by Don Sincell
Despite rain and threats of rain, the second annual William G. Weissgerber Benefit Golf Tournament held this past Friday and Saturday at the Lodestone and Oakland golf courses was a resounding success, as the tourney and various other fundraisers held in conjunction grossed an estimated $117,000 for three local non-profit programs.
According to organizers, it is anticipated that the profit from the event will exceed $90,000, to be split among Landon’s Library, the Andrew S. Woods Memorial Athletic Scholarship Fund, and Samantha’s Funding for the Arts.
Brian and Crystal Roberson-Boal, Tom and Debbie Woods, and Charlie and June McCloskey – respective parents of Landon Boal, Andrew Woods, and Samantha Gibson – spearheaded the effort; however, they were quick to state that the project would not have been nearly as successful without major support from numerous other individuals, organizations, and businesses.
“Never in our wildest dreams would we have thought that this tournament and the other events would have raised that kind of money,” Tom Woods said. “It’s just a real testament to the kind of people who live here in our community.”
“This tournament started with Bill Weissgerber coming to me two years ago with the idea that we could go a golf tournament and raise a few thousand dollars for Landon’s Library,” said Brian Boal. “He thought it might raise $2,500, but we shattered that prediction, as it generated about 10 times that. The community support has been just tremendous.
“It was truly an incredible weekend, and it seemed very evident that three kids ‘on the other side’ were present,” said Boal, who added that some of his fellow alumni from West Virginia University traveled from as far away as Michigan and Texas to participate in the event.
According to Woods and Boal, there were many examples of what appeared to be “divine intervention” throughout the two-day fund-raiser.
“There was one thing after another that made us really believe we were getting ‘help from above,'” Woods said.
He said that on Friday morning it was “raining buckets” at the Lodestone course at the Wisp in McHenry – that is, until about 15 minutes before tee-time of the event.
“It stopped raining, and it didn’t start again until just as the final foursome was completing the last hole,” he said.
Hundreds of 50-50 raffle tickets were sold at Friday’s round, and after stirring all of the tickets in a large bucket, Woods reached deep into the pile, only to pull out his own ticket. So he simply returned his winnings to the cause.
Another 50-50 raffle was held the following day at the Oakland Golf Club course, and the winner of that one was Bill German, another local parent who lost an infant daughter and in whose memory he and his wife Brittany had started a fund to provide blankets for newborns at Ruby Memorial Hospital in Morgantown. So the $525 he won will go directly into that charity.
Yet another odd occurrence was the story surrounding the winner of the helicopter golf ball drop.
