The Estevan Lions Club raised roughly $8,000 for the Canadian National Institute for the Blind (CNIB) at its 22nd annual golf tournament at TS&M Woodlawn Golf Club last Thursday.
Bob Abernethy, chairman of the tournament and a Lions Club member, said 75 golfers took part in this year’s tournament, which is around their yearly average of participation for the last few events. He said being able to generate this amount of support considering the economic downturn that has seen people and businesses in the area struggling is something to be thankful for, but there was still a worry the tournament could get rained out for the first time in its history.
“I started getting nervous the previous day when looking at the weather forecast,” said Abernethy, noting they had to shut down the tournament for about 45 minutes when a storm rolled through the area around noon. “I wasn’t sure what was going to happen there, but we just had to go with whatever happens and after that it ended up being pretty good.”
Christall Beaudry, executive director of CNIB for Saskatchewan, said proceeds from the golf tournament will go to help the approximately 150 people in the Weyburn and Estevan area who are blind or partially sighted live an independent life in terms of orientation mobility skills or living skills. She said the annual Lions Club tournament is a significant fundraising initiative for the CNIB and has raised approximately $176,000 for the organization in its 22 years and to help show their support they headed to the golf course to stage a special tee off on the first hole.
“We give people a little taste of what it’s like to be blind or partially sighted,” said Beaudry. “We put on a pair of completely blacked out glasses on the individuals and they tee up and they try to go for the longest drive without sight which is quite interesting. We do have a lot of blind and partially sighted golfers. One of my staff (Gerry Nelson) is a third place world blind golf champion, so it can be done. But it’s interesting when people put on the blacked out glasses. It’s a different experience altogether.”
Abernethy said the Lions Club has had a focus on helping the blind since 1925 when philanthropist Helen Keller released a statement to the organization imploring them to be knights of the blind and crusaders against darkness.
“Since then for Lions all over the world it’s been one of our main focuses,” he said. “We do try to support youth and do a lot of community activities too, but blindness is one of the main ones.”
