Over 100 golfers participated in a nine-hole scramble tournament at Pebble Creek Tuesday afternoon to support the local Backpack Buddies program.

 

The event was hosted by the Pebble Creek Women’s Club and also featured a dinner and awards banquet, prize raffles, games, contest and a silent auction.

 

The fivesome of Tammy Dickenson, Hannah Klimmek, Jane Johanns, Cassandra Johanns and Rachael Johanns took home the first place prize with a four under score.

 

Chris Lommel of Lommel Photography was also at the kickoff to photograph each team and provided them with a 5x7 framed keepsake as a memento.

 

Leah Carls of New Hope Village Golf Course and Karla Gengler of Wapicada won the closest to the line contest (A string was strung down the middle of a fairway and the ball that came closest to the string won a prize).

 

Host Bettina Potter said over 200 people attended the golf and fundraising event afterwards and Tom Keller emceed the post-golf event. He entertained the crowd by involving them in games such as Let’s Make a Deal and On the Spot questions such as “Do you have a toothbrush in your purse?”

 

All winners went home with various worthy prizes.

 

Sixty-five items were available for bidding in the silent auction. The event organizers featured a Buy It Now element to the bidding (ala Ebay) whereby someone could purchase an item for an above-retail value — avoiding the bidding process altogether. This turned out to be a rousing success when Potter announced the first five people doing the Buy It Now feature would receive an additional gift.

 

Bidders chased down items of interest and nearly 15% of the silent auction items were purchased in this fashion.

 

For the raffle, drawings were held for 14 of the large items, followed by an additional 20 grab bags. The big winner of the night was Chad Mathews, who had to wait through the suspense when a 50” TV came up in the raffle and his numbers were called.

 

Another special moment in the raffle came when 13-year-old Tristin Emholtz ran up to the podium grinning ear to ear to get his Vikings memorabilia which included a hat and Hall-of-Fame glove signed by Randall McDaniel and an autographed Cordarrelle Patterson photo.

 

Backpack Buddies Board of Director members Jeremy Hallquist, Becky Boudine, Sara Gallus and Amy Spinner attended the event and Hallquist spoke to the hushed crowd about the Backpack Buddies program. He stressed the real need that exists in the Becker community, which is servicing 215+ students at the end of the school year.  He said he was appreciative for all the Pebble Creek Women’s Club was doing to raise awareness and funds for this cause.

 

Hallquist then presented two pictures that were hand drawn by the children that participate in the program. One was of golfers and it said “Thank you golfers for feeding me and my friends.” The other was of a family and simply said “Help people, it's the right thing to do.”

 

These pictures were put up for sale/donation and immediately snapped up — adding to the PCWC’s fundraising efforts.

 

“Although our final numbers are not complete, we anticipate being close to doubling our results from last year,” said Potter.  “In terms of meals, it is likely that the Pebble Creek Women’s Club Charity Golf Event attendees raised enough funds to provide 3500 meals in the coming year.”

 

Not bad for a small community like Becker.

 

“We would like to thank all that attended and made this event an overwhelming success.”