COVID-19-related changes to the Golf for Life tournament will see the Nanaimo and District Hospital Foundation fundraiser lasting the duration of September.
With safety and social distancing regulations coming about due to COVID-19, organizers had to draw up a new strategy. Rather than a single day of golf at Fairwinds Golf Club, followed by a large dinner gathering, golfers will now tee off for the entire month of September in order to help raise money for equipment at a new intensive care unit planned for Nanaimo Regional General Hospital.
Rebecca Taylor, Nanaimo and District Hospital Foundation spokesperson, said it was “an interesting process” making adjustments to adhere to B.C. Ministry of Health guidelines.
“One of my colleagues had come up with the idea and said, ‘Well why don’t we just have people golf when they want?'” said Taylor. “We knew the golf courses were open and we sat down with Fairwinds … we were thinking maybe it would be for a week, or something like that, and they said, ‘Why don’t we do the entire month of September?’
“So it was actually, I have to say, almost a natural solution to the situation we were facing because it basically took away the concerns that you would have if you were trying to do, even a small gathering.”
For every $150 ticket purchase, $50 goes towards the foundation, Taylor said, and over $40,000 has been raised as of Aug. 19.
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Tournament prizes will also be drawn every week through the month of September, according to Taylor.
“We’ve had to forgo any kind of hole-in-ones and [closest to the pin] because people can golf any time in the month of September,” said Taylor. “So what we’ve done in lieu of all those contests is we have results-based prizing, so as long as the participants hand in their scorecard at the end of their game, we’re going to be doing a leaderboard so people can see where they stand.”
Among prizes awarded at month’s end, ones for “top” and “most honest” golfers, Taylor said.
Golfers aged 16 years and younger can also sign up for a junior tournament category.
Janice Perrino, Nanaimo and District Hospital Foundation CEO, said plans for the ICU were moving along until the pandemic was declared. The project cost could rise, she said.
“It definitely put everybody back and allowed both the government and Island Health to re-look at, ‘Are we doing what’s right for this future [ICU]? Is it everything that we need? Will it provide our future?’ and so forth,” said Perrino. “So they’re actually now in redesign. Way back we were saying approximately $33 million. We’re not even entirely sure that it’ll still be that. It might be more.”
The foundation aims to raise $5 million for the medical equipment.
For more information on the tournament, go here.
For more information on the Nanaimo and District Hospital Foundation, including the ICU project, go to www.nanaimohospitalfoundation.com.
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