Best Shot for Better Care

Last week, GRMC held its 21st annual golf outing at the Grinnell Golf and Country Club.

In 1989, Chris (our PR and development director at the time) generated the plan to hold our first “friendraiser” on the links. The idea, of course, was to find an excuse to play some golf and raise some money for GRMC’s mission while enjoying the friendships that often occur on the green. It was a huge success. All these years later, it is still going strong.

I have had the privilege to play in 16 of the outings. In all those years, we have amazingly only experienced one rain delay and never a rain out! This past Friday, Mother Nature blessed us with a gorgeous June day in Iowa. It was a fabulous tournament.

For the past nine years, Leslie has coordinated our annual event. Once again, with the help of GRMC’s development staff and PR team, she pulled off another flawless outing. Leslie is moving on to other things, so this was her last golf outing with us. I want to thank her for all her efforts over the years! This year in addition to having a great event, we raised more than $12,000 for the medical center. This would not be possible without the support of both participants and sponsors. For the 2010 event, our lead sponsors were Bernie Lowe and Associates, Grinnell State Bank, JELD-WEN and Windstream (Iowatelecom). I sure appreciate their continued support of this event and, more importantly, our mission of service to the community.

This year we played a four person best shot, with two teams on each hole. It is quite the spectacle to see eight players tee off on each hole and make their way to the best shot for each team. Although my team did not win (or for that matter even place in the top half), we had a lot of fun! My son, Grant, played with me this year. It was great having him join in on the fun. At my first GRMC golf outing, he was a toddling 1-year-old. Now he is taller than me and out-driving me by 20 yards!

Grant takes his turn at teeing off.

GRMC’s donors come in many shapes and sizes. Sometimes they create a bequest or reply to our annual fund drive solicitation. Other times they make a planned gift or memorial to mark the significance of a special person. Big or small, each gift to GRMC makes a difference in the lives of those we serve.

While the GRMC golf outing is a fundraiser, I think Chris had it right 21 years ago when he tagged it a “friendraiser.” At its core, this particular event brings friends and neighbors together in the name of curing and healing. Whether it’s “closest to the bed pan” or putting with lead lined radiology gloves, we have lots of fun and support our patients on every hole. FORE!