South East: Pyrford members raise record-breaking amount
Golfers at Pyrford GC, near Woking, have raised a record-breaking amount in the club’s most successful charity fund-raising year in memory.
The efforts of members and visitors to the club saw a cheque for £13,000 handed to Mike Hey of Shooting Star Chase recently.
The charity cares for babies and children with life-limiting conditions and Hey said: “We owe huge thanks to Pyrford GC, its team of captains, and most of all to its members and visitors.
“With our vital service now costing £9.5m a year to operate, every penny really does matter. Pyrford’s donation would allow us to fund two hugely important teenage weekends for groups of bereaved siblings, where they can bond and share the experience they have been through with their peers. Plus, there would also be enough left over to equip Christopher’s our local children’s hospice in Guildford, with three months’ worth of medical supplies.”
‘There is enough left over to equip our children’s hospice with three month’s worth of medical supplies’ The funds were raised in a variety of imaginative ways during the golf season.
An auction during the June Captain’s Day event raised over £3,000, while over £1,200 was raised when the new club captains performed their ceremonial ‘drive-ins’ at the start of their year in office.
Pyrford men’s captain John Gilkes was one of the key figures in the club’s charity efforts and said: “This amazing effort shows what a team can do when it pulls together. When choosing our club charity for 2014, we decided that it had to be local, and it had to benefit children. We agreed that Shooting Star Chase not only fit the bill exactly, but that it also performs an immensely powerful and important role in the community.”
Some of the more unusual fund-raising initiatives included auctioning off a prime car parking space near the club’s main entrance and the selling of £5 ‘season tickets’ to the charity bunker beside the 10th green – which normally draws a voluntary penalty donation of 50p each time a golfer lands in it.
General manager Nick Hughes said: “What a terrific story. I am so proud of everybody at the club, and especially out fantastic captains.”
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