The Fallen Heroes Inaugural Celebrity Golf Tournament

Hi All:

I have to apologize for being tardy with this month’s BLOG. My wife and I spent the last 6 weeks on the beach in San Diego in our motor home. Yes, retired life is good. My advice to anyone thinking about retiring or if you are tapped out on your retirement benefit is to GO, WAIT NO LONGER. However, you need to have something to do. Staying busy is the key to a happy retirement. Oh, and don’t try to tell your wife how to reorganize the kitchen. That really doesn’t work very well.

Kudos to our credit union. The Credit Union donated $2,000 to The Fallen Heroes inaugural celebrity golf tournament. If you don’t recall, several months ago, Gordon Graham and I wrote in our BLOGS about The Fallen Heroes Organization. The Fallen Heroes is a non-profit organization committed to honoring those law enforcement and fire service personnel who, in the performance of their duties, paid the ultimate sacrifice for those they served, and to serving the families and loved ones they left behind. Gordon and I are members of the Executive Board of Directors.

As I said, the first charity event that The Fallen Heroes conducted was a Celebrity Golf Tournament. The tournament was conducted at the Diablo Country Club in Diablo, California. This fundraiser was dedicated to the families of the four Oakland Police Officers violently killed in the line of duty on March 21, 2009. As you can imagine, despite the passing of time, the families of these slain Officers continue to cope with and manage the pain and burdens unexpectedly forced upon them. As a community of citizens, we honor the families of those Officers who made the ultimate sacrifice in order to provide us a safe and secure environment.
It is often said that from tragedy comes triumph. With this in mind, at this one-year point of the tragedy, our public safety family united to provide emotional support and financial assistance to the four families of the slain Oakland Police Officers. The golf tournament was a great success. The Fallen Heroes raised approximately $60,000 from the event.

It was raining the day of the golf tournament. And I mean really raining. Not the sissy rain we get here in Southern California. Eighty-four hardy souls played in the tournament. Like the post office motto, neither rain, sleet, snow, etc., would prevent the tournament from going on. In case you were wondering, I didn’t play very well that day. I have not one, but two excuses for my poor play. First, as I mentioned it was raining and secondly, I wasn’t using my own trusted clubs. Yea!! That’s the ticket!!

However, because of the generous donations from several companies, no one really got cold. At least on the inside. Sky Vodka had a free drink booth on hole # 1. Jack Daniels had a free drink booth on hole # 4. Tacos, margaritas and beer were served on hole # 9. On hole # 14 we were met by Captain Morgan and rum drinks were served. So, a good time was had by all playing in the golf tournament.

There were many celebrities that attended. The MC was Julie Haener. Julie is the Co-Anchor of KTVU’s top-rated Bay Area newscast. The guest of honor was Chesley B. “Sully” Sullenberger. Eddie Money and his band played after the dinner and auction and brought back many memories with their past hits. For you cooking buffs, Chef Charles Phan attended. Also in attendance were many professional athletes that included football’s Gary Plummer, and Jim Plunkett and baseball’s Vida Blue just to name a few. Veteran actor Ron Massak, and Kathy Garver (Cissy from Family Affair) sat at my table. Yes, we had a good time at dinner.

The Fallen Heroes will meet again this month in order to plan further events. I will keep you informed.

Stay Safe
Paul

VIVI BENE–LIVE WELL
RIDI SPESSO–LAUGH OFTEN
E AMA MOLTO–LOVE MUCH