100 HOLE Golf Challenge for Vets

My golf instructor Jeff DeBenedeti (PGA Pro and Director of Golf at Las Positas Golf Course in Livermore CA) is doing something awesome for our veterans!

…he is going to play 100 holes of golf in one day with the goal to raise at least $5,000 dollars for veterans who can benefit from playing golf. One hundred holes…that's 5 1/2 rounds of golf in one day! Yahoo. 

Here is Jeff's letter:

To Our Las Positas Golf Family,

I am going to play 100 holes of golf in one day on August 30th to raise money for PGA HOPE. Yes, I have committed to participate in this year’s NCPGA Charity Golf Challenge. The NCPGA Charity Golf Challenge was established by local PGA professionals to raise money for local community programs and charities through the Northern California PGA Foundation.

PGA HOPE is the flagship military program of PGA REACH, the charitable foundation of the PGA of America. PGA HOPE introduces golf to all Veterans, disabled or able-bodied, in order to enhance their mental, social, physical and emotional well-being. This is offered free of charge to Veterans.

The Northern California PGA Foundation is working closely with the VA system across Northern California to assist veterans in their transition. Sessions are taught by local PGA Professionals with assistance from trained volunteers and include clubs and equipment if needed, training aids, range balls and weekly golf course access.

In a sport where relationships are everything, PGA HOPE helps veterans assimilate back into their community through the social interaction the game of golf provides. This program offers a moral boost and enables our patriots to once again be active in their community and participate in the game of a lifetime!

Please help me in this endeavor by sponsoring me for $1, $2, $5 or more per hole. This pledge is 100% tax deductible through the NCPGA Foundation, a 501(c)3 organization.

I really need and appreciate your support.  Thank you in advance for making a difference.

For more information visit www.charitygolfchallenge.org or CLICK HERE to donate!

Jeff DeBenedetti, PGA

Director of Golf

Las Positas Golf Course

925.455.7822

If the above "click here" link doesn't work, click below:

http://www.pgagolfday.com/sections/northern-california/2016/players/jeff-debenedetti/

Yeah Jeff! Play away!

100 HOLE Golf Challenge for Vets

My golf instructor Jeff DeBenedeti (PGA Pro and Director of Golf at Las Positas Golf Course in Livermore CA) is doing something awesome for our veterans!

…he is going to play 100 holes of golf in one day with the goal to raise at least $5,000 dollars for veterans who can benefit from playing golf. One hundred holes…that's 5 1/2 rounds of golf in one day! Yahoo. 

Here is Jeff's letter:

To Our Las Positas Golf Family,

I am going to play 100 holes of golf in one day on August 30th to raise money for PGA HOPE. Yes, I have committed to participate in this year’s NCPGA Charity Golf Challenge. The NCPGA Charity Golf Challenge was established by local PGA professionals to raise money for local community programs and charities through the Northern California PGA Foundation.

PGA HOPE is the flagship military program of PGA REACH, the charitable foundation of the PGA of America. PGA HOPE introduces golf to all Veterans, disabled or able-bodied, in order to enhance their mental, social, physical and emotional well-being. This is offered free of charge to Veterans.

The Northern California PGA Foundation is working closely with the VA system across Northern California to assist veterans in their transition. Sessions are taught by local PGA Professionals with assistance from trained volunteers and include clubs and equipment if needed, training aids, range balls and weekly golf course access.

In a sport where relationships are everything, PGA HOPE helps veterans assimilate back into their community through the social interaction the game of golf provides. This program offers a moral boost and enables our patriots to once again be active in their community and participate in the game of a lifetime!

Please help me in this endeavor by sponsoring me for $1, $2, $5 or more per hole. This pledge is 100% tax deductible through the NCPGA Foundation, a 501(c)3 organization.

I really need and appreciate your support.  Thank you in advance for making a difference.

For more information visit www.charitygolfchallenge.org or CLICK HERE to donate!

Jeff DeBenedetti, PGA

Director of Golf

Las Positas Golf Course

925.455.7822

Here is his link to learn more and make a donation:

http://www.pgagolfday.com/sections/northern-california/2016/players/jeff-debenedetti/

Yeah Jeff! Play away!

