Sprinkler Age A Publication of the American Fire Sprinkler Association
Virginia Chapter Hosts Longest-Running Charity Golf Tournament
The AFSA Virginia Chapter held its 23rd Burn Survivors Golf Tournament on Wednesday October 5, 2016 at the Royal New Kent/Brickshire golf courses in New Kent County, Virginia, just outside of Richmond, Virginia. We had an overcast and cool but otherwise beautiful fall day! This event was well attended with 196 paid golfers and 40 volunteers.
The Virginia Chapter is proud to announce that it donated $80,000 in total to its two charities: the Central Virginia Burn Camp for children was given $40,000 and the Old Dominion Firefighters Burn Foundation was given $40,000. The total donated by the Virginia Chapter over the 23 years for these two charities is a grand total of $812,400.
The AFSA Virginia Chapter established the “Giles Cup” award for the grand-prize winner in 2015. This Cup was established to honor past AFSA Chairman of the Board and Virginia Chapter Chairman Marty Giles for all of his great work and support for the Virginia Chapter golf tournament from its inception. The chapter will keep the master “Giles Cup” and will put a name plaque on it each year with the grand-prize winners. In addition, the grand-prize winners will receive a smaller copy of this “Cup” for each player on the team.
Tournament Winners
The 2016 grand-prize winning team (best overall score) and “Giles Cup” recipients were the FLSA team of Andrew Medovich, Jack Medovich, and Allan Strange. Second Place overall winners were the FirePro team – Kenny Dunn, Kevin Jones, Darrell Broughton and Pat Schultz.
In the Fire Flight, first place went to: Royal New Kent course – Fire, X team of Wayne Pugh, Tom Woody, Ricky Silva and Mike Thompson. Brickshire course first-place winners were the Globe Donated team (firefighters) of Chris Pruden, Donnie Hall, Dereck Webb and Danny Maleski.
In the Sprinkler Flight, Royal New Kent course first place went to the Eagle Fire team of Joe Cole, Tiffany Clarke, John DePew and Robert Wrenn. For the Brickshire course, first place was awarded to the Clark Nexsen team of Kevin Kimmel, Chad Poultney, Ron Lauster and Bill Drum.
In the Saves Lives Flight, Royal New Kent course first place went to Atlantic Constructors’ team of Dan Schultheis, Jack Morris, Shawn Fellin and Tom White. On the Brickshire course, the first place winners were United Sprinkler’s team of Bob Beckwith, George Self, Rick Henderson and Dan Siemion.
Finally, the Good Sport award (last place overall) went to the Globe Fire team of Dan DeDominic, Ralph Watson, Chris Bohon and Madison Parsons. Individual winners recognized during the tournament were Closest to the Line: Royal New Kent – Matthew Tedeschi, FLSA, and Brickshire – Marty Klues; Closest to the Pin: Royal New Kent – Matthew Tedeschi, FLSA, and Brickshire – Horace Welsh, Wagner Consulting Service Team 1.
“The Virginia AFSA Chapter does an excellent job promoting our industry and life safety,” comments Don Gore, Ferguson Fire & Fabrication general manager, who played in the tournament. “The annual Burn Survivors Golf Tournament shows AFSA-Virginia’s continued commitment to burn victims and their families. Ferguson Fire & Fabrication is proud to support such an important cause. It’s been an honor to be a major event sponsor over the years, and to see two deserving charities benefit from the money raised.”
Stellar Sponsors
Thanks to our generous sponsors, we had some great major prizes. Winners were Steve McGee, VSC – 65-in. Samsung TV; Mike DeCecco, General Air – smoker; Kenny Dunn, FirePro – Sound Bar System; Joe Cole, Eagle Fire – iPad; Bill Meadow, Kannapolis Sprinkler – Bose Sound system; and Rick Henederson, United Sprinkler and Anthony McDaniel, Atlantic Constructors – “Fire Thieves” book. In addition to these major prizes, 110 individual gift prizes were given to golfers, drawn from the list of all players. Each golfer also received a nice golf shirt and goody bag.
The chapter also sponsored a raffle and some wonderful prizes were won. Cari Simmons, Atlantic Constructors, won the $750 50/50 raffle and graciously donated her winnings back to the tournament. Mike Meehan, VSC, won two tickets with pit passes to the Richmond International Raceway NASCAR race in the spring of 2017. Don Gore, Ferguson Fire; Ross Mitchel, Ferguson Fire; and Hooper Loscomb, Eagle Fire; won three separate four-round certificates for golf on the Royal New Kent/Brickshire courses. Cari Simmons, Atlantic Constructors, also won a certificate for a two rounds of golf at Keswick Hall.
