PCM9GA charity tournament fundraising committee members, left to right: Gary Gruehl, PCMGA President Ray Clements, PCM9GA Vice President John Craven. Not pictured: Kerry Walsh, Pete Herman, Erv Stein, Gary Houser, Jerry Ratigan, Brad Anderson, Rob Klein.
Erv Stein
Our PebbleCreek Men’s Nine-Hole Golf Association (PCM9GA) has conducted a number of noteworthy charity fundraising events through the years to benefit many local population segments in need of support. More recently our PCM9GA President, Ray Clements, and several committee members on their own initiative along with encouragement from Michael Kramer, Military Officers Association of America (MOAA) Secretary, and Wally Campbell, City of Goodyear, conducted a highly successful Member-Guest fundraising tournament on April 17 that raised a substantial several thousand dollars in donations for our local community MOAA Luke Air Force Base Chapter.
The local Luke AFB MOAA Community Fund Chapter, part of a nationwide notable charitable group, is dedicated to supporting our financially deprived and potentially homeless elderly and disabled veterans, providing food assistance to active-duty airmen and their families, as well offering scholarships to local area high school seniors. Previously, the PCM9GA conducted a holiday banquet, a more limited event but which nevertheless raised about $1,150 for the local MOAA chapter. While due credit is given to our PCM9GA fundraising committee members who worked tirelessly to find willing donors, the support received from our local area businesses, medical, legal, construction firms, restaurants, and so forth has been overwhelming and gratifying. Likewise, our 150 PCM9GA golfers and member-guests have looked forward to this event and banquet that featured many prizes, raffle ticket gifts, a silent auction of rare collectibles, and even two hole-in-one opportunities to win a brand new car.
At the event, all major sponsors received timely and invaluable publicity to our 150 participating PCM9GA golfers via banners, signs, and a slide show and the 150 gift bags full of business cards, favors, and other handouts. The MOAA as a result of this event received significant needed donations, all sponsors and our additional donors also benefited with added recognition from over 10,000 PebbleCreek residents, which is clearly a win-win situation.
Our PCM9GA group, founded way back in 2005 now has close to 400 members. We highly encourage prospective PCM9GA members in our exceptional, fun-loving, low-key group of golfers to contact our membership chairman, Tim Munson, at 503-460-7618 or Dusty Howard at 805-218-6461.