Written by Sana Ansari
(Events & Volunteer Development Intern)

Under a crisp blue sky, fresh with the scent of the summer breeze on the morning of July 10th 2010, IDRF welcomed golfers at the exclusive Angus Glen Golf Club to raise money for child education. A hundred and eighteen golfers registered for the tournament which raised funds for a tutoring programme supported by IDRF called Licensed to Learn. The program focuses on providing educational support to students who face challenges in literacy and numeracy.

Golfers set out to the pristine green course after enjoying an early morning breakfast buffet at the club house. During the tournament they tried their luck at the challenging ‘hole in one’ contest for the grand prize of a Dixie Mitsubishi car. There was also the ‘Driver Accuracy Contest’ where a 12ft radius around the hole had to be met and a ‘closest to the pin’ challenge organized by a sponsor for the prize of a golf bag. The winning foursome of the tournament included; Gary Singh, Adrian Thorbury, Pradeep Sood and Don Schroder who took home the grand trophy. The Closest to the Pin Front Nine was bagged by Bruce Corrigan whereas for the Back Nine it was Jasbir Singh. Tasreem Mohamed took the prize for the ladies Front Nine Longest drive and Demetria Barbera for the Back Nine Longest drive.

With numerous prizes on offer, raffle tickets were very popular and were rapidly sold off by the arm’s length by our young volunteer, Nabeel.

The truly exciting finale of course was the live auction where bids were put in for sensational items like a pack of 16 tickets to the Toronto FC game at the Exhibition Place; tickets to the Indy car race and not to forget the vuvuzelas and a World Cup special edition South Africa flag flown in fresh from Johannesburg!

After a rather exciting tournament commencing at 7.30 am and concluding at 1pm, golfers along with the IDRF staff and volunteers enjoyed a delicious three course meal in the Angus Glen marquee set against a beautifully landscaped setting. During lunch, tournament winners were given the trophies, and sponsors’ generosity was recognised by awarding them with plaques. Indira Naidoo, the glamorous TV host on Omni and CBC was the emcee for the day, guiding the speeches and prize giving ceremonies.

Stan Pearl, the VP Programs at Licensed to Learn was also present on the occasion and spoke about the importance of the current project. He informed those present that in Ontario, one third of the 171,000 elementary school students in the Toronto public schools fail to achieve the provincial standards in literacy and numeracy, and one quarter of the 86,000 secondary students drop out before high school graduation. Licensed to learn seeks to deliver peer-to-peer tutoring in Toronto District schools. The project aims to engage the highest achieving and most empathetic students to create a supportive peer-to-peer network for their failing peers and this year IDRF too will be a part of this program by contributing the proceeds from this year’s ‘Friends of IDRF’ Golf tournament. 

For more information about IDRF’s project, please click here

To view images from the event, please click the image below.

The team at IDRF would like to extend its heartfelt appreciation to all the participating golfers, supporters, volunteers and organizers who made the event a huge success. A special thanks to sponsors and donors for their generous support.

SILVER SPONSOR
Cover-All Computer Services Corp (Zeib Jeeva)

HOLE SPONSORS
Atlantic Stainless Fabricators (Mohammed Rafik), Baker & McKenzie (Nurhan Aycan), BDO Canada LLP (Salmaan Alvi), Business Development Bank of Canada (Sal Rabbani), Business Printing (Shuja Ansari), Canaccord Capital (Gary Singh), Canadian Feed The Children (Raymond J. White), Caribbean Roti Palace (Iqbal Hosein), Cocki (Ahmed Raja), Dixie Mitsubishi (Faizel Bhabha), Eglinton Carpet (Mohinder Singh), Investors Group (Elaine Liao and Robert Law), NPC - Niagra Protective Coatings (Dean Karachi), P.T.S. Tire Shop Inc. (Hamid Moolla), West GTA Endoscopy (Dr. Cassim Degani), White Owl Global Service Ltd. (Salma Djukic), Yunus Timol LLB, BDO Canada LLP - Risk Advisory Services (David Knott)

PRIZE DONORS
Royal bank of Canada, Casa Loma, Wild Water Kingdom, Playdium, Hockey Hall of Fame, Exhibition Place, Investors Group, Nasir Mohamed, Arman's Trinkets- Naaz, Optical Lounge - Goolam Begg, Business Development Bank of Canada, All Star Carpentry Inc.,
Angus Glen golf club, Brown Man Clothing Co., Adaa Artistry

INTERNS
Sana Ansari
Andrew Liu
Eva Lam

VOLUNTEERS
Mateo Diaz
Sara La Flamme
Jigna Rai
Ryan Binda
Monicke
Anaita Dobash
Uzma Kapadiya
Jehann Hashim
Nabeel Rasool
Azhar Rasool
Talib Rashdi