2009 Club Donation Campaign to Benefit Renee Powell’s Girls Golf Program
PALM BEACH GARDENS, Fla., March 26, 2009 At first glance, the photo looks like Kenyan girls on an Easter egg hunt. A closer inspection reveals baskets full of golf balls. These are “Rose’s girls”, happily retrieving the balls they just hit during an after school golf session. Rose Naliaka is the only female golf professional in Kenya and with the help of the EWGA Foundation she is using golf to teach life lessons to girls who otherwise lead a squalid existence in a country rife with HIV and illiteracy.
In the Fall of 2007, the EWGA Foundation launched an outreach program called “Drive for Dreams”, collecting golf equipment and other resources to ‘Give the Gift of Golf.’ Rose and her “girls” were the first designated recipient. She attended the November 2007 EWGA Conference held at Amelia Island Plantation, Fla. and enlightened conference attendees about her fledgling program. With only a handful of golf clubs, Rose was teaching golf and building self esteem and confidence in young Kenyan school girls.
EWGA members, chapters and sponsors donated a huge collection of golf clubs, shoes, clothes and other items along with funds to ship these much needed resources to Nairobi. As the container load of golf equipment was ready to leave Florida, political unrest erupted in Kenya. After several weeks, Rose reported that she was finally able to trace all the girls and shared heart-wrenching photos of the devastated slums where “some of my girls called home”.
More than a year later, after a long ocean voyage and lengthy customs delays, Rose’s ‘gift of golf’ finally arrived — dozens of clubs, clothes and other equipment – giving every one of her girls the chance to swing at a golf ball and hope for a better life. Photos and letters from the girls came just in time for the 2009 EWGA Conference in February, where the next Drive for Dreams campaign was launched.
The 2009 Drive for Dreams campaign will benefit Renee Powell’s girls golf program in East Canton, Ohio. A LPGA/PGA golf professional, Renee is one of only three African-American women to play on the LPGA tour. Her family’s Clearview Golf Club (on the National Register of Historic Places), was built by her father in 1948 and remains the only African- American owned and operated golf facility in the country. Over the past seven years, Renee’s year-around girls golf program has nurtured nearly 250 girls, introducing them to golf and the many doors it can open. Many of her students who did not know how to play golf at the start of high school are now on collegiate teams. One has earned a full scholarship to Penn State and another received a Women’s Sports Foundation scholarship.
“We are thrilled that Rose now has the equipment to help her girls and excited to support Renee in her amazing program,” says Margaret Downey, president of the EWGA Foundation. “Drive for Dreams demonstrates that sharing the ‘gift of golf’ can reach across continents and breaks down barriers. We are turning golf clubs into opportunities to help girls achieve their dreams.”
For this year’s Drive for Dreams campaign, golf club donations will be monetized, turning unwanted golf clubs into cash donations based on their fair market trade-in values. The EWGA Foundation is working with the PGA of America and its PGA Trade-in Network to facilitate the process.
EWGA Chapters are encouraged to utilize their numerous year-round events to collect golf club donations. The association also will promote and have club drop off receptacles at each of its 15 EWGA Championship Semi-Finals and the Championship Finals to encourage participants, spectators, guests and friends to contribute.
Donors will receive a receipt for their donation which they can use when preparing their income tax returns similar to how donations to Goodwill and other charities are handled. For complete details on the program click on the “Learn More About EWGA” button on the home page at ewga.com and click on the EWGA Foundation tab.
About the EWGA Foundation
The EWGA Foundation is a 501 (c) (3) not-for-profit organization, a separate legal entity formed and supported by the EWGA (Executive Women’s Golf Association). Its mission is to create and fund education and leadership programs for women of all ages. Other EWGA Foundation initiatives include: financial support for the development and refinement of the EWGA Golf Education curriculum; financial support to bring speakers with expertise in leadership development training and facilitation to EWGA meetings and gatherings; the Women On Par® scholarship program and the “EWGA at the U.S. Women’s Open” charity tournament to benefit LPGA-USGA Girls Golf (Girls Golf).
Over the past six years, the EWGA Foundation, through EWGA chapters and association-wide fundraising efforts, has raised nearly $400,000 in support of Girls Golf, one of the EWGA Foundation’s designated charities. EWGA members also serve as mentors and volunteers at more than 40 Girls Golf sites, making the EWGA one of the largest single contributors to the Girls Golf program aside from the USGA.
About the EWGA
Since its founding in 1991 as the Executive Women’s Golf Association, the EWGA has enriched the lives of more than 100,000 women connecting them to learn, play, and enjoy golf for business and fun. This not-for-profit association delivers a wide range of golf, social and networking activities for both new and experienced golfers at over 125 local chapters throughout the United States and international chapters in Canada and France.
The EWGA is headquartered in Palm Beach Gardens, Florida. For more information about the association and its membership, visit www.ewga.com
Contact:
Angie Niehoff
Niehoff Marketing Associates
561-868-0297
305-582-7450 (cell)
niehoff@bellsouth.net