Tee off with celebrities to raise funds for summer camps

The Rocky Mt. Rotary Club's annual charity golf tournament offers the chance to rub shoulders with celebrities while raising funds to make youth summer camps more affordable for families.

It's the fourth year of the celebrity-driven Rotary tournament with the majority of the proceeds aiding the camps of the Glenbow Ranch Park Foundation (GRPF).

The tournament is being held on June 25 for the first time at the highly-rated Mickelson National Golf Club in Harmony.

"We're really excited about that," says Rotarian Ryan Baum. "We follow the PGA of Canada, who were there over the weekend. We figured we would get to follow some of the pros and show them what the opposite of pros are doing on the golf course."

Baum says they have invited 36 celebrities to participate.

"Most of them are former NHL players and including some of the ones that won a Stanley Cup in 89 and some of the people that have contributed to that world."

The list also includes Olympians, media, and singers/songwriters. 

Last Friday afternoon, there was only room for eight more teams, but Baum recommends you don't wait any longer to snatch up the remaining spots; it has sold out every year.

There's a celebrity putting championship at noon and a 1:30 p.m. shotguns start for the tournament. Live and silent auctions are part of the day.

They also welcome more sponsorships and items for the live and silent auction.

"We have some tremendous prizes and we've got some great celebrities there, but that can only happen through great partnerships and sponsors."

Whether you're registering a team, or stepping forward as a sponsor, all the information can be found here.

The Rocky Mountain Rotarians are drawing closer to fulfilling its commitment to contribute $50,000 towards the camps. It was, in fact, their first major financial commitment when chartered.

The Rotary Club is three years into its commitment to assist the camps to make it affordable for families.

READ MORE: 300 youth can enjoy summer camps at Glenbow Ranch park

GRPF executive director Jeromy Farkas says this support has been crucial. 

"We're very grateful that your support allows us to be able to put on these camps, but also to help keep our fees affordable. Right now, we know that it's not cheap to be able to put your kids into day camp, especially a week-long one, but we're really thrilled that we can provide these incredible experience."

It costs the foundation about $500 per child to offer the camp but the subsidy provided by the Rotary Club significantly reduces the price tag to $275.

GRFP chair Georg Paffrath says as part of their role as stewards of the park, they continue to improve the programs offered. He says every dollar donated by the Rotarians is used for this purpose.

"We want to have these young children start thinking about stewardships, and they are," says Paffrath. "They are thinking about how they can steward the land themselves and it's amazing how they are bringing information back to their parents, and the parents are becoming stewards. This is the real 360-degree way of educating people about the about the land and about the park and the beautiful opportunities we have to promote this type of environmental education to the youth."

The foundation is offering six different types of camps in July and August, three each for those ages 6 to 8 and 9 to 12. All of them are repeated two to three times over the course of the summer.

About 190 youth are registered to date, with many taking advantage of their early bird rate, and they have the capacity to accommodate 280 youth.

You can find full details here.