Charity golf classic registrations open

Posted on March 30, 2023 by Ryan Dahlman

By Anna Smith

Commentator/Courier

While the event itself may be far away, the window for registering for the Troy Loney Charity Golf Classic is nearly here.

Named after Bow Island’s own Troy Loney, a former NHL star who spent nine seasons playing for the Pittsburgh Penguins, including winning two Stanley Cups in 1991 and 1992, before becoming the Anaheim Mighty Ducks’ first captain, and finishing his final year with the New York Rangers and New York Islanders before retirement. Loney ran a golf classic during his time in the NHL, and is happy to lend his name now to the ongoing event.

It’s not an annual classic, said co-Chairman Ryan Thurston, as they don’t want to potentially compete with other non-profits that rely on their annual fundraisers.

“We hold it in the event that our community suffers a loss and we feel the need to honour those people or that person. We hold charity golf classics to give the community an opportunity to do just that,” said Thurston. 

This year, the golf classic is being held to honour Bonnie Campbell and Harvey Nixdorf, who both passed in the last few years and have been closely involved with the board in the past.

In addition to the memory, it also serves as a fundraiser, for something that the community of Bow Island may need. 

“In the past, we raised $80,000 for the Pleasantview Lodge in 2016. We raised $80,000 for the Bow Island library, built an addition to the library, and then in 2021 we raised almost $600,000 for the construction of splash parts for the Kale Porteous Memorial Splash Park.”

The project on the table for the upcoming classic is an inclusive, barrier-free playground for Bow Island’s new Westview subdivision.

“It’s a relatively new subdivision for Bow Island. But it’s been quite a few years, and they don’t have any playground equipment or green spaces over there as of yet,” said Thurston. “It’s really been the focus on my part, I’m part of the recreation advisory board as well in town. So that’s been one of our big focuses is figuring out how to get a playground built out there. So this was a really good opportunity.”

“On the donor level, we also obviously accept donations, even if you can’t attend the event. And we have four different levels of sponsorship this year,” said Thurston. “So our bronze donors are $500 to $4,999. Silver is from $5000 to $9,999. And then gold sponsors are $10,000 and up, and platinum sponsors could be $25,000 and up. Everything over $500 is eligible for a charitable tax receipt to the Raymond James Charitable Foundation. And they’ve been big supporters of our events the last two times as well.”

Registration for the June 29 classic opens at 10:00 a.m. on April 5, with a registration fee of $100 dollars. This includes the classic, as well as a supper and auction. Supper and auction tickets will be available separately.