Get ready “fore” a massive fundraiser, West Shore.
The Rotary Club of West Shore plans to drop 4,000 golf balls from 40 feet above ground in the name of charity.
On Sept. 26, members of the Rotary as well as Langford Fire Rescue will be at Olympic View Golf Club for the charity fundraiser. Three marked targets will be on the ground and with the golf balls suspended above, each individually numbered from one to 4,000. Fire department members will release the balls all at once and those closest to the targets will win a respective cash prize of $3,000, $1,000 or $500.
“This year we were supposed to have Lobsterfest but due to COVID-19 that got cancelled,” said Jim ten Hove, a long-time Rotary Club member. “Our president at the time said ‘Jim, you’ve done a golf ball drop before what do you think?’ And I said ‘yeah we can give it a whirl.”
Olympic View Golf Club donated the 4,000 balls and ten Hove took on the task of numbering each one on his own. It took a few days, but he didn’t mind doing it.
“We’re all volunteers and the money goes back into the community,” ten Hove said.
Last year, the Rotary Club of West Shore’s cornerstone fundraising project was for the Sarah Beckett Memorial Park in Langford. The club ended up raising about $263,000 for the park in the span of six months. Rotary has also funded community playgrounds offered scholarships for high school students.
With conditions in flux due to the pandemic, proceeds from the golf ball drop will go towards COVID-19 relief on the West Shore, with help going to small businesses, hunger reduction and helping those in isolation or in need of extra support.
The Rotary Club of West Shore will also continue its support for its two international projects – an orphanage in Haiti and a girls school in Malawi. The club is also on the lookout for another large project to focus on for 2021 which could be a community project, increasing literacy or helping the environment.
The Golf Ball Drop Charity Fundraiser will be streamed online on Sept. 26 at 2 p.m. on the Rotary Club of West Shore’s Facebook page. Golf balls can be purchased for $5 per ball at rotarygolfballdrop.ca.
For more information about the event or to find out more about Rotary Club of West Shore meetings, contact jtenhove@shaw.ca.