The fifth annual Wil-Tech Swing for Scholarships golf tournament at the TS&M Woodlawn Golf Course on Thursday saw a record number of participants.
The annual event, which helps the Southeast College to raise money towards the scholarship fund and thus support students in the region, was as close to normal as possible with the remaining health measures in place.
"It was a wonderful day. Everyone's very excited to get out and get on a golf course and be a part of the Wil-Tech Swing for Scholarships tournament. We had our largest turnout for the Swing for Scholarships event in the past five years. We had 17 teams and 62 golfers registered. So we're very excited. It was a great day," said Sheena Onrait, marketing and communications manager with the college.
The tournament was open to the public, and many people took an opportunity to enjoy an 18-hole event, which ended with a steak supper at the clubhouse. Some college staff and board members, as well as Wil-Tech Industries employees, also joined the tournament.
Onrait said that after a few years, Swing for Scholarships is better known in the community and its popularity keeps growing.
"This was our fifth year anniversary with Wil-Tech. It was a big deal to celebrate five years of partnering with the Wilson family and Wil-Tech Industries. Generally, over time tournaments gain momentum, and they get bigger and bigger. And that’s what we see and hope for with this event," Onrait said.
The City of Estevan team, consisting of Jeff Ward, Jeff Pierson, Russ Mantei and Pete Sereggela, had the lowest score and won the tournament. They will receive the awards at a later date.
The tournament was still slightly modified from what it looked like before, as they had tee-times instead of a shotgun start, but other than that it was just a great day of golfing raising an estimated $15,000 for the students in the southeast.
"All of the money raised at the Swing for Scholarships event goes directly into the student scholarship fund. And that gets distributed to Southeast College students throughout the region," Onrait said.
She also thanked their partners and supporters for everything being done from year to year to make this event happen.
"We'd love to thank Wil-Tech Industries for their support. Over the past five years, it's been an amazing, community-oriented, local company, and we sure appreciate everything that they have done to help us build this event. And we look forward to the partnerships for many years to come. And we also appreciate hole sponsors, drive for education sponsors, prize sponsors and everyone who entered teams. Without all that, it's hard to host an event and all those things have to happen together. And we sure appreciate all of that.
"It's the second-best event of the year. Giving the money away to the students is the best event. And our fundraisers are the second-best events," Onrait said.
