Great game, great causes
Mon, 20 Sep 2010 11:56:32
By Scott Simmons, Executive Director and CEO, Golf Canada
With the running of this week's Golf Fore the Cure National event, it got me thinking about the tremendous impact charity golf events have in Canada.
Monday's Golf Fore the Cure National Event at Bayview Golf and Country Club is the culmination of a season's worth of regional participation events held across the country. This year alone, competitors took part in 222 Golf Fore the Cure events across the country, helping to raise $750,000 towards breast cancer research in partnership with the Canadian Cancer Society and the Quebec Breast Cancer Foundation.
To date, Golf Fore the Cure has seen 16,000 women help to raise more than $3 million for breast cancer research since it began seven years ago.
As far as Golf Fore the Cure goes, it really is a special program; not just because it helps to raise money for a great cause, but because it encourages many women that might not otherwise play golf to get out and participate. In fact, when Golf Fore the Cure first launched, it was developed primarily as a recreational program aimed at increasing women's golf participation across the country. Adding a philanthropic element that is near and dear to so many - breast cancer research - has given the program tremendous momentum over the years.
Golf in the name of charity is a wonderful thing. Each year, hundreds of thousands of Canadians take part in charity golf tournaments, which are a great way to get out with friends and colleagues and enjoy the game while helping to support great causes.
As many readers I'm sure are aware, golf is a major charity driver in Canada. But as Canadians, do we really realize just how big of an impact golf has on charitable endeavors across the country?
To put it in perspective, each year in Canada, more than 25,000 charitable golf events help to raise more than $439 million annually. Think about that - $439 million raised each year by Canadians on Canadian golf courses in the name of charity. When you stop to think it about, the numbers are staggering.
On the topic of golf-related charity, Canada's two national open championships - the RBC Canadian Open and the CN Canadian Women's Open - also feature an important philanthropic mandate. The charity vision of the RBC Canadian Open is to work with our national charity partner - the Mike Weir Foundation - as well as local charity beneficiaries to raise $5 million over the first five years of RBC's involvement. Meanwhile, the CN Canadian Women's Open and the CN Miracle Match Program have helped to raise more than $4.3 million for children's hospitals in the event's host communities including $800,000 that was raised this year in Winnipeg for the Children's Hospital Foundation of Manitoba.
