Lions Club Golf Outing Raises Nearly $66,000
The Avalon Lions Club hosted its annual Golf Classic on June 11 at the Union League National Golf Club in Cape May Court House. The event raised more than $65,000 for several different Cape May County charities including the Helen L. Diller Vacation Home for Blind Children.
It was a beautiful, sunny day as golfers were served lunch at 11am and began their “shotgun” style scramble at noon. The Union League’s partnership with the Lions Club started last year for this event.
The team of Matt Pappas, Jeff Peltier, Jeff Meeker, and Rich Hoff won the Covington Cup as they shot the lowest score as a group in the scramble format. The Avalon Lions Club created the cup last year to commemorate Chuck Covington, its founder and former president who died two summers ago.
“We just wanted a way to always memorialize a man who has gotten many of us into this organization,” said Nina Ansel, who co-chaired the event with Sue White and Sue Houser Winant.
Covington worked for the Avalon Yacht Club and the Avalon Fire Department. He also served 28 years on the Avalon Borough Council and was on the Board of Trustees for the Helen L. Diller Vacation Home for Blind Children.
“He definitely had a servant’s heart, and he was never looking for the accolades,” said Covington’s son Chaz, who was in attendance with his wife Kate.
Said former club president Mike Sowers: “Mr. Covington is the one who got me on the Diller Board of Trustees, which I served on for 10 years. He was our community leader. Everybody loved him.”
Sue White noted that the Union League of Philadelphia collaborated with the Lions Club to make the event a success. “The Union League has been tremendous in helping out with everything,” she said. “It’s helped us to raise a lot of money for charities within Cape May County.”
An auction hosted by the club also helped raise money for Cape May organizations. For the first time, the auction was held in person and online, and it closed at 6:30pm on the day of the event.
Said Mina Raskin, who ran the auction: “Last year, it was just a silent auction. But this year, we wanted to make it available to members of the community who were not at the golf tournament to bid on, too. The link was posted on social media sites.”
With the outing and auction being a huge success again this year, the Lions Club is already looking forward to hosting the 17th annual Golf Classic next year.
