2024 marks another successful Pritchard Memorial Golf Tournament in the books. This annual event is in memory of Mike Pritchard who was a golf course superintendent at Minnedosa, and at Carman, and at the Grand Pines Golf Course, up until he got sick and passed away in 1998 of Sarcoma (bone cancer).
His brother Darren said after 27 years of holding this tournament this year was its most successful, raising just over $103, 000 for Cancer Care Manitoba and South Central Cancer Resource.
“We thought about turning the golf tournament off after 25 years just because that was Mike's hockey number and it's a lot of years and like we talked about a lot of work, but because we have so many people, and we're doing such a good thing and we want to keep it going, as a large community that helps us out and a lot of volunteer hours from a lot of different people, and we're going to get it to 30 years. So, we have three more years. Then we’ll reevaluate then and see how it goes from there.”
With a record number of golfers, hole sponsors, and online prizes (over 110) Pritchard said garnering support locally and from around the province isn’t difficult as most people know someone who has had cancer, and they want to support these two great organizations.
Just over $51,000 went to SCCR.
SCCR chair of the finance board and resident of Carman Jack Pethybridge has known the Pritchard family for years and recognized the amount of hard work that goes into this fundraiser.
“I've known Bob and Linda my whole life and got to know both Darren and his brother, Al, very well over the past few years. They do a tremendous amount of work. Al is the athletic therapist for the Winnipeg Jets. And I know, as well as the two of them getting financial support and sponsorship, he collects a lot of memorabilia for the silent auction to raise money, so I know they work at this year-round. We're extremely pleased with the amount of work that they do.”
He said last year was one of the largest years of support for the non-government funded charity from the family, with this year’s donation growing a bit more.
He noted this on-going support is much needed.
“A lot of it is client support. Client transportation is one of our biggest expenses that we do helping families out, transporting patients to both Boundary Trails and Winnipeg for medical appointments. And in the last year, with our number of clients increasing, last year we spent just over $200,000 on transportation alone for both self-transportation and transportation costs per client.”
Pritchard confirmed support for the fundraiser is growing with $45,000 raised from the online auction alone. This year’s outpouring of support has pushed the family closer to their goal, raising over $600,000 to support cancer patients, like his brother Mike.
“I got a really touching e-mail from Leora Hamm (SCCR Administrative Coordinator) and she just said, ‘It's always nice to go to the bank and get the largest single donation of the year from the Mike Pritchard Memorial Tournament.’ And that's pretty special.” Pritchard added.
“And whatever we can do to help is what we try and do and want to continue to grow that number. Our goal is to hit $1,000,000 and we're three years away from 30 years and we'll. See what happens after that. But if we can get our numbers up just a little over 100,000, we'll reach $1,000,000.”
Both Pritchard and Pethybridge expressed their deepest gratitude for all who supported the golf tournament and online auction from the Pembina Valley and across Manitoba.
