The Weyburn Oilwomen Association held their 18th annual golf tournament on Friday, June 13th, one of two major fundraisers held by the organization each year, which helps them support the community.
"We were lucky enough to be three golfers shy of a total sellout, so that put us at 141 golfers," said Chair Carmen Sterling. "A big part of the fundraising for us is the sponsorship we get from the local business community that provides sponsorship for the different levels for our event. We're cost recovery, essentially, on our tournament registration fee, and then we run some 50/50 and raffle draws to kind of top-up that up to what we end up with at the end."
"Thank you to all the golfers who came out and all of our sponsors. We're really lucky in Weyburn and area, that we have such a great group of businesses that really come to the plate when you need sponsorship and supporting our event. So we couldn't do that event and raise the kind of money that we do from that event without sponsors, and then our golfers supporting us, by first of all being there, but then also purchasing our 50/50s and our raffle tickets. We appreciate it."
She said they did really well on their 50/50 raffle, with the winner's cut being $1,600.
"We were actually very appreciative of the winner. She decided to donate $1,100 of it back to us, so that was really great of her," shared Sterling. "That's just one of the factors, and then we still have to do the final tally on the rest of our sponsorship and raffle results."
With the event being the 18th annual, it was an exciting milestone for the group, which was not formed quite as long ago.
"This was like the first event for women that were involved with this group that worked in the oil industry, basically kind of non-traditional roles and activities were generally geared towards other types of activities that weren't just for women, and so a group of women got together and decided to host this tournament and try and use it as a fundraiser to be able to benefit their community as it evolved, and we've been lucky enough that they decided they wanted to try and put that type of an event together for women to be able to network and then also continue on to raise funds. And now, our organization is now fully evolved into a charitable organization, and that's still one of the key highlights for us is this event."
Sterling said they're still in discussions as to where the funds raised this year will be allocated.
"We've been having some discussions in regards to some new initiatives, so we've been talking to some potential partners as we go forward, hoping to provide just some new access to funds, maybe to the kids in our community, and then also some new programming. So we haven't earmarked specifically for anything at this point," she noted.
"As it has in the past, it will continue to help us support our scholarships that we provide at the college and at the Weyburn Comprehensive School, as well as our other initiatives."
She said they have some key initiatives that they are hoping to be able to unveil soon to target these funds within the community.
"We're just working with some partners, finding where it fits in with what's already happening in Weyburn."