On October 11th, possibly the most beautiful day of 2021, Make a Miracle hosted our 3rd annual golf tournament at White Columns Country Club in Milton, Georgia. Our volunteers were there pre-dawn to set up for the 90+ participants to arrive. White Columns had a breakfast spread and our reps from Proof Media Mix had a beautiful Blood Mary bar set up for the players.
Rocky Shipes started off the tournament with some golf tricks and some tales from the past. He commemorated the 20 year anniversary of his longest drive, 509 yards. Later he would set up on the 9th tee box to hit for any group for a small donation; half going to our nonprofit.
The golfers participated in a quick putting contest before play started. They had a ball with a number on it and chose a spot to stand. At the same time, they all hit their balls towards the hole, with the closest one winning $300! They loved the little friendly competition to start off their round.
The prizes for the top three winners this year were extra special: beautiful wooden American flags handmade by our own Rocky Shipes. These unique trophies gave our golfers a little extra motivation to play well. As always our tournament planner, Mark Davidson, donates all the prizes as well as the crazy knicker outfits that Jack Canouse and Chris Albano wear.
After the round, the players were happy to see some wings, sliders, and mac n cheese bites for them to enjoy during our presentation. We started with Jen Dickenson from Movement Mortgage presenting a $10,000 grant check to Make a Miracle. Then Jasson Caceres, one of our scholarship student graduates, shared some stories about his fellow students and the impact their scholarships made on their lives. He sincerely thanked their sponsors who were in attendance and encouraged the rest of the group to continue their support because together we can break the cycle of poverty through higher education.
Mark announced the last place winners and gave each of them some bright orange golf balls to help them find them in the rough along with a gift certificate to Crust Restaurant so they could go "think about their game." Next, the small flags were awarded to the third-place team headed up by Kirk Dunham from Raymond James. The medium flags went to Chris Albano's team and the first prize winners from Forza Group got the grand prize: the large wooden flags. The winners were thrilled with their new "trophies" and were already talking about next year's tournament.
Rocky had a surprise for the players who did not win: a hand-carved wavy American Flag even larger than the rest. He auctioned it off and found three guys who bid $1,000. He kindly agreed to make two more flags for a total of $3,000 raised for our outreach in Peru! At this time we had a big surprise. Jack was told by a player who wishes to remain anonymous that he would match donations up to $10,000! Hands went up quickly with $1,000 donations being shouted out.
Because of all of this generosity we completely crushed our last year's number of $46,000 raised, with a grand total of $71,000! Thank you to everyone who helped make this a day filled with a spirit of generosity and miracles for Peru!
Thank you to all of our amazing sponsors!
