Our Mission

The Paulie Fund (a 501(c)3 non-profit), mission will be to conduct events including but not limited to parades, pub crawls and golf tournaments in order to raise money to be distributed to Indian River State College (IRSC) for the purpose of scholarships for students selected by IRSC in the name of Paul Lefavi. The scholarship will be named the Paul Lefavi Scholarship Fund.

Indian River State College Life

My Friend Paulie. Paul Lefavi came into the office, a brash, young, experienced, and talented tough guy, and soon to be known, as brazened with a heart of gold. Often heard to say, “I wear my heart on my sleeve, Bro.” Because Paulie, after all, was from New York, but he was in Florida now. His mom and brother Tom were here, and more sooner than later, he was here to stay. The rest is “his” story.

I didn’t think he would be around long either, maybe a year or two? In 1998, Paul Lefavi is hired into the Indian River Community College Distance Learning Department. With fourteen veteran years as a cameraman for the United States Air Force under his belt, Paulie had run and gun skills with a camera, he could write a script and he had a vision every time he sat down to edit and produce his next masterpiece. He ‘made his bones’ in the 40th Anniversary video for IRCC. Soon enough, he was “Virtual Paulie”, “virtually” sitting next to his ‘real’ Co-Anchor, Mr. Frank Watkins. Yes, classic Paulie.

As the new Director of the Distance Learning Department, Lefavi oversaw the growth and responsibilities of the burgeoning area of Internet Course Development, providing the daily technology support for all faculty, and for the courses and students, they were teaching. The Digital Revolution was in full swing, and he was committed to making the most of it. In 2005, the Kight Center for Emerging Technologies, and the 3rd floor was home base for learning with the future in mind. He led the team that managed the ‘virtual playground’ of every audio guy, cameraman, editor and producer. Lefavi lit up the lights, and the ‘Green Screen’ was born for the now Indian River State College and the rest of the online world.  Interactive classrooms broadcast Instructors “Live” to five campuses at one time, with big screens, TVs, lots of buttons and lots of really cool technology. If it broke, Paul knew who to call to make sure it got fixed. 

While overseeing the full range of faculty support for the learning platforms du-jour, Lefavi created and facilitated professional development opportunities for faculty, staff and administration during the deployment of three different learning management systems which included, WebCT, Angel, and Blackboard. Paul’s hands-on, ‘make it better’ attitude was a powerful force that drove multi-media productions, faculty training ideas, all promoted with a can-do, service-oriented attitude. The Lefavi brand is what kept people coming back to E-learning, for the help of support for projects that would make a difference. A practical visionary, it was Paul who fought for what became the Viewing Room, 3rd floor, on the Kight Center, where fabulous productions are to this day deployed and enjoyed. 

Instrumental in creating various vehicles of celebration for IRSC, productions from both the 50th and 60th Anniversary celebrations came from Paul’s department, to be stamped with his approval before they left his territory of influence. The ultimate compliment to the recipient of the Entrepreneur of the Year Award was to have the IRSC video department produce a tribute for the selected honoree. 

Paul’s vision was always to maximize the production value beyond the expectations of anyone who viewed the project, complete with a stack of customized DVD copies to go.  For more than 17 years Paul was responsible for depicting the lives of exciting successful people, supervising video production projects, and supporting the production process of online courses at IRSC. The goal of The Paulie Fund will be to sustain the passion for creative learning and application in the digital arts for students signature of Paul Lefavi at Indian River State College for years to come. Right on Paul, Right ON!

Friend and IRSC Colleague,
Mike Pelitera

Community Life

For more than a decade Paul Levafi showed me unfathomable love. We met in Stuart Florida through friends of friends. At first as acquaintances, and very soon after as great friends. We lived directly next door to each other for a bit, and he’s truly one of the reasons I made the Stuart area my forever home. We joked we should stretch some clothesline with cups from window to window like back in the day. In the time we lived next to each other I was going through a lot of loneliness, something which is natural during changes in one’s life. Paul could see it in me, now, that doesn’t mean he is a mind reader, ask his girlfriends…I mean after all, what would you think if some guy in his late 20’s moves in next door with his little fluffy black dog?

Well, Paul Lefavi for the next year and half or so, like clockwork, would either call or knock on my door and say something like, “Hey man, what you got today bro? Wanna go grab some food and a beer? Wanna walk that little fluffy dog of yours? AHHHHH Just kidding man, Oso’s cool”. I could always count on him getting a laugh out of me, especially in weird situations. We golfed together, did a relay race together, went to concerts, watched sports and just talked about life in general all the time. It amazed me how someone roughly 20 years older than me could be so carefree and free spirited. His aura was like a turbine, it would just suck you in. I remember being in the keys with him and out of nowhere someone yelling his name, hey PAULIE! Hearing someone yell his name from a block away wasn’t abnormal, if anything walking around town and not hearing it would’ve been abnormal, but hearing it while 200+ miles away from home was just AWESOME! I remember thinking, yea, that’s my boy…

His obsession with fitness was only equal to his obsession with Downtown Stuart. HE LOVED Stuart. If there was an event in town Paul was there, I would go as far as to say if he wasn’t, it probably wasn’t an event worth going to.

On a weekly basis he did the Paulie/Radar pub crawl, it consisted of him getting home from work, throwing on a tank top to make sure you knew he had just gotten a pump in, then and out the door to the first spot, usually being Sneaki Tiki. There he would make sure Radar had his special doggie meal, say hi to the crowd as if he was the live act going on stage and then we would hang out for bit. You couldn’t just sit around too long with him though, because there was a good time to be had, he was going to find it, and nobody was going to deter him. Soon he would be off to the next spot on his good time search. A crew would develop around him, he would invite everyone back to the Sandcastle for the sunset. “My Sandcastle is your Sandcastle” he would say, Radar leading the way chasing shadows and Paul cracking jokes the whole way. At some point the Paulie dance would come out. As the night would go on his crowd would disperse, but everyone would make sure they said goodnight to Paul, and he would reply, “Love ya man, see ya around”.

When Paul told me he was sick with Mantle Cell Lymphoma, he was in full Paulie mode. He said to me, “I have to kick this thing’s a**, I just gotta”. Everyone gathered around him, his whole crew, the family he had built, to do whatever he needed, to beat the Mantle Cell Lymphoma. At the end of the day, it was going to be Paulie’s way and we had to follow suit. I think it’s easy to say the family he built here in Stuart is a testament to his spirit and heart. There was no question in our minds of being there for him, taking turns on Moffit runs across the state, taking care of his dog Radar, cleaning his apartment, getting his car detailed, attending his benefit, delivering meals, soups, and getting him blankets blessed by nuns. I think we should be proud of what we did together through this nightmare because while it was tough, and tougher for him, it was 100% pure love. He never shied away from the fight. His bravery was intense and while it may be hard to believe, it’s a fact, his heart is bigger than both his arms put together! The love Paulie extended to all of us every time we saw him, drove us to be there for him and be here today, to honor him as his family. When Paul was sent home for Hospice, he said, “They sent me home to die, but I came home to live.”. We may be saying, “Goodbye” to his body but to his spirit we say, “Love ya man, see ya around” because he touched all of us deeply, with love and laughter, and his spirit will go on, through us and around us. We will make sure nobody misunderstands who Mr. Stuart was, and who Paul Lefavi is!

Friend and Neighbor,
Sergio Nativi