Having never organized a golf outing, our hope was to have 50 golfers, we far exceeded that with 78. In addition we had another 24 people for dinner. We were fortunate enough to have 3 former Flyers from the Stanley Cup years as Don Saleski assisted in getting Dave Schultz and Larry Goodenough. Wip’s Brian Startare served as our emcee and did a fabulous job, not only keeping the night going but running the live auction and generating additional funds for our cause.

All of our major and minor league teams donated items to be used at our auction as well as door prizes. The SJHSIHL referees were well represented, as Chris Ricardi, Mark Visco, Jimmy Doyle and Matt Lanihan participated. Williamstown ice hockey club sponsored a hole; Sue Rudley from the SJHSIHL had a hand in one of our largest cash donations. Dave Sabol, treasurer of the league was able to have his employer, Sovereign Bank, donate golf towels, tees and some golf shirts. Special thanks to Norm Jones, who worked with me in putting this event together, Carolyn Shaw for keeping track of the finances, Lori Brake for the team presentation at the outing, Coach Tom Brake for bringing us beer when the cart girl disappeared and to anyone I missed.

Our final goal was to beat $5,300 which was the most ever raised by the organization, and not only did we surpass that number, we almost tripled it raising close to $14,000. We’ve already reserved Ramblewood for next year; the second annual Wings of Steel Golf Tournament will be on Friday April 26th, 2009. Like my better half always tells me, it’s not about the destination, it’s about the journey, and watching this come together in such a short period of time and to see the generosity of so many people was amazing.

Thanks again to everyone, and for those who still want to contribute, you can send your donation to 8 Duncan Road, Sewell, NJ 08080, payable to Wings of Steel.

Written by Mike Costantino

To view more photos from this event, click here.