The fourth annual Sunset View Elementary Foundation’s (SVEF) Golf Tournament teed off at Liberty Station’s Sail Ho Golf Course on May 1 to help the school better deal with tough budget times.
“We do the fundraising for the school’s extracurricular activities, programs and equipment that some might some consider normal, such as new computers, spending money on teaching the kids about poetry, maintaining a relationship with the arts, getting grass for the track and field events,” said foundation board member Mitch Shirts.
“Simple things like that were taken away because of the budget cuts,” he said. “We probably raised and spent about $80,000 in a year to pay for these school programs.”
Shirts’ team ” made up of himself, his 13-year-old son and Sunset View alum Toby Shirts, Mitch Malachowski and Dave Ellison ” captured the tournament.
“The foundation provides funding for the school like a computer teacher and all sorts of various enrichment programs for the students,” said SVEF Golf Tournament organizer Mike McDeavitt.
McDeavitt also participated in the tournament with his 6-year-old son, Paul, his father-in-law, Mike Nagoaka, and Jim Hurl.
“Our next task is getting audio/visual equipment for the assembly room,” Shirts said. “We were able to raise $9,000 from this year’s golf tournament, which fell short of our goal of $10,000. But it was still fantastic.”
About 70 players participated in the tournament, including 8 children.
“We made $5,600 a few years ago, then got up to $8,200,” Shirts said. “This year, we were able to get Corky McMillin Cos. and Liberty Station as title sponsors.”
In addition to the title sponsors, Miguel’s Cocina contributed by catering the event.
The nine-hole course at Sail Ho is currently listed as a national historic site in the former Naval Training Center’s (NTC) historic district in Point Loma.
The course was closed for two years while it underwent improvements and renovations, reopening in 2006.
“Mike McDeavitt has done some work for our company and he contacted us about the event. We are always open to support anything educational or community-oriented,” said Corky McMillin representative and golf tournament participant Cece Doti.