We are currently in the organizational phase of planning our First Annual BJ SPORTS GOLF TOURNAMENT to raise money to help local veterans and kids.  The event is to be held at the new Jack Nicklaus course, Harbor Shores located along the Paw Paw River in St. Joseph just off Lake Michigan.  A tentative date of mid-July 2010 has been set.

If you are one of our vendors, please pay particular attention to the Ways to Help link below.  Things are looking good right now but we'll still need more help to get this off the ground.

If you need any other information please don't hesitate to send email or call the store.

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TOURNAMENT DETAILS

This will be an outdoors-themed, first-class event. 

• GAME:  4-man (or woman) scramble.

• TEES:  We will play from the WHITE tee boxes.

• INTEGRITY:  An independent scorer will be assigned to each hole.  He or she will ride with each team and will sign-off on the score for that hole.

• FORMAT:  Shotgun start.

• START TIME:  1:00 PM (tentative).

• ENTRY FEE:  $1,000 per team.

• HOLE-IN-ONE CONTESTS

• PAR 5 "EAGLE" CONTEST

• LUNCH:  A light box lunch will be available at the turn.

• AWARDS DINNER:  The awards dinner will be light and quick to allow participants time to drive home (assuming some from Chicago, etc). Perhaps some kind of buffet. This is nowhere near decided upon and we will be happy entertain suggestions from participants.

• DOOR PRIZE DISTRIBUTION:  Upon arrival, each team will sign-in.  At that time, each team member will be given a random number.  Each door prize will also have a number.  The team member's door prize will be the one whose number matches the one he or she was given.

• MAIN PRIZE DISTRIBUTION:  At the awards dinner, teams will receive a list of available prizes. The winning team will choose their prize, then 2nd place will choose, and so on until the available prizes are gone.

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PURPOSE

The purpose of this tournament is to: 

1. Create a fund allowing us to purchase a hunting or fishing license for veterans with service-related disabilities rated 30% or greater; and 

2. Accumulate funding required to sponsor our annual Kids Fishing Day. 

We will make available the amounts of money spent on those two ventures prior to each year's tournament, upon request.

LICENSES:  In order to be able to help as many veterans as possible, we will buy only one 'basic' license as part of this program in the first year. Any stamps or upgrades will be the responsibility of the veteran. For example, we will buy a Restricted fishing license (no trout stamp) or either a Small Game (no waterfowl) or Deer license (gun OR archery - no combo). No other licenses will be eligible. Based on projections, this should allow us to buy a license for about 250 disabled veterans annually. If significant funding is leftover for licenses after the first year, we will buy both a hunting AND fishing license the following years.

EXCEPTION:  Veterans rated 100% disabled will be able to receive a fishing license, small game license AND deer license upon request.

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WAYS TO HELP

We want to make this a first-rate event.  To do this, we'll need to offer first-rate prizes (along with a first-rate cause).  And to accomplish that, we need to ask for prize donations.

But we're giving something back to you for donating.  Every $250 (value) donated will earn you a complimentary team member entry to the tournament.  A donation valued at $1,000 or more will get you a full team entry, compliments of BJ Sports.

• Door Prize Donations

• Main Prize Donations

• Hole Sponsorships

• Cash Donations

• Volunteer to be a Scorer

Hunting, fishing, camping, golf, and sports in general will be the areas in which we would like to keep our prizes.  Rods, reels, boats, decoys, blinds, waders, tents, ATVs, golf clubs, tickets to sporting events, memorabilia, gift certificates, and other items related to sports and the outdoors are the types of prizes we want to offer to our participants.

DOOR PRIZE DONATIONS:  To help make the somewhat upscale entry fee more attractive to potential participants, we'd like to give 'door prizes' with a value of $75 - $100 to each team member. To accomplish this, we'll need 144 items. Naturally, we don't expect any one vendor to provide them all. Any help you're willing to give will be very much appreciated.

MAIN PRIZE DONATIONS:  Our goal is to provide major prizes to the top 10 teams.  This would require 40 prizes valuing $250 and greater.  This could be merchandise, gift certificates, hunting trips, fishing trips, golf clubs, camping gear, etc.  If we get more than 40, we'll give prizes to as many places as we can.  The more prizes we can offer, the greater the chance of raising the money we need.

NOTE:  We don't need the specific items now but if you could give us a monetary value commitment, it would be very helpful as planning continues.

HOLE SPONSORSHIPS:  Each hole will have a sponsorship available to local vendors. If you are local and would prefer this to donating door prizes, a sign you provide will be displayed at the tee box. Advertising to a captive audience.  Each sponsorship is $100.

CASH DONATIONS:  If you'd like to help but don't want to donate a prize or sponsor a hole, we will accept cash donations and will send you appropriate documentation to ensure you get the tax credit you deserve.

VOLUNTEER TO BE A SCORER:  We'll need 36 volunteer scorers.  Each scorer should be knowledgeable of golf and be able to stay for the entire tournament (est. 6 hours).  We are currently working on some kind of compensation package for our volunteer scorers, including possible discounted golf at Harbor Shores, but nothing is as yet engraved in stone.

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PRIZES

This list will be augmented as commitments from supporters are received.

Again, we won't need the prizes here until the week of the tournament but for planning purposes we do need to know what's coming so we can include it with our advertising to get participants signed up.

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TEAM SIGN-UP

We hope to have this available by Christmas 2009.

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