Myrtle Beach Caddy Girls are on a mission

A group of 11 Myrtle Beach Caddy Girls are showing they have the substance to match their style.

On Sunday, they begin volunteer humanitarian missions in Guatemala that will range in duration from one to three weeks.

The women will be involved in one of four missions – animal rescue; assisting people with special needs and disabilities; child care at orphanages; and the building and construction of schools, orphanages and villages.

“I feel like once you get out of college you don’t get a lot of opportunities to travel abroad in a group with people your age,” said Jessica Walters, The Caddy Girls marketing director and caddy master who is the group leader for those working with special needs individuals.

“I wouldn’t go online and sign up by myself. But as a group it makes it a lot more accessible for us to organize it together and get a bunch of people you work with and know to travel together and go somewhere and give back to a place where they don’t have readily available the social programs that we have here.”

The Caddy Girls provide a combination of caddie services and entertainment to golfers for about $150 per round. They are trained in caddie duties and their outfits consist of skorts or shorts, knee-high argyle socks, sneakers and collared golf shirts.

The company was started in 2005 by then Coastal Carolina student Meghan Tarmey, who organized the Guatemala trip.

The mission is being orchestrated through the International Volunteer HQ Guatemala program.

IVHQ sends thousands of volunteers to more than 30 countries annually. It was established in 2007 and is involved in hundreds of different projects through Africa, Asia and Latin America. For the Caddy Girls trip it is working through the Latin American Maximo Nivel volunteer program.

Tarmey was inspired to go on a mission trip by Caddy Girl Alexis Flotteron, who helped protect rare rhinoceros’ from poachers last year in Africa and was recently in Thailand working on behalf of elephants.

Tarmey was planning an individual volunteer trip to Africa. “I just kind of threw it out there to the girls to see if anyone would be interested in going on a volunteer trip,” Tarmey said, “and a ton of them were like, ‘Of course.’ ”

She changed the destination from Africa to Guatemala to heavily reduce travel costs. “Jessica made a good point of helping those that are closest to you, and Guatemala was the closest one to the U.S., it was affordable to get to and the program fees are lower than other countries,” Tarmey said. “A lot of people signed up so it’s good. It builds moral.”

Tarmey is spending more than two weeks in Guatemala and will spend a week in animal rescue and another in child care.

Massachusetts native Brittney Ortiz, 22, is in the midst of a year off from her studies in construction management and architecture to work and travel, and will be the lone Caddy Girl volunteering in building and construction. She often assists her uncles at their construction company when she’s in Massachusetts.

“That’s what I like doing, so I figured I’d go to Guatemala and help them build homes,” Ortiz said. “I think it will be great for me and for my resume in the future, giving back in something that I love doing.”

Ortiz was planning a vacation to Europe next year but opted for the volunteer trip instead. “This came along and it’s for a better cause,” Ortiz said.

The Caddy Girls had several volunteer opportunities over the summer in charity tournaments and other fund-raising events, with the incentive to have all or part of their mission trip expenses covered.

Carrin Kamp put in the most hours to earn a full grant to cover her expenses on the Guatemala trip. Two other caddies received partial grants, including Ortiz. Kamp, who regularly volunteers at Coastal Animal Rescue, will be working in animal rescue in Guatemala.

In addition, The Caddy Girls had a pair of fundraisers to offset trip expenses over the past month at Bourbon St. Bar & Grill and Le Cupcake in Market Common, and caddies who participated in those shared the funds. A gofundme.com page has also raised $2,500.

The group flew out of Myrtle Beach on Thursday morning to work the charitable Loews Miami Beach Celebrity Golf Tournament before flying together from Miami to Guatemala City on Nov. 8.

They are flying with supplies for their mission trip, including children’s clothing, books, vitamins, first aid kits and dental hygiene items.

Tarmey wants to make the selfless giving more consistent in 2016, when she plans to launch the Females Aiding in Mentorship (FAM) charity, a nonprofit guidance and mentoring program for young females. Caddy Girls, many of whom are college students, will be the primary mentors.

“I’m seeing how we can integrate the caddies into doing more volunteer work and charity events,” Tarmey said.

This story was originally published November 5, 2015 at 2:39 PM with the headline "Myrtle Beach Caddy Girls are on a mission."