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| Courtney Bailey, HS PE Teacher, with students and leaders from the Shunyi Special School. |
On Sunday June 1st , Western Academy of Beijing held its inaugural WAB Community Golf Tournament at the nearby Riverside Golf Course. This tournament was created to help expand WAB’s golf program and "Tee-off’ a new 2008/2009 After-School Activity (ASA) which will establish a weekly golfing session between WAB High School "peer coaches" and Special Olympics athletes from the Shunyi Special School. WAB students will be introducing golf as a new sport for athletes already skilled in other sports. Funds raised through the tournament will be applied towards providing transportation for Shunyi students to travel to WAB and the Riveria Golf Range, as well as to provide the Shunyi School with uniforms and golf club as well as training equipment like a golf net. After participating in the ASA, the Special Olympics athletes will be prepared to play in the 2nd annual tournament next year.
Early on Sunday morning, the golfers arrived eager to play. Due to the nature of the format, students, teacher and parents were able to play against each other in groups of 4. A total of 61 community members participated in the tournament.
The weather held up and everyone had a good time. In first place were the team of Jasper, Dominique, Harold and Anton. In second place was David, Alex, Niko and Markku. And finishing in third was the team of Matt, Andrew, Mark and Chantel.
Assisting the 3rd place team was 3rd place team was Mark's 7-year-old daughter Isabella. The youngest golfer participating in the tournament, Isabella alternated holes with her mother. Another golfer commented on her skills, "For a 7 year old, she can strike the ball Really
well!"
Thanks to all volunteers who helped out, to Courtney Bailey for organizing the tournament, as well as Trish Smith, Echo Cai and Irene Lee for all their hard work behind the scene promoting the tournament and securing sponsors.
Special thanks to the event sponsors, who on short notice helped to make sure that all participants walked away a winner. It is with this kind of community support that makes WAB such a special place. Special thanks to Nike, Avid Golf, Healthline Asia, Riverside Golf Course, Beijing Riviera Driving Range, La La Golf, Frank's Place, Thai Thai and Holiday Inn Lido.
We would like to see all of the participants back next year and hopefully those who didn’t make it out this time have an opportunity to participate next year. Once again congratulations goes out to the WAB community for making this first tournament a successful one.