher John Ricketson (2024), Edward Bass (2023), Arlen “Coz Mizell” (2022), Richard and Shirley Risser (2021), Floride Nelson (2019) and Bill Spiegel (2018).

“If you’ve been around Apopka long enough, you’ve seen each and every one of them giving back to the community in various different ways,” John “Johnny” Land Jr. said. “And this year, the recipient is no different. In fact, he has spent so much time in this community that we have to have four presenters tonight.”

In the closing remarks, Spiegel said although many in the room know Arrowsmith, he encouraged those who don’t to meet him.

“He’s a great individual. He has a long list of accomplishments that you heard tonight, but most importantly, he’s a good person,” he said. “He’s always willing to help a voice of experience and wisdom.”

Looking toward the future
With the Gala having wrapped up and the launch of the inaugural Kentucky Derby fundraiser in May, the trust is ready to continue these two signature events in 2026.
However, a significant goal moving forward is making the trust itself more widely known in the community to encourage direct donations.

“We had an instance where [an organization] asked for a donation, so one of the representatives went and attended,” Gomez Hinden said in a Monday phone interview with the Chief. “We try to be involved as well too, so that we can kind of get our name out there, to bring more publicity to the trust, and hopefully, in turn, more donations, so that we can turn around and fund them to the community.”

The trust’s strategic vision for pushing community growth and supporting local organizations focuses on empowering youth programs and bolstering civic initiatives. This approach underpins the trust’s commitment to becoming a more actively involved presence in the community.

“Typically, what we do is we try to focus on organizations where we can provide scholarships or donations for specific organizations, as opposed to individuals who apply, so that we can kind of help the youth and the civil organizations within the community become more involved,” Gomez Hinden said.

When determining the overall funding priorities when reviewing applications, the board usually looks for the applicant’s level of involvement in raising its own funds, according to Hinden. 

“We usually try to encourage them to raise some of the money themselves,” she said. “A lot of times, we’ll either make a partial donation, or we’ll agree to match their donations to kind of give them some incentive to raise funds themselves as well.”

Organizations can find application forms on the trust’s website:  johnlandapopkacommunitytrust.org.