Support the Indiana Golf Foundation and First Tee-Indiana with our Online Auction going live this Monday May 20th at 8:00 AM EST. You don’t want to miss out on these one-of-a-kind items!
Click the link below to check out our auction items!
Learn more about First Tee: http://ow.ly/rw5o50J7Eg5
Donate: http://ow.ly/8oNI50J7Eg1
Rebecca Jones and Esther Etherington, both former First Tee-Indiana participants and National Scholarship winners, recently traveled to Jacksonville, Florida for the 2024 First Tee Scholar Winter Workshop. They had weekend filled with fun at a the beach, a Jacksonville Icemen hockey, a little mini golf along with a career fair, workshops and special speakers. The ladies also got to spend some time with Stephen Outlaw, the first ever First Tee scholar and Indiana native.
“We had the opportunity to meet Steven Outlaw as he with the keynote speaker at the graduation dinner for the senior class. Steve, a First Tee – Indiana alum from Lake County, was the inaugural First Tee Scholar. After speaking at the 2001 First Tee Network Summit, he was offered a full ride to Georgetown College in Lexington, KY as the president of the college was in attendance. He is a PGA Professional, has travelled the world playing and working in the golf industry, and currently works as the Director of Sales and Marketing at Troon Golf in Arizona,” said Etherington.
Jones’s experience was just as positive. “I had an amazing time at the First Tee Scholars Winter Workshop. I had the opportunity to meet other First Tee alumni, talk to industry professionals, and participate in professional development workshops. I am so thankful for the opportunities The First Tee has given me, they have made me grow personally and professionally.”
The First Tee Scholars program and weekend is one of many National Opportunities that are offered to First Tee participants across country. To see the full schedule of opportunities and their requirements, you can visit the national First Tee website link HERE.
On this #givingtuesday we are highlighting two campaign pillars that go beyond the building. Using the link below, you can designate your donation to go towards First Tee Program Locations or scholarships that support First Tee-Indiana participants, a program reaching over 100,000 youth annually with the game of golf! #IndianaGolf has currently raised $4.8 million of our $6.5 million goal. Please consider the Indiana Golf Capital campaign today! Donate: https://charity.pledgeit.org/igcapitalcampaign… Learn More: http://indianagolf.org/capitalcampaign #indianagolf #capitalcampaign #TheFort
Indiana Society for Health and Physical Educators recently name Northern Regional Director Ali Beam as its 2023 INSHAPE Recreation Professional/Leisure Educator of the Year Award recipient. The award was given at INSHAPE recent conference held at SportsZone Indy on November 9-10. Educator of the Year means through which INSHAPE recognizes the work of an individual who exhibits outstanding leadership in the recreation profession or as an leisure educator at the college/university level.
First Tee-Indiana partners with over 300 elementary and middle schools throughout Indiana with the First Tee School Program, a physical education curriculum centered around golf skills. Beam is the primary trainer of P.E. teachers and helped write the middle school curriculum with our national headquarters.
Located on the grounds of The Fort Golf Resort designed by Pete Dye at Fort Harrison State Park, the new Pete and Alice Dye Golf Center will feature new administrative space for staff, the Indiana Golf Foundation Hall of Fame, a Golf Academy, and an adjacent short game practice area.
Indiana Golf has launched a four pillar Capital Campaign with the new Pete and Alice Dye Indiana Golf Center at the forefront. The central location of Fort Harrison will bring Indiana Golf’s homesite closer to our targeted programming population and provide a space for us to tell our story throughout the Indiana Golf Hall of Fame space. The property will include our administrative building, the Indiana PGA Golf Academy and an enhanced short game area. Our additional three pillars to the campaign include the Indiana Golf Trailer, support of our First Tee program locations and Scholarships to support First Tee-Indiana participants. To learn more about our campaign, keep up with progress, and/or speak with someone about a multi year pledge; check out indianagolf.org/capital campaign/.
View our Capital Campaign brochure HERE.
Congrats to the winners and all players in the 3rd Annual First Tee-Indiana State Championship. Thanks to Eagle Creek Golf Club for being a fabulous host!
Boys Senior High
1st Blayze Chapman
2nd Kellen Eder
3rd Theo Thurmond
Girls Senior High
1st Demi Bolin
2nd Alivia Carlisle
3rd Celia Florkowski
Boys Junior High
1st Edison Armbrester
2nd Levi Simms
3rd Jaxon Brouillette
Girls Junior High
1st Camley Whitfield
2nd Paige Lautenslager
2nd Ashlynn Sessler
3rd Carli Kaminskis
Team Champion
Theo Thurmond
Blayze Chapman
Connor Jarrett
Braxton Dotlich
Liam Lawyer
Elijah Pell
Team runner up
Kellen Eder
Alivia Carlisle
Dane Bolin
Jack Wright
Evan Gann
Congratulations to our four Senior Scholarship winners David Fulcher, Cassie Hall, Dakota Stacy and Sam Reising. These four are the definition of Game Changers, and we wish them the best of luck in their future endeavors! Thanks to @pgatoursuperstore for supporting these scholarships through their teen retention grants. Read below some of the ways First Tee programs impacted these four graduates.
Grover Golf Open
On Saturday, June 25th, the 3rd Annual Grover Golf Open took place at Pleasant Run Golf Course in Indianapolis. The family of Daniel Witter, an avid golfer, conducts this annual event in memory of their beloved son, brother, and uncle. The funds raised have been the catalyst for Triton Central Elementary and Middle School First Tee programs. This year, a summer program is being conducted at the practice field at Triton Middle. Organizers Sean and Ashley Duffey recently posted on the Grover Open Facebook page,
Another AMAZING Grover Open! Thank you to our volunteers, our sponsors and our golfers who come together to make this day special! It was a beautiful day to celebrate Daniel’s memory while raising money for the next generation of golfers. With the help of all of you, we once again successfully raised thousands of dollars for First Tee! We’re thankful for the relationship we’ve created with Roger Lundy & Lucy Ross at First Tee-Indiana so we can continue to expand programming in Eastern Marion, Hancock and Shelby Counties.