This tournament could not have been successful without all of our primary sponsors. Our Diamond sponsor ($15,000) was Ferguson Fire. The Platinum sponsors ($5,000) were Eagle Fire, Fire & Life Safety America, FirePro, HD Supply, Hajoca, Globe Fire Sprinkler, Reliable Automatic Sprinkler, VSC Fire & Security, Viking Supply, and George Wagner. Gold sponsors ($2,500) were Atlantic Constructors, the Central Virginia Burn Camp, Colonial Ford Truck Sales, Lubrizol, Molnlycke, Old Dominion Fire Fighters Burn Foundation, Potter Electric Signal, System Sensor, Tyco, United Healthcare, and Victaulic. Major sponsors ($500) were AFSA National; Durrette Crump; eTec Fire; Extinguish Fire (total $1,500 sponsorship); Fire Protection Products, Inc.; Fire Tech Services (total $1,00 sponsorship); Flexhead; General Air Products; Hydro Tec; Lexacom; Magic City Sprinkler; Mid-Atlantic Capital Management; Performance Fire; Sunland Fire; Tands; and Verizon Wireless. Hole sponsors ($175) were AGF Manufacturing; Ameripipe; Assured Partners (T. B. & R.); Chesterfield Pro Firefighters; Clark Nexsen; Colonial Heights Firefighters; Crater Regional TRT; eTec Fire; Fire Solutions; Foley Company; Henrico Firefighters; JG Innovations; Leonhardt Pipe & Supply; Merrill Lynch – Joe Torrice; Prince George Local 4994; Potter Roemer; Richmond Firefighters; Shafer, Troxell, Howe; SPP Pumps; and Tornatech.
The chapter also wants to thank O’Toole’s Restaurant & Pub for donating lunch for all golfers and volunteers and for providing a great dinner. We want to thank both Colonial Ford Truck Sales and Haley GMC for the Hole-in-One sponsorship.
We are grateful for the 2016 Golf Chairman’s Committee, who worked the full year on planning this tournament. The committee members are Committee Chairman Jack Medovich, FLSA; Tiffany Clarke, Eagle Fire; Lanny Gault; Harry Hoffon, Eagle Fire; Bill Jones, FirePro; Hooper Loscomb, Eagle Fire; Jerry Pruden, Old Dominion Firefighters Burn Foundation; Scott Williams, VSC Fire & Security; and Chapter Executive Director George Wagner.
Burn Survivors Foundation
Chapter members are pleased to announce that we have set up a Virginia non-profit corporation. We have received a 501(c)(3) designation from the IRS and named this corporation The Burn Survivors Foundation. To see the activities of the Foundation or make a donation, please visit burnsurvivorsfoundation.org. A GoFundMe account for donations has also been set up and can be accessed on this website.
The foundation decided to separately raise money for an endowment fund to support the two charities well into the future. This will be an ongoing challenge until the goal is met. A challenge was issued to all chapter members to fund this endowment. We are pleased to report that a total of $20,570 was raised, which will be invested with the Richmond Community Foundation and the Charlottesville Community Foundation. Thank you to the donors of this endowment: Harry Hoffon, $5,000; Mike Meehan, $5,000; George Wagner, $5,000; Jack Medovich, $1,000; Ron Wilhelm, $2,000; Carolina Fire Protection, $500; Kaufman Fire, $500; Randy Vass, $300; Western Fire, $150; Wayne Harris, $200; Craig Smith, $150; Riley Fire, $250; Bob Bitzer, $20; Horace Welch, $20; John Witney, $20; Dennis Krohn, $20; Gary Singleton, $20; Anne Mitchum, $10; Allen Ferguson, $150; Scott Ferguson, $50; Tom Field, $10; and FPC magazine, $50.
“The AFSA/Burn Survivors Foundation Annual Golf Tournament has been a success for many, many years,” comments Jack Medovich, chairman, Burn Survivors Foundation. “This is due to the efforts of many people as well as the generosity of many more each and every year that come through for our tremendous charities.
“It is an honor to work with this great group of individuals and to see what can be accomplished when people come together and work hard for a great cause!!!
“Not to look past our 2017 tournament, but in 2018 we will be celebrating the 25th anniversary of this tremendous event. We are already working and planning for a very special event that day to celebrate one of the founders of this tournament, Marty Giles. If you’ve helped in the past… THANK YOU!! If you haven’t, please look for information coming soon in Sprinkler Age or visit our websites at afsavirginia.com or burnsurvivorsfoundation.org.” Medovich says.
Save the Date!
I have been involved in this event from day one and am honored and proud of our accomplishments to support two very worthy charities for the last 23 years. The AFSA Virginia Chapter members and friends give us tremendous support for this event and we would not be successful without them. The AFSA Virginia Chapter would like to invite everyone to participate in the 2017 AFSA Burn Survivors golf tournament on Wednesday, October 4, 2017. Please put this on your calendar now to save the date!
ABOUT THE AUTHOR: George Wagner is executive director of the AFSA Virginia Chapter. For more information on the chapter, contact Wagner via email at gwagner@argusfirecontrol.com.
