Rus Matos' love for powerboats is making Christmas a little more merry for some Florida children this year.  A powerboat enthusiast and corrections officer for the Orange County Sheriff's Office, Matos ran his fourth Toys for Tots boating tour last weekend in Tavares, Florida.  The event takes place each year around this time and draws people from as far away as the northeast to tour their powerboats around Florida's lakes.

While the event is a chance for enthusiasts to show off their vessels and have a good time, it also has a greater purpose: to benefit needy children during the holidays.  Before the flotilla of nearly 200 boats departed from Hickory Point Park on Lake Harris last weekend, each group of boaters left presents for underprivileged children in the hands of a uniformed U.S. Marine who was collecting them for Toys for Tots, a program that connects needy kids with presents at Christmastime.

Last week, The Corrections Connection had a chance to talk with Matos about his boating tour brainchild as well as his career with the Orange County Sheriff's Office.

Q: How did you come up with the idea for the boating tour?

Matos: I've always been a boating enthusiast and I have come by this naturally since my father was a seaman and a maritime investigator.  I always liked running the performance boats with my friends.  It originally started by me putting together a picnic for my friends and that picnic [turned] into a party and that party became a bigger party.  It became an event and then a convention and once I got the [event] performance boat enthusiasts to get this big, they wanted me to put on more events.  Not only did I want to put together events for the enjoyment of the boat enthusiasts, but also to create a better public image for [them].  [I wanted to show people that] being a performance boat enthusiast isn't about hurting the environment and killing manatees.  We've done events that have benefited Arnold Palmer Children's Hospital, Second Harvest Food Bank, the Make-a-Wish Foundation and Toys for Tots.

The Toys for Tots event started four years ago.  It's really sort of interesting [how it started].  Every time I call together an event, I have always had a charity outlet for it.  I saw that the motorcycle guys do this motorcycle Toys for Tots [event] and I thought [we could] do something similar.

It's an event that is modeled after [what] motorcycle [riders] do.  We do it with powerboats.  We will have nearly 200 powerboats running at this 2004 event.  It's not a race, [though].  We always call it a tour.  Every boat that comes usually brings several gifts for underprivileged children.  This is a genuine Toys for Tots event that is sponsored by the U.S. Marines. 

The origination is going to be at Hickory Point Park in Tavares.  It is going to be over 11 miles.  What happens is the people don't as much come to watch.  This is more of a participatory event.  I rally together all these people by several means - by magazines, by the Internet, by direct mail  and just by person to person.  They all congregate at a specific place at a preset time.  I give them a briefing about the laws and my expectations.  [I tell them to] heed the laws of the waterways.  Everyone pretty well starts together.  Everyone brings a toy.  We collected three van loads full of toys last year.  [This year], there are going to be over 200 boats and sometimes boats carry three or four people.  [I expect there to be about] 500 people.  
Some of the boats have a value of $500 and some of the boats have a value of over $500,000.  It's a very visual thing.  Some boats are capable of speed of over 125 miles per hour, but, again, it's not a race. 

Q: While powerboats are your hobby, you've chosen a career in corrections.  How did you become interested in the corrections field?

Matos: Originally, I was always very interested in the law.  My father was a special investigator for a maritime law firm.  From there, I generated an interest in law and the legal system.  Originally, I thought [that I wanted] to become a bailiff, but I saw that there were career opportunities in corrections.

In March, it will be 20 years [that I have been working in corrections and] I have been with Orange County the entire time.  I have worked at all the different facilities that they've had.  I originally started out at what was called the dungeon - the old main jail.

Q: What is the greatest challenge of being a corrections officer?

Matos: One of the biggest challenges, I feel, is learning to [set] yourself apart from situations rather than being personally the victim of the situation - realizing that this is business and then handling perhaps uncomfortable situations as business. 

Q: What do you like best about your job?

Matos: Professionalism.  In comparison to other types of businesses, once something has been [decided] and an officer tells you something will be done, [then] it will be done.  In so many other fields, such as technical fields out in the real world, you wait all day for the air conditioning repairman to come and sometimes they don't come.  [There is] professionalism in corrections - when they tell you when something is supposed to be done, it is done.