Article by Don Schwartz, WG Authentic / Visit Ford Wayne Gretzky Classic presented by Samsung

Wayne Gretzky understands the power of an assist – after all, he tallied 1,963 during his NHL career. His charitable foundation also makes plenty of assists, coming to the aid of less fortunate youth, having raised more than $1 million to date for kids in hockey.

One of the Wayne Gretzky Foundation’s largest fundraisers – the Ford Wayne Gretzky Classic golf tournament – makes an annual assist to the Foundation in large part from the work of approximately 650 volunteers, who make countless assists of their own.

“We couldn’t run the tournament without volunteers,” said Kelly Dixon-Boldt, director of volunteers for the Ford Wayne Gretzky Classic. “It wouldn’t exist without a volunteer base.”

Volunteers are the lifeblood of the tournament, providing the necessary manpower to make the fundraising event come together. Volunteers are called upon to fulfill a variety of duties from registering players to marshalling the course to doing the individual scoring to caddying and all points in between.

This year’s tournament is scheduled to tee off on July 6 at the Georgian Bay Club and the Raven at Lora Bay in idyllic Collingwood, Ontario. The pro-am style tournament is a stop on the PGA Nationwide Tour and pairs amateurs and celebrities along with professional golfers. The unique format not only entertains the galleries in attendance, but provides a memorable experience for volunteers who get to work alongside notable athletes and entertainers from the past and present.

“We always call these jobs ‘getting inside the ropes,’” Dixon-Boldt said. “Anything that gets you inside the ropes and gets you closer to the players are usually the jobs that require the most number of volunteers. If somebody’s caddying for one of the pros or celebrities, they get to be right with that group the whole time. They get to watch them and interact with them and talk with them and all that kind of stuff.”

Celebrities at past classics have included the likes of Charles Barkley, John Elway, Alan Thicke and Mark Messier. Confirmed for this year’s Ford Wayne Gretzky Classic are five-time World and Olympic Champion Donovan Bailey, former NHL star Scott Thornton and current member of the Calgary Flames, Mike Cammalleri, with more to be named later.

The chance to be ‘inside the ropes,’ along with the opportunity to give back to less fortunate youth and simply enjoy summertime in the Blue Mountain countryside, are reasons why the Classic has a volunteer retention rate of nearly 80-percent from last year’s event. However, there are still plenty of openings for people willing to give of themselves to help raise money for charity, regardless of their golf knowledge.

“Those who just want to get involved because they know it’ll be a fun event and they have friends who perhaps are involved in the event as well generally get involved in the non-golf related committees,” Dixon-Boldt said. “That includes registration and helping to organize the volunteers. We need to have a volunteer group in charge of the volunteers themselves, making sure everyone gets fed, has drinks on the golf course and those types of things. There are certainly committees that are more related to people who know the game of golf, so people who feel confident and know the game would normally fall into the walking, scoring and/or marshalling and caddying positions.”

Dixon-Boldt also notes that volunteering at the Classic is not limited to individual commitments.

“We’re also getting non-profit groups and groups of friends to take on the responsibility of marshalling a hole,” she said. “You can gather 10 of your friends and take on responsibility of marshalling a specific hole on one of the golf courses for the entire tournament. So you kind of make it kind of like your own hole.”

While money raised at the tournament goes towards the Foundation as a whole, local Collingwood-area charities also benefit from the assist volunteers provide.

“There are a lot of people supportive of the tournament because it does give back to some local charities as well those that many of the volunteers are involved with,” Dixon-Boldt said. “It’s nice for people to know that the money goes back to the Foundation but there’s also some part of it that stays locally in the community.”

People wanting to make an assist of their own can register to volunteer and select their area of interest at www.gretzky.com/golf.

Article by Don Schwartz, WG Authentic / Visit Ford Wayne Gretzky Classic presented by Samsung