Tim Keithley| For the Ruidoso News
[email protected]
The Food 4 Kids Backpack Program Annual Golf Tournament is seeking players and sponsors for the 36-team competition. The tournament will be held Sunday, June 29, at Inn of the Mountain Gods.
“This is our biggest fundraising event of the year,” said Elizabeth Potter, founder of the Backpack Program that distributes food to Lincoln County children on weekends.
The annual tournament was typically a sellout before the COVID-19 pandemic, Potter said, filled with golfers and hole sponsors. The tournament was scheduled to continue last year before fires forced cancellation.
“So many of our sponsors and golfers told us to keep the money for the program, but our board had another idea,” Potter said. “We took the money and donated most all of it – about $36,000 – to the Community Foundation.”
The funds went directly to fire and flood victims within the community, she said.
Potter said the Backpack Program is hoping the tournament’s return this year will once again boost the coffers of the program, which runs entirely on private donations. Entry fee for the four-person, best-ball tournament is $130 per person or $500 for a team, she said. Mulligans and “miracle putts” can be purchased in advance of the shotgun start at 1 p.m.
Trophies and prizes will be awarded and all golfers are invited to a buffet dinner immediately after the tournament. Non-golfers are invited to attend for $30 each. For more information or to sign up for the tournament, call 575-937-4732.
The Food 4 Kids Backpack Program offers food to local kids on weekends throughout the year. In the last fiscal year, Potter said, the program served over 17,000 bags of food to hungry children in Lincoln County. She said the organization is nonprofit and tax deductible and has an annual budget of about $60,000 with no paid employees.
Tim Keithley is a freelance reporter for the Ruidoso News. He can be reached at [email protected]
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