Golfing for Vaughn

Each year our company has their annual golf tournament.  This is a good opportunity for our advisors to have a chance to bring their clients or others with whom they have a business relationship to the course and enjoy a morning of golf.  For this year's tournament I decided to do something a little different.  I felt like this would be a good opportunity to not only have an enjoyable day of golf with our clients and friends but as a firm also try and help Vaughn inch closer to the goal of $15,000 raised for his adoption.

The idea came when I was visiting with one of our advisors about the tournament.  He suggested that we do a fundraiser where we had Nash be involved somehow.  That's when it hit me.  Why not put Nash and I on a par 3 and "help" the teams that come through in hopes that they will be willing to help Vaughn reach his goal of $15,000.  So that's exactly what we did!

We setup on hole 14 at Old Mill Golf Course.  We put these two signs out explaining what our intentions were for assisting each group that came through.  We had Andrea and Ridge there as well as our Director of Operations, Teresa May to help out.  The weather was great and the typical excitement and anticipation of a golf tournament was in the air.

 

So this is how we were planning on helping out.  The tournament was a 4 man scramble.  Each player hits and whichever player had the best shot the rest of the team moves their ball there.  That's where the boys come into play.  When everyone was gathered around the best shot, I'd have the boys toss the ball towards the hole in hopes that we would get the team closer.  Where ever the toss ended up the team had the choice of playing from there as if that was their original shot. In return, we asked that they make a donation to Vaughn for the assistance they received.

I have to admit, I was a little worried on how this would work out.  I worried whether or not the boys really could have enough touch to get them closer.  I also worried whether the boys could last 4 hours.  I'm happy to say that they did amazing!!!

Here's a few of the highlights.  One of the groups hit a great shot and were less than 10 yards from the hole.  With everybody watching, Nash lined up and eyed the hole.  He rolled it at just the right speed and from the release it looked good.  The ball slowly rolled right up to the hole and as luck would have it, went right in!  The team erupted and Nash went into major celebration mode.  He took off running around the green with his arms like an airplane yelling that "he did it!".  Everybody loved it!  High fives and hugs all around.  Nash actually had two "hole in one's" on the day!

 

 

The second highlight was a group that was playing well, but for whatever reason had 4 not so good shots on this hole.  The best shot was off the green a ways.  Not only that but there was a huge drop on the green that really made it hard to play it right.  You would have had to hit it just right and let the ball roll down the hill and turn towards the hole.  Nash took the ball and threw it overhand as hard as he could.  The ball landed perfectly, rolled down the hill, made a big turn and stopped 12 inches from the hole.  Once again the team erupted and Nash went into his airplane celebration victory lap.
 

 

 

 

When we had everybody back at the club house I felt it was important to really try and help everyone understand just what their donations would do for a little orphan.  I showed a picture of Jaymi Bonner and told her story about how she had spent the first 5 years of her life in an orphanage.  Because of a loving family willing to take a huge leap of faith and many people rallying around them to raise the needed funding, she was now home.  Then I had Jaymi and her mom Jeana walk out to the surprise of the group.  It was fun to get to see everyone's expressions as the story unfolded right before them. 

On the day, we raised $1,014.  It's possible that more donations will come in as well as everyone had an addressed envelope where they could send a donation to RODS Racing.  That brings us up to nearly $13,000 of our $15,000 goal for Vaughn.

It's so fun to get to involve the wonderful people that I get to work with in the cause to help these special children find a home.  It's also very rewarding to get to do this as a family and see how each one of my family members can contribute in their own way.  Or in Nash's case today, in a BIG WAY! 

I'm already brainstorming for next years tournament.  How cool would it be to have Vaughn be our special guest...