CHANCES of Stone County earned the prestigious Web.com Tour Charity of the Year award late Thursday night, stunning the leadership team of a Branson West-based non-profit dedicated to improving the lives of developmentally disabled children and adults.
Even better, the Web.com Tour gifted the non-profit a $30,000 check, which CHANCES plans to use toward on-going efforts in starting a day program.
The charity – its acronym stands for Community Helping Able Neighborhood Citizens Experience Success – was among 49 charities this past summer of the PGA Web.com Tour’s Price Cutter Charity Championship presented by Dr Pepper. The award was announced during the Web.com Tour annual meetings in Palm Springs, Calif., with CHANCES chosen over hundreds of nominations from across the Tour.
With it, the check means the PCCC has now gifted $950,352 this year. It also boosts the tournament’s 29-year total of gifting to $15,620,801.
“You have no idea how important these additional monies mean to CHANCES of Stone County,” CHANCES Chairwoman Peggy Ackfeld said Friday. “There is no way to measure the good that will be brought to our community because PCCC decided to back us as Charity of the Year with Web.com. We are trying hard to start a day program in our area for those with developmental disabilities. This is a huge endeavor for a small group like ours.”
“The tournament is proud to call CHANCES of Stone County a friend,” Tournament Executive Director Jerald Andrews said. “Like all of our Ozarks children’s charities, CHANCES does wonderful work for children and families who face enormous challenges.”
This year marked CHANCES’ seventh year with the PCCC. Its leadership team and volunteers are always ready to help in any way that they can by packing pro-am gift packages, volunteer packets and snack packs for each the tournament’s 13 pro-ams. They also volunteer in hospitality during tournament week.
In the past two years alone, CHANCES has sold more than $30,000 in items at the Golf Ball & Charity Auction presented by University Plaza and CPI Technologies – and helped tournament staff at the auction this past July. In the same time period, CHANCES also sold 750 of the TLC Properties Charity Sweepstakes tickets, for nearly $18,800.
In September, CHANCES also held a Bowl-A-Thon and auction at Enterprise Lanes in Springfield.
All of which came as CHANCES rented its first meeting and activing room in Reed Spring. The facility — it has six kitchens, with two to be handicap-accessible — will allow the charity to bring life skills and therapies to Stone County instead of families being forced to drive hours for assistance.
Those efforts easily met the criteria for the Charity of the Year award. The Tour looks for strategic partnerships with a tournament, including cross-promotion, and volunteer support. It also requires the winning charity to include use of funds, generated in part by its local tournament, towards the charitable mission of the organization.
“Since 1990, the Price Cutter Charity Championship presented by Dr Pepper has been at the foundation of the Web.com Tour’s success, delivering on the ideal that giving back to the community is first and foremost,” said Dan Glod, President of the PGA’s Web.com Tour. “For the past seven years, CHANCES of Stone County has been affiliated with this tournament, which has enabled one of the PCCC’s smallest charities to have an incredible impact with the implementation of programs and activities to help individuals living with developmental disabilities. This year’s Bowl-A-Thon was further evidence of their amazing efforts, and we are honored to name CHANCES of Stone County our 2018 Charity of the Year.”
Additionally, CHANCES hosts other group activities such as M.A.D. Saturdays in which the non-profit provides music, art and dance therapies that bring therapies and experiences to the whole family.
CHANCES of Stone County also has been supported through passage of state Senate Bill 40, the Stone County Developmentally Disability Board, in which a small percentage of property taxes go toward developmentally disabled citizens in Stone County.
This year SCDDB was able to provide funding for Camp Barnabas, which CHANCES has done in the past. This freed up some money to be used in other areas.
“We are just so thankful for being a part of the PCCC and all its sponsors and other charities,” said Cherie Smetana, a board member of CHANCES of Stone County. “I’ve said many times that we couldn’t raise money like this on our own and that’s just the simple truth.”