Golf balls flew in the sky during the day and money flowed out of wallets at night, making the 24th annual YVR for Kids fundraiser another huge success.
Last Thursday, 144 people teed off at the Quilchena Golf and Country Club and 380 attended the dinner and auction at the Sheraton Vancouver Airport, raising an estimated $250,000 for Canuck Place and a dozen other charities, including Dreams Take Flight, Hope Air, Richmond Christmas Fund, Little Wings Daycare and Richmond Therapeutic Equestrian Society.
“I’m personally delighted to see this continue on with the support of the airport community,” said co-founder Wayne Duzita. “I’m already looking forward to next year.”
About $3.6 million has been raised in the last 24 years, with $2.2 million going directly to Canuck Place. The most raised in a single year was $400,000. “We fundraise 80 per cent of our budget every single year,” said Canuck Place CEO Margaret McNeil.
“Events like this help us provide hospice care to kids who are not expected to live past the age of 19.”
Canuck Place provides support and a temporary home to children and their families throughout B.C. and Yukon.
Craig Richmond remembers participating in the event in its early years when he joined the airport in 1995. After a stint outside of Canada, he returned last year, taking the president and CEO position of the Vancouver Airport Authority. He was surprised with how much the event changed.
“This used to be a relatively small, airport event,” Richmond said. “I never thought it would become this big.”
The golf tournament started in the mid-1980s as a casual event for American and Canadian law enforcement officers working at Vancouver International Airport. In 1991, the event was revamped into a major fundraiser after Brian and Audrey Flagel, both of whom worked for Canada Customs, lost their daughter Elise to cancer on the day of the event, which was cancelled due to bad weather.
It was only when the tournament was rescheduled that the Flagels’ colleagues decided to turn the golf tournament into a charity fundraiser in Elise's honour.
“Originally, we would just go out and have a great big party,” Flagel said. “But then we decided to do something useful. I thought we could aim to raise $5,000 for Canuck Place, but Wayne (Duzita) said to aim higher.”
Originally called Can-Am Golf for Kids, the event raised about $35,000 in its inaugural year. Canuck Place was chosen as a recipient because one of the driving forces behind creating that hospice for terminally ill children was pediatric nurse, Brenda Eng, who nursed Elise at B.C. Children’s Hospital.
“It was a positive outcome from something tragic,” Flagel said. “The golf tournament was so successful, we thought how we could make it better next year and we continued to make it better and better and better.”
Planning for the silver anniversary has been in the works for a year already, but people can expect something really big and special next year, Duzita said.
