Our 4th Annual Keep Virginia Beautiful Golf Tournament!

It’s that time of year again! It’s time to break out your ugly sticks and prepare for a day of sun, food, networking, and GOLF!  That’s right – our Fourth Annual Keep Virginia Beautiful Golf Tournament!

This annual gathering benefits our outreach programs, and the proceeds help us to fund initiatives like our 30 in 30 Grants, putting recycling bins in our State Parks, and contributing to recycling and cleanup efforts at the various festivals and events across our Commonwealth.  Most recently, we helped with volunteers and sustainability efforts at the National Collegiate Bicycle Championships in Richmond.

The cool thing about our tournament, and the part that we perhaps enjoy the most, is spending time with our peers.  We meet people who either work or have a vested interest in keeping Virginia beautiful.  Our players and sponsors come from Waste Management, James River groups, and more.  We all have 2 things in common:  We love our beautiful state and we fancy ourselves golfers.  We love our state every day, but only pretend to have golfing skills on this day.

Our choice of host venue is also important.

Do you know who represents great stewards of our woodlands?  Foresters.  People who cut down trees.  We would be happy if they never did it, but they have a vested interest in protecting our forests, and ensuring that they are around for a long time to come.  The same thing is true with our wildlife.  While there are certainly those who abuse their privilege, and we prefer our animals alive, hunters do a great deal to promote the abundance and diversity of our wildlife.  The same could be said for fishermen, and many other such groups.

Stonehenge Golf & Country Club is just outside of Richmond, but it may as well be a million miles from any urban center.  It is surrounded by rolling hills, abundant forests, and features some truly beautiful streams and ponds.  The administrators of Stonehenge worked long and hard to build a beautiful and sustainable course, and were proud to be the 29th course in Virginia to be designated an Audubon Cooperative Sanctuary.  They have instituted a plan for water use, for chemical use, water conservation, and Wildlife & Habitat Management.  That’s just a partial list.  Their actions at the course not only provide a lovely backdrop for folks like us, they encourage the strength of the flora and fauna that call Stonehenge home.  They’re even helping us to recycle at our event!  We shared a plan for composting all of the organic waste from our tournament, and they jumped right on board!

Our lunch that day will be provided by LUNCH, and dinner will be courtesy of Outback Steakhouse.  You can register a team of sign up to sponsor here.  We hope to see you on June 9th.  We have available Mulligans, and you’re welcome to bring an eraser.