Conrad Golf Fundraiser: Spirit of Kim And Stephen Conrad Alive At Memorial Outing
SYRACUSE — In life, Kim and Stephen Conrad were known for their giving nature and for bringing people together. So it’s only fitting that, after passing in a tragic car accident last Christmas, the memory of the well-liked Wawasee community mother and son continued to do those very same things.
The first Kim and Stephen Conrad Golf Fundraiser was held Monday at Maxwelton Golf Club in Syracuse. Proceeds from the outing will serve as a scholarship fund for Wawasee High School graduates, and nearly 180 golfers showed up to the four-person scramble. The turnout in the first year of the outing was a reflection of the impact the Conrads had on those around them, said event chairman Jeff Wells.
“The Conrads have been friends of our family and many people here for a long time. A very giving family, very nice family, so that’s what made this easy to kind of put this together,” he said.
“It was an easy event to try and raise money for.”
Stephen, who was likely the best golfer in Wawasee High School history, was an assistant course pro at Anthem Golf and Country Club in Anthem, Az., at the time of his passing, and the Phoenix-area club also hosted an event in his memory, donating proceeds to the memorial scholarship fun. All told, nearly $20,000 net was raised, reported Wells Monday.
“We’re very happy with it. We ended up with 45 teams. We had a lot of volunteers, not only on the committee, but also some high school baseball players would watch the holes in one for us to make sure that our friends didn’t cheat,” Wells joked. “No, there was an outpouring of support.”
Inspired by the cause of Monday’s outing, the 50/50 putting contest winner donated his winnings back to the scholarship fund, as did the 50/50 raffle winner. But the event also attracted some donations from non-participants, too.
Addison and Reese Beasley live just across the street from Maxwelton, and the enterprising young girls, ages 11 and 9, respectively, sell lemonade out of their front yard to parched golfers. The Conrads were friends of the family, and the sisters were saddened when they first learned of their passing. After their father, Wawasee High School Vice Principal Vince Beasley, suggested they donate some of their profits to the Conrad scholarship fund, they decided instead to give all their earnings to the cause.
Thanks to some extra-generous customers, the Beasley sisters were able to raise more than $200, which they presented to Wells after the outing.
“We usually do lemonade stands in the summer. We heard on Christmas that Kim and Stephen passed away. The cause was obviously this summer so we wanted to help out and give our thanks to the cause,” said Addison.
“My dad came up. We were upstairs, and they were like ‘I heard you were doing a lemonade stand.’ I said ‘Yeah, we are,’ and he said ‘How about you give it to Kim and Steve?’ So we said ‘OK,’” explained Reese. “We started to think about it, and we were like, we can just donate all of it to them. We’ve got quite a bit of money, so we’re really excited to give it to them.”
The outing itself was divided into three divisions — men’s, women’s and mixed teams.
Team Brennan, consisting of Josh and Jim Cole, Larry Leek and Steve Dunithan, carded 16 under par to win the men’s competition. Top mixed team honors went to Tyler and Mallory Rondeau and Josh and Jessica Watts of Team Rondeau for their 10-under finish, while the Laker Girls, made up of Sally Biddinger, Cheryl Shook, Susan Stump and Joan Slocum, won their division with a 3-over-par score.
Brad Webb was the men’s longest drive winner on No. 6, and Mikayla Mawhorter turned in the women’s longest drive on No. 14. Bob Schwartz was the men’s Closest to Pin winner on Hole 13, and Mallory Rondeau won Closest to Pin on the women’s side on 3. Allan Mawhorter won the Longest Putt competition.
“For having 45 teams — 16 in the morning, 29 in the afternoon — the play in the afternoon was very good,” said Wells. “There were a lot of young people that played, that were friends of Stephen or his brother Mike or Jeff, and they came out. We had a lot of young athletes playing, and we had teachers playing. It was a wonderful event.”
Plans are already in the works for a second annual memorial golf fundraiser for next year. Wells said the event will likely take place in July again to give Wawasee Community School Corporation employees the opportunity to play and that Maxwelton will again host the outing, and he thanked club owners Bob and Rena Carlson for their support.
“We’re looking forward to the second annual event. It’ll be in July sometime. That way we can have teachers and staff participate; it’s pretty much a slow month for them,” Wells said. “We’ll have information for that event early in 2018. We probably won’t make any decisions yet this year on when we’ll have it: It’ll depend on Bob and what’s available. We’ll definitely have it here at Maxwelton. Bob and Rena and the whole staff have done an excellent job, and we really appreciate that help.”