August 9, 2021 at 7:57 a.m.
Northwood GC Ladies see record proceeds, turnout for cancer awareness night
Northwood GC Ladies see record proceeds, turnout for cancer awareness night
The league's 13th annual Pink Night for cancer awareness was held last Tuesday at the course. According to event coordinator Carole Zierden, this year's event drew a record 51 participants and raised a record amount - with $3,000 being split between two local cancer organizations.
"It's very heartwarming," she said.
Tuesday's event included a nine-hole scramble followed by a dinner inside Northwood's Whipsaw Bar and Grill.
The 51 players is more than Northwood typically hosts on a ladies league night. That's because the event is also supported by the ladies league at Inshalla Country Club in Tomahawk, which brought 16 players to the event.
"We've never had a turnout like that, which was awesome. Our league is not that big. We're only like 40 ladies," Zierden said. "It was just fantastic to have that many ladies from Tomahawk come down and join us."
What started more than a decade ago as a way to raise money for the local and national chapters of Susan G. Komen has taken more of a local angle in recent years, with proceeds benefiting the James Beck Cancer Center at Aspirus St. Mary's Hospital in Rhinelander and Ties That Bind Us, a cancer support group in Tomahawk.
Of this year's proceeds, Zierden said $2,000 will be donated to the James Beck Cancer Center and $1,000 will go to Ties That Bind Us. The event has raised more than $20,000 overall since its inception in 2009.
"All the money we raise, we give back," Zierden said. "There's nothing that was spent, other than the dinner, that came out of proceeds. Everything that we raise, we're giving back to the community. We're so grateful that we can help other people at the Jim Beck Center and the Ties that Bind (Us) to buy them a wig or a hairpiece. Ties that Bind (Us), they're not just helping breast cancer (patients), it's other cancer patients that are going through treatment."
Aside from last year, when the event was staged in a limited capacity due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the event has seen a steady increase in the money it has raised. The group raised money in a number of ways, including raffles and mulligans on the course. Additionally, there was a giving tree set up at the dinner where participants could make a donation in honor or memory of someone.
Zierden said the most poignant part of the event was the portion when the floor was opened for the ladies to speak about how cancer has affected either their lives, or the lives of those close to them.
"It's a real, wonderful, uplifting night for these women to come together and share their stories about either themselves or someone in their family that's going through it, or is struggling with it now," she said.
In addition to money raised during the event itself, Northwood's Ladies League typically sets up a gambling event during the course's men's league where players can buy raffle tickets and then increase their tickets by hitting to within a predetermined distance of the hole.
"The men's league at Northwood, they were huge," she said. "They gave us donations because the night we were supposed to sit there, their league was rained out, so a lot of the men just made a donation, which was incredible."
In addition to the staff at the golf course and Whipsaw, Northwood's men's league and last Tuesday's participants, Zierden thanked the fellow members of the planning committee, the league's guests from Inshalla, and local businesses and individuals who supported the event through donations of either money or prizes to be raffled.
"Rhinelander is a fantastic place. A lot of people show support," she said.
Besides raising money for local organizations, Zierden said the goal is to raise awareness about the disease.
"The biggest thing is that people are aware of things, that they continue to receive and make their appointments for screenings that they need," she said. "Obviously this was a breast cancer event, so mammograms are very important, and to pay close attention to things they can do to stop this disease.
"I think the technology and the things that we have now have certainly improved. We can only hope that in some point in our lifetime, maybe this will be a curable disease instead of one that takes as many as it does."
Jeremy Mayo may be reached at [email protected].
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