A
year in the making, the third annual JFK Tower Golf
Tournament started out on June 20th with clear skies
and nearly 160 golfers packed onto the Rye Golf Club
grounds, all gathered for a day of golfing and support
for a sprightly young girl, Rachel Abraham. Diagnosed
with PH, Rachel carries around the Flolan pump everywhere
she goes. She still found the energy to chat with all
the golfers and supporters at the evening's fundraising
dinner and raffle. With great panache and a charming
smile, Rachel single-handedly sold 150 PHenomenal Hope
wristbands to participants! She also had the ever important
role of pulling raffle prize winners out of a hat.
Each year, Rachel's dad, Steve Abraham
puts together this event and approaches his colleagues
from airline companies and towers. His friends and supporters
donate great raffle prizes for the event, including
roundtrip airline tickets to such exotic locations as
Tahiti, Tokyo, Jamaica and South Africa! The tickets
to Tahiti alone were valued at $5,000! According to
Steve, the cost of the golf tickets cover the expenses
of the events and the real fundraising success comes
from the sponsorships and especially the raffle tickets,
which also included fun golfing merchandise. At the
end of the day, they raffled off 17 pairs of airline
tickets valued at over $100,000.
Each
year, the tournament has grown in scope and impact,
with over 200 in attendance at their fundraising dinner
taking place after the tournament. The Abraham's had
so much success with their event that they had to turn
away some golfers because they reached their maximum
capacity! Next year, they plan on running two shotguns,
one in the morning and one in the evening, to accommodate
the popular demand for tickets to this event. The event
netted over $20,000 for vital patient services and programs
and raised awareness through an article in the local
paper, the Sound and Town Report.
According to Steve, the highlight of the
day was, "seeing how incredibly excited and happy
my daughter was that she knows all the people at the
dinner and that they were all there for her." Rachel's
PH doctor at Columbia Hospