Arc of Abilities: WOTM's 8 Annual Charity Golf Tournament

What a beautiful day Saturday turnned out to be for the Women of the Moose's 8th Annual Chairty Golf Tournament! What started out as a foggy morning, cleared up, warmed up, and ramped up as an amazing FUNdraiser for The Arc of Greater Williamsburg, as well as Mooseheart and Moosehaven Charties, which serve seniors and children through the support of Moose Club organizations. So many great causes that this amazing tournament touches. 💙💚💛💜

We dedicate this blog post to Patti Sanford (our "Moose Patti") and her incredible team. We can't thank them enough for their dedication to The Arc!

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Saturday, August 5, 2023

Several members of the hardworking WOTM crew of volunteers can be seen in this picture, but many more of them were spread around the event making sure everything ran smoothly. Patti gave a wonderful welcoming speech, in which she spoke warmly of The Arc and our mission to serve adults living with disabilities. She urged the golfers to support The Arc, including checking out our many volunteer opportunies. She also personally invited everyone to sign up for the 5k, and told them to join her "757" team! Thank you, Patti!

Our executive director, Pam, followed Patti with her own heartwarming welcome and a gracious thank you to the golfers, volunteers, Kiskiack Golf Club, and our Arc of Abilities crew. Pam always finds the right words to convey the need for, and value of, our mission, and folks were listening. Thank you for your excellent comments, Pam!

We have been busy at the AoA for the past couple of weeks getting decorations ready for the golf carts our Arc Ambassadors would be using. This was the first year that we had the idea to decorate the carts, and they looked fantastic! Alexis and Patrick arrived to volunteer extra early, and after helping us decorate the carts, they jumped in for a fun picture!

Here's our entire crew of Arc Ambassadors, who worked this golfing crowd like the pros we are! From left to right we have: Patrick, Liz, Alexis, Moose Patti, Dev B, Pam, Sue, Michelle, Susan, Lisa, and Carol. Thanks to this team for getting up and out early on a Saturday to represent The Arc of Greater Williamsburg with their smiles, handshakes, and lively conversations with the golfers and WOTM volunteers!

This is Alexis with WOTM Laura, who was celebrating a birthday! The AoA made her one of our "famous" cards, and Patti brought balloons. It truly made her day!! Happy Birthday, Laura! Also shown here is our young friend Abigail, whose mom is our WOTM friend, Alexa. We first met Abigail when she was just a couple of months old, at the first event Patti and the WOTM hosted for us: a July 4th cookout in 2016. Abigail is 7 now, just like our day program! Watching Abigail grow up over the years has been a lot of fun. She's one of our biggest fans, too!

WOTM friend Denise took lots of pictures of the AoA and added them to the raffle prize board, where you know they got a lot of looks! She even labeled them with descriptors of the many things we do, so the supporters at the tournament could get a good "picture" of what our program does. Thank you for making this, Denise. You captured our AoA program very well! ALSO, the raffle prizes were amazing!

This year's tournament was the biggest yet with 25 teams! That was a lot of carts and golfers, stretching for "miles" as they lined up ready to hit the course!

We love and appreciate ALL of the golfers, but we're a little bit partial to this one, Greg Kline, who is not only a member of The Arc's Board of Directors, but is also our sweet Elizabeth's dad! Riding with Greg was Elizabeth's beloved Aunt Anne, who has played in the tournament a few times over the years.

We must thank Kiskiack Golf Club for hosting the tournament. They had everything ready for us, and things ran very smoothly. Kiskiack is a beautiful course.

Those of us who were riding around in golf carts to thank the players could have driven around these beautiful grounds all day! What a peaceful place to spend a few hours golfing. Thank you, Kiskiack staff, for your help in making this tournament successful for Patti and the WOTM. The Arc of Greater Williamsburg appreciates you, too!

Once we got our Arc Ambassadors on the move, we started meeting, greeting, and thanking the players. Here's Liz's dad, Greg, with her Aunt Anne, and his neighbors, Linda and Mike. They were a happy team enjoying each other's company on the beautiful morning.

While we didn't get their names, we always love to see these "best dressed" friends who have supported the tournament for years. They are members of a motorcycle club, and they said they like to do "crazy stuff and have fun."

Arc Ambassador Patrick recognized the handsome fella on this sign!!

Arc Ambassador Liz made the rounds with our longtime WOTM friend, Shelly!

Arc Ambassador Dev B made an impression on golfer Mike, a huge Phillies fan, like Dev. Mike gave Dev his Phillies cap which is signed by Pete Rose! WOW! Dev was thrilled!

This picture of Arc Ambassador Michelle really sums up our reason for being on the course. Her huge smile and big wave, along with a sincere "Thank you," is just what we want the many golfers to experience when they see us coming.

Here's our devoted and beloved Moose Patti! She and Alexis go back to before the beginning of the AoA, as she is a family friend through Nan. Alexis was already an Arc Ambassador every time she saw Patti "back in the day." When The Arc started the day program in 2016, Patti jumped right on board to support her friend Alexis, and Alexis's Arc friends, who are now her friends, too! Thank you for your caring dedication to The Arc, Patti. You and the WOTM have made a difference and we are grateful.

What follows are a lot of pictures of the hole sponsor signs. We hope we got all of them. Thank you to the Arc families, community friends, and many local businesses and organizations who served as hole sponsors!! We don't know all of you, but we appreciate all of you!

Thank you to these sponsors!

Shoutout to Greg's friends, the Kline Family, and Sportsmans Grille!

Special shoutout to Frankie's family, the Dooleys, who are first time sponsors! Frankie is not an AoA member, but he is an Arc friend, and his dad is an honorary member of The Arc's board. Frankie sees AoA members at weekly Arc events, and he makes everyone smile!

Alexis was happy to see Kevin's pic on a sponsor sign. He has been traveling and we haven't seen him for a while at the AoA. He'll be back next week!

Thanks, Dev B!

💖💖💖 Thank you, McGregors!

Thanks again, McGregor Family, and the Bobowicz Family (Dev B), owners of Pet Supplies Plus!

Thank you, Alexis and Kate!

Look at Drew and Patrick...so handsome! Thanks, friends!!

Aww...thanks so much, Nan and Gdad. 💕

Yay for Carol and her family! Thanks, Hofmeyers!

There are three wonderful AoA "family" sponsors here: Sam and the Collins Family, APEX PT and Movement Center (Kelly, Scott, Bret), and Laura and the Palmer Family! Thanks one and all!