STARS Golf Tournament

First Name	Penny
Last Name	Lees-Smith
E-mail	kinpenny@telus.net
Club Name	Kin Club of Drayton Valley
District #	4
Number of Members	10 or less
Community Size	Small community (less than 20,000)
Community Type	Rural
Project Name	STARS Golf Tournament
Type of Project (check all that apply)	Other
If other, please describe	Golf Tournament & Silent Auction
Was this project a fundraiser?	Yes
Description of project	We begin approaching our silent auction donors in January of each year, each sponsor receives our donation request personally, they are never mailed. The local golf course is booked the year prior to the tournament and the local Legion hall is also booked. The meal is done by the local Legion and they only charge us for the cost of the meal, they consider it they donation to STARS. Players in the tournament can register any time after January 1st for the upcoming year. The local car dealerships put up cars for the 4 hole-in-ones. We have a putting contest that everyone can enter for free, if a players puts the ball in the cup their name goes in a draw for the prize (last year a $100 gift certificate). We also have a chipping hole where players can chip into a wading pool. It is $5 for 3 balls. If you ball goes into the pool then your name goes into a draw for a set of golf clubs. One hole has an Out Drive the Pro option. For $5 you can drive against the pro, the pro must either shoot from his knees, or while wearing hockey gloves or something to that effect. Anyone who out drives the pro gets their name in a draw for a prepaid visa. We also have a food hole and a booze hole on the course. After the tournament is over all the players go back to the Legion for a meal (steak & lobster for the last two years) and for the silent auction. Our volunteers are from organizations that we have donated to. We set up the silent auction the night before. On the day of the tournament, our members run registration, then we run the putting & chipping contests and make sure that the teams are moving around smoothly. We also give each member of each team a free picture of their team. The picture is taken when they get to the putting contests and a local grocery store donates the printing. We partnered with the Scotiabank last year, anything that we made on the course with contests they matched the total donations and they supplied the Out Drive the Pro prize. The golf course gives us $10 for every player we get out and we use that credit to by the clubs for the chipping contest. 2017 will be the 8th year of this tournament and to date we have raised over $220,000. We also supply a free breakfast at the golf course before the tournament begins.
Service Hours	100+
Did you leverage this project as a way to recruit new members?	Unsure
If you answered yes to the question above, please explain:
How was this project promoted in your community?	We promote it on the local radio, and on local Facebook pages. We put up posters all over town. The last few years we have sold out without any major advertising.
What were some challenges you faced with this project, and how could your project be improved?	We originally faced the challenge of where to find all the volunteers. We were only a club of 5 but we hit up family and friends and now have all the volunteers we need.
What was the approximate budget for this project?	Less than $1,000
If the project was a fundraiser, what were the sources of revenue for this project?	We raised money from donations for the meals, from the silent auction and from the golf fees.
If this was a fundraiser, how much money was raised (minus expenses)?	$10,000+
What were the expenses for this project?	Our expenses are the cost of golf (covered by the registration fees), the meals (breakfast covered by local oilfield company, supper covered by another oilfield company), and the hall.
Is there anything else you would like to share that would assist another club in duplicating this project in their community?	We found that now that the projects is established it is easy each year to get our donations and to fill out the tournament.