Morrisons Supermarket – Save the Children Charity Golf Match – Sept. 2012

Morrison’s Supermarket’s Charity Golf Day raises £12,000 for ”Save the Children” Held at the La Canada Golf – Sotogrande – Sept. 2012

The fourth annual Morrison’s Charity Golf Day, this year sponsored by Techtolec, was held on Sunday 30th September at La Canada Golf Club in Sotogrande. As part of a two year partnership, ”Save the Children” were the beneficiaries of the event and were represented on the day by Richard Bell-Young, chairman of the Gibraltar branch of Save the Children.

Despite the atrocious weather leading up to the weekend, the Sunday was glorious with perfect playing conditions. Ninety three people teed up for a shotgun start, the biggest field in the events short history, and some very good scores were recorded. An added incentive on the day was the ‘Hole in One” prize, a brand new Mercedes A Class kindly supplied by Louis Posso from Gedime. Despite over ninety valiant attempts the nearest anyone came to winning the car was thirty inches from the hole.

With the golf finished, the La Canada restaurant laid on a superb meal for the players, guests and hole sponsors culminating in the prize giving, raffle and auction.

Before the prize giving, Richard Bell-Young announced that the money raised by Morrisons’s in Gibraltar for Save the Children was earmarked for an award winning programme to be set up in Gibraltar therefore directly benefiting the society that had raised the money. As far as he was aware, this is the first time an international charity would be putting something back into Gibraltar which is perceived as a well off society, albeit with the normal problems associated with any modern country. The United Nations endorsed programme is designed to bring Families and schools together to ensure the best possible environment is created for learning. Education has been proven to be one of the best ways to avoid the circle of poverty being repeated and to raise a child’s chance of succeeding in the future. It is intended that the launch of the Families And Schools Together,( FAST), programme will begin in January 2013.

Handing over to Dave Pinniger, the event organiser and Deputy Store Manager from Morrison’s, Dave spent time thanking all the event sponsors for their generosity and support.

Jon Morgan-Kent, MD of Techtrolec and the lead sponsor, was asked to assist in the prize giving.

The overall winner on the day was David Steele, scoring 38 points playing from a handicap of three. David took the crystal trophy and a Taylor Made putter and kindly spoke on behalf of the players to express their enjoyment of the day.

We also had three category winners – Mike Cowburn, Steve Ecclestone and Ryan Gonzales, winning pro shop vouchers.
Our nearest the pin winners were – Graham Noone x 2, Andy Hunter, Geoff Turner and Mike Cowburn and our longest driver was Steve McEwan.

The biggest cheer of the day came when we announced how much had been taken for Save the Children from the event and that it had exceeded last years amount. In total the event raised well over £12,000 and when combined with the raffle and bucket collection at the store the total stands at over £14,000.

Over the last two years the total raised by the Gibraltar Morrison’s for Save the Children now stands at well over £70,000

It is acknowledged that a majority of this total is directly attributable to the many companies and individuals who have donated money, time or expertise to these events and our appreciation of their generosity cannot be measured.

Due to popular demand next years event has already been booked for Sunday 29th September 2013.