Our family is blessed to have had all of your support over these last three years! It has not been easy for us, or many of you, as we miss Daniel every day. However, seeing all of you at the outing, and hearing memories of Daniel is a bright spot in our year. It means so much to our family to have you spend the day with us!
from Grover Golf Open Facebook page
The Duffey’s children, and Triton First Tee participants, kicked off the event with the first swing of the day on hole number 1. Southern Region Director Roger Lundy greeted golfers and spoke about the impact of our the Grover Golf Open on our ability to fund programs in the Triton school area. We are extremely grateful to the Duffeys and Daniel Witter’s family and to be the recipient of funds raised in his honor.
For more information on the Grover Golf Open, visit their Facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/GroverGolfOpen.
All adult volunteers 18 years or older must complete a background check and virtual SafeSport training prior to beginning. We also offer a virtual volunteer and coach training.
Volunteers can expect to assist our trained lead coaches. You may be asked to work with a small group of 4-10 participants at a station but only if comfortable.
The time commitment is about 12 hours over a 6-8 week time period and two hours per week.
Questions? Contact Taylor Stockbridge at (317) 826-7176 or [email protected].
Sixteen-year-old Demi Bolin, a Plainfield, Indiana sophomore, recently completed a service project as she works towards her First Tee ACE Certification. She collected 302 pounds of food to support 18 food banks in the Hendricks County Food Pantry Coalition. She presented her donations to the Coalition on February 3rd and received rousing applause from the group. Bolin has inspired a few of her First Tee peers from the Indianapolis location to have their own food drives. Way to go Demi!
Enjoy the following reflection Demi recently shared with the First Tee-Indiana staff:
January 26, 2023
Hello, First Tee of Indiana –
My community service project, “Restock the Pantry Night”, on January 20th, 2023 was successful as we collected over 300 lbs of food at the Women’s and Men’s Basketball games during Plainfield High School’s Homecoming Night. I was the main lead of the project since I generated the idea. This idea developed when I went to Dallas, Texas in November at the First Tee Innovators Forum. I was one of 28 teens across the country to get invited, and we each developed community service projects there. They wanted us to make projects that we could continue and that would greatly impact our local communities.I would not have been able to do this project alone. Other contributors to this project are my parents for helping get everything organized, athletic administrators at school for supporting my efforts, and friends and golf teammates for helping me advertise and volunteering at the actual booth.
The outcome of the project in my opinion was a success. We are helping people in the community and one more canned good we can collect is one they didn’t have before we started. Collecting any amount of food for people in need is a success. My favorite part of this project will be delivering all the goods to the Hendricks County Food Coalition and I have plans to do that soon.
I was recently invited by the Hendricks County Food Pantry Coalition to attend their next monthly Food Pantry Coalition meeting on Friday, February 3rd at the Conference at the 4-H Fairgrounds. I plan to deliver the over 300 lbs of food that was collected at Restock the Pantry Night. In this presentation, I will also explain where I collected the food and what prompted my interest in conducting the food drive. This is going to give me an opportunity to meet the pantry directors and give me an opportunity to ask questions of the directors. I particularly am interested in asking how many families they suspect this amount of food will help and for how long. I learned that whenever a group donates food to the food pantry from a food drive and brings it to one of the monthly meetings, the food is divided at the end of the meeting and the directors take it back to the pantries with them. The Hendricks County Food Pantry Coalition consists of 18 food pantries and they are spread throughout the county. This will be my favorite part because being able to see their reactions to the amount of food we collected for people will make me happy.
It’s important to contribute to events like this because there are many people in communities without food, or a place to stay, and we don’t realize how fortunate we are. Giving back to the community is great, and I don’t think we do it enough. I hope to continue this in the future at more sporting events and learn from this experience so I can make it better next time.
Sincerely,
Demi Bolin
Richmond’s Esther Etherington recently attended the National First Tee Scholars retreat in Jacksonville, Florida. Hear from Esther in her own words what the impact of the retreat has had on her First Tee experiences:
The First Tee Scholars Retreat was once again an unbelievable experience. I was surrounded by some of the most driven and talented people from all around the country. My understanding of my leadership style and personal values increased from this weekend and I am excited to continue learning alongside them in the future.
At the end of the forum, financial literacy and opportunities with the golf industry and First Tee were also present. Also, employees from First Tee HQ engaged with us to look at the future of the organization and the future of the scholars program.
To top the week off, Etherington was able to connect with First Tee-Indiana alum Rebecca Jones, a First Tee National Scholar from our Northwest location. Jones attends Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology and received her scholarship award in 2021. Etherington is in her freshman year at Franklin College where she is studying elementary education and playing on the women’s golf team.
Our very own Ali Beam, Northern Regional Director, was selected to become a National Trainer (Level 5) for the First Tee.
Ali and 14 other trainers from across the U.S. attended a national trainer session in Jacksonville, Florida. She will now represent Indiana as a Level 5 coach trainer at locations throughout the First Tee national network. She will co-lead Level 2, Level 3, and Level 4 coaching sessions on how to develop intentional learning environments and create high impact relationships with First Tee participants.
“Being a national trainer is a great opportunity to grow and inspire coaches in the First Tee Network especially in our Indiana Chapter,” said Coach Ali.
