INNISFAIL -The saying around town this time of year goes that rain or shine the golf game will go on, rain or shine.
The 33rd Annual Rotary Golf Classic was held on July 4 facing cold and blustery weather conditions but the scores of golfers who did come out did not care. Rotary's annual tourney, always a must-attend fundraiser for a most worthy cause, played on.
"I am out here to support the Rotary Club of Innisfail. The town put in a team this year as they have in the past. I am excited to show some support and have some fun," said Coun. Donnie Hill, who teamed up with fellow councillor Glen Carritt, Mayor Jim Romane, and Kane Williams, the town's recreation program coordinator.
Hill and his foursome team did have fun, along with another 25 or so. Mostly, though, it was all about raising money for another great cause. All proceeds from the tournament were turned over to the Innisfail Youth Positive Assets Coalition (YPAC), an organization developed by the town's FCSS office since late 2017 with a vision to help youth and young adults feel valued and have a sense of belonging in Innisfail.
"We will do this by creating awareness, offering education and training, and developing activities and initiatives that engage youth and young adults between the ages of 14 to 24 years old," said Karen Bradbury, the town's community and social development coordinator.
Dr. Andrew Ritson-Bennett, local Rotary president and tourney chair, said the service club committed $20,000 to the youth program, with a good chunk of that coming from the golf tourney. Another $2,000 was turned over by Rotary to Dean Turnquist's Helping Hand Fund, specifically to help its annual Spring Fever Road Hockey Tournament.
He noted YPAC is designed as a "building block of success" with a goal for local youth to have a sense of belonging to the community, to become supporters of their community and lead healthy lives and ultimately give back to the community and continue to play their part to make it more functional.
"It's a program that is going to try to impart skills upon the youth of Innisfail, and what I believe they (YPAC) do plan on doing is partnering with different businesses and community service clubs and try to mentor the youth that might not have mentorship in those fields or might be looking for mentorship in those fields," said Ritson-Bennett.
As for the tournament itself, Craig O'Neill, a tourney committee member and treasurer, said there was an excellent response from the local business community to sponsor the event, noting a record may have been set this year for the most gold sponsors, six of them each contributing $1,500 towards the event.
He said while sponsorship increased this year the number of golfers was slightly down from the maximum of 144 to the 112 who did register. But then again the soggy early summer weather, especially on last week's event day, no doubt played a part.
Nevertheless, the tourney did go on with its shotgun start followed by best ball play. There were prizes afterwards, like for longest drive and closest to the pin, but that was certainly not anyone's motive for the day.
"The prizes are not the end goal. They are secondary," said O'Neill, noting there was also raffles for the golfers to take part in, as well as an after game dinner. "The end goal is to give back to the community and support Rotary."