Pleasanton Military Families: Awesome!

Along with my buddy John Nelson (uncle to SGT Jeffrey Nelson now in Afghanistan) I had the opportunity to participate in a pack out organized by the Pleasanton Military Families organization, held at our Pleasanton Veterans Memorial Hall today. Talk about organized! These people have it together and I cannot praise them enough for what they are doing for our active military men and women. It was one of the best days of my life! This loving and down to earth group has been supporting our military and their loved ones since 2003.

What you ask is a Pack Out? It is a time to fill care packages to send overseas to deployed military men and women. So much work was done ahead of time so that the volunteers only have to show up and start filling boxes! Very smart.

The room was set up so that empty boxes with recipient names were stacked up front on the stage. The rest of the Veterans Memorial Hall was arranged with rows of items to be piled into the boxes and then shipped off. Each service person was to receive 6 boxes!!! Each volunteer went up to claim a box and start filling it with goodies galore…fill but not overstuffed was our command. I felt like I was a kid at a candy store who got to give all the wonderful stuff away for someone incredibly special.

The total number of boxes packed was 22x6 + 40 = 172 boxes filled with an incredible variety of things….peanut butter, almond butter, magazines, books, tuna, Vienna sausages, personal items, socks, tee shirts, red vines, gatorade bottles filled with goodies, sunflower seeds, water guns with balloons and so on and so on.

In addition to our 22 local soldiers, today we had 40 extra boxes to be filled for Special Ops the PMF wanted to support after learning they had lost 2 of their own in Afghanistan.

Individuals and businesses from all over the community donated items…Safeway, Pepsi, Pleasanton Farmers Market, Lyons, so many I can't remember.

But Pat Frizzel, the co chair of PMF…well I have to say, she is one awesome lady and the mom of a US Marine. She took the mic and directed the volunteers about the plan of filling boxes and what to do after the boxes were packed…all new to me so I really appreciated the guidance. But best of all, she read a prayer before we started. It so touched my heart, I asked her to email it to me.

PRAYER BEFORE PACKOUT

Lord, we thank you for this opportunity to gather together as one big family to show support for the brave military of this country far away from us today. Guide our hearts and hands as we fill these boxes with care and  comfort  from home. We pray our troops will feel our love and support as they open each box.

We ask you hold your military sons and daughters close to your heart. Protect them there and be with us here when we celebrate their return. 

Until they all come home, we will all stand strong.

Amen.

Honoring Those Who Gave All

It is Memorial Day 2016. This is the national day to remember and honor those who have given all to defend the people and the land of the United States of America since her inception. 

How can we who live now in a land of abundance, paid for by precious blood, ever show our thanks, our gratefulness for such sacrifice? Perhaps to continue to love our lives each day with a grateful heart. And to always remember.

The mystic chords of memory, stretching from every battle-field, and patriot grave, to every living heart and heath-stone, all over this broad land, will yet swell the chorus of the Union, when again touched, as surely they will be, by the better angels of our nature.

Abraham Lincoln, March 4, 1861

First Inaugural Address

A Thousand Words

A picture that says it all...

From the Pleasanton Military Families website 

"Homecoming" page.

www.pleasantonmilitaryfamilies.org

Afghanistan Again

I hope you all remember Sgt. Jeffrey C. Nelson from back in our active Road Warriors days…I ran into his uncle John Nelson (our 1,000 miler) at our old stomping grounds, Sycamore Grove Park in Livermore CA. He let me know that his nephew Jeff has been 
redeployed to Afghanistan. 

Keeping you in my prayers, sir. 

Be safe.

I am proud to have this photo of you Sgt. Nelson in front of the battle zone flag 
you presented to Road Warriors. 
Can't thank you enough for putting yourself out there to defend America.

Building A Veteran's Memorial in Pleasanton

I am very excited to write about a very worthy project underway in Pleasanton California…the building of a dedicated space at Pioneer Cemetery to honor our city's veterans. More than 500 veterans have been laid to rest here dating all the way back to the Civil War.  The Memorial website makes it easy to donate and learn more about plans for the Memorial. What a great way to mark Memorial Day, May 30, 2016.

Click here to visit the website and make a donation 

Thank You!