Why a Golf Tournament?

[originally published in the September 27, 2013 Friday Memo]

Perhaps for some of you, this is an unnecessary question. We say, "Golf," and you ask, "When and where?" However, for most of us--myself included--golf falls into a category containing events like tennis, rugby, and curling (the Olympic sport). We might watch it, but we certainly cannot play it! So then the question becomes, "Why have a golf tournament if many of our parents do not play golf?" Two reasons propel us to organize this event.

First, we desire to broadcast to our community that we have a school that offers a legitimate, serious education. Through a golf tournament? Absolutely. We intentionally chose to work with Sand Creek Station because they are serious about what they do, and they do it well. We intentionally waited to do the tournament until this year, in part because we were working to launch a new school logo--one that is professionally done and communicates some core aspects of our school's identity. With that logo, and with the opportunity that having a tournament at Sand Creek Station provides for communicating that logo in many ways, we are seeking to establish our identity in the area. We believe that offering a first-class tournament can help us establish a positive, respectable identity.

Second, we desire to raise funds for projects at the school. While our goal in this area is rather modest for our first year, we hope that this tournament can become an annual event that contributes a reasonable amount of money towards various updates that our school could use. This year, our desire is to provide a good piano for the music room and new playground equipment. These are upgrades that we would rather not put into our budget at the moment, but through a fund-raiser like the golf tournament, we can still make some improvements. Of course, you are always welcome to donate money to the school even if you do not play in the golf tournament!