INNISFAIL - James O'Dwyer was feeling mighty good on the morning of July 3.
The weather was perfect and about 140 citizens, including volunteers, were lined up in the carts at the Innisfail Golf Club for a shotgun start to play a round of old-fashioned Texas Scramble.
Everyone playing was all in for the 39th annual Rotary Club of Innisfail Charity Golf Classic at the Innisfail Golf Club.
“We're raising funds for the pump track in Innisfail, in collaboration with the Town of Innisfail,” said O'Dwyer, the chair of the event for the past four years.
He told the Albertan the future pump track build is a “major project” for the service club, and one that has been planned for the past 18 months.
On June 9, local Rotarians Andrew Ritson-Bennett and Brent Jackson made a lengthy presentation to Innisfail town council on the service club’s plan to hopefully raise tens and even hundreds of thousands of dollars to build a state-of-the-art pump track/skills park below Cemetery Hill where an old and now unused facility is located.
“We are hoping to look after all the fundraising as much as possible,” said Ritson-Bennett on June 9. “We're going to be looking for community support. We have quite a bit of money that we've saved up already for this, and we're going to be holding numerous events in the future.”
That includes the service club’s two major annual events, the spring Friendship Dinner, and the Rotary Club of Innisfail Charity Golf Classic.
“We haven't settled on an official budget for the pump track, but the more money we can put towards it as a club, the better off it's going to be for the whole community,” said O'Dwyer, noting the local Rotary club’s last major project was the Diamond 7 baseball field at the northwest corner of Napoleon Park Sports Fields.
“I don't want to take anything away from other people that contributed to those projects, but Rotary has lots on the go, and this is our first real major project in a while. The club has pretty deep roots in the community, and we're really grateful for our continuous sponsors that support us and value what we do within the community.”
In the meantime, O'Dwyer was also grateful for the picture-perfect weather for July 3, a day sponsors, project contributors and Rotary members could relax and enjoy a day of golf, and a big banquet after with plenty of prizes that are given away.
“As much as it is a fun tournament there is a competitive edge to it as well,” said O'Dwyer. “It’s a really fun day for anybody considering participating in a golf tournament or sponsoring.
“The Rotary tournament is really a great tournament to be a part of, and the real advantage is all the money that we raise gets spent here in our community.”
