Some say in life to reach for the stars, Saturday at Stafford Country Club golf course tournament players were driving, putting and some whiffing for the Stafford Stars Program.
Stafford County’s golf course was home to the first annual Stars Benefit Golf Tournament to raise money for Stafford’s Shining Through Academics and Relationships at Stafford After School program.
“I’m thrilled, very happy,” said Kaley Conant, USD 349 instructor and one of the tournament organizers. “We really didn’t expect this many teams for the first year.”
The tournament was a three-man scramble with 14 teams playing in the inaugural event. One player was even a student in the program.
“”I’ve learned a lot of neat things from the Stars program,” said 8-year-old Marshall Woolf.
Marshall’s dad Dallas played as one of the other two members of his team. His mother, Kim is the Elementary School Principal at USD 349.
Stars provides unique learning experiences for children kindergarten through eighth grade in the after school program including homework help, tutoring, enrichment activities and more.
Program director Sharilyn McNickle said Stars was initially funded through a five-year, no child left behind grant. That grant will decrease significantly in 2011 and 2012 and will end altogether after that. USD 349 does not provide any funding to them.
“We had to find another way to fund our program, because you really can’t count on grants and budget with them,” she said. “I heard of another program that had some success with a tournament so we thought we would try it.
“The community has been very supportive of our efforts with donations. Farmers National Bank is our overall tournament sponsor, and we have several others sponsoring different holes and flight prizes.”
Some of the prizes included golf packages to several private courses in the area. All the money raised from the tournament will be used to keep the program going.
Volunteers for the tournament included students, teachers and advisors from Stafford schools.
“I have to give a lot of credit to my husband Cameron,” Conant said. “He’s the one that taught me all the golf talk.”
See more photos from the tournament in our photo gallery or online at tslegends.com
