For more than 10 years, the Tellico Village Lions Club has held an annual fundraising golf tournament.
This year’s event, which is called “Golf for Sight,” is set for 9 a.m. May 7 at Toqua Golf Course, and club members are hoping for a big turnout.
“It’s our biggest (fundraiser),” Richard Kolasheski, Lions Club member, said. “We usually raise around anywhere from $9,000-11,000.”
The tournament helps fund the Lions Club’s vision screening program that is organized through the Good Samaritan Center in Loudon County. This year, the club has already spent far more than it budgeted on local vision products, and members expect that trend to continue.
“Lions are all about vision. We do health (fairs) at Good Samaritan Center every month,” Kolasheski said. “The big thing we do is vision screenings. We’ve got an optometrist on the team, and if somebody goes through the initial screen like you’d do at the (Department of Motor Vehicles) and they have problems, then the optometrist gives them an examination. If they need glasses then he writes them a prescription. Well, if they are at or below the U.S. poverty line, then we pick up the tab for the glasses.
“The glasses and the examination, it’s about $125,” he added. “So far this year we’ve spent almost $11,000, and we’re on track to spend about $15,000. We only budgeted to $1,000, so we’re kind of in a hole on that program. Then the other thing we do is we donate money to the East Tennessee Lions Eye Bank, to Vanderbilt University Lions Eye Center down there.”
The organization also has a digital camera used to detect eye diseases in children 6 and younger that Kolasheski said needs to be replaced every few years at a cost of about $6,000.
“It takes a digital image of the eye, and we send it down to Vanderbilt and the eye doctors down there look at those digital images and they can diagnose nine different eye diseases,” he said. “What they do is they send the diagnosis back to the school nurse. She gives it to the parents, and they go and get the eye treated. We’ve prevented a fair number of cases of blindness in young children over the years we’ve been doing this.”
The tournament in May is the biggest way the club funds those services. Most of the money comes from sponsorships, but entry fees and other golf-related costs contribute as well, Kolasheski said.
The cost for the tournament is $45 per person plus greens fees for Tellico Village property owners and $85 per person for non-property owners.
“Not many Lions play because a lot of us have to work,” Kolasheski said. “But it’s people from all over the Village and even some outsiders. Now if somebody does a corporate sponsorship — gives us $1,000 — they can put a foursome in the outing free of charge.”
Support for the tournament has been steady in recent years, but Kolasheski said the sheer number of tournaments held throughout the year by different organizations makes it hard to grow.
“Everybody and their brother have golf outings,” he said. “Kiwanis has one; we have one. I’m on the United Way board of directors for Loudon County ... and they’re having one in June out on Rarity Bay. So there’s just a lot of competition.”
Even so, he said the tournament is a fun way to get people to contribute to the Lions Club.
“I think it’s a good activity,” he said. “It’s a fun thing. People get out. The courses are nice, and you just enjoy yourself. You can have mixed foursomes. You can have men. You can have women. There’s a lot of things you can (do). For example, with the (golf professional at the course) you can rent the pro for a hole. You can buy mulligans so you can win a hole in one on a par three. Some stuff like that makes it fun.”
The tournament employs a best ball format. Prizes will be awarded to the best scoring teams in all male, all female and mixed categories. Closest to the pin, longest drive and straightest drive awards will also be given out. Golfers will also be able to win a car with a hole-in-one on one of the course’s par three holes.
“Generally what we do is it’s merchandise prizes mostly. Free rounds of golf, dinner at various restaurants, stuff like that,” Kolasheski said.
For more information on the tournament, email Kolasheski at richard.kolasheski@aol.com or project leader Larry Elder at lelder49@gmail.com.
