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Wednesday, August 27, 2014

$37,500 check benefits First Tee youth program of Plainfield YMCA and Plainfield Country Club


Through First Tee, Plainfield youngsters learn golf and more
at the Plainfield Country Club's West 9 course on Woodland Avenue.
A youth golf and education program of the Plainfield YMCA and the Plainfield Country Club received a check for $37,500 Saturday at The Barclays golf tournament at the Ridgewood Country Club.

The check was a matching contribution by the PGA, the national golf association, to funds already raised by the local program.

Begun in 2009, the First Tee of Plainfield program was the first private country club in the country to offer the program, which brings urban youngsters to the club's public West 9 course to learn the game of golf and important life skills. The program also includes an element called 'Path to College', which helps encourage participants in the golf program to continue on to college level education.

The check was delivered at Saturday's event to representatives of the program, including Plainfield mayor Adrian Mapp, YMCA Executive Director Ravenell Williams IV and Paul Zoidis, chair of First Tee of Plainfield.

The program is offered to children in grades 4-12 and runs over a 9-week period that includes instruction on and off the golf course in addition to an intensive homework, fitness and healthy living curriculum. 'All aspects of the program are designed to teach core life skills and demonstrate to each participant that there is a ‘Path to College’, which is an underlying principle of The First Tee of Plainfield', said Zoidis.

A Committee of Champions has been formed to help market the program and recruit participants. The Champions Committee includes Bill Caster, PGA Golf Pro at the Plainfield West 9; Steven King, Founder, The Barack Obama Green Charter School; Kelvin Mason; Erica Phillips and Randy Wood, Executive Director of the Housing Authority of Plainfield.

For more information about the program, contact YMCA Executive Director Ravenell Williams IV at (908) 756-6060.


  -- Dan Damon [follow]


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1 comments:

Anonymous said...

I understand recreation got a check also back during for mer superintendent reign but there was no fanfare about it. Wonder where that money went. The two people who spoke about it unfortunately are dead. But they said the golf program didn't see any benefit from it . Wonder what happened to it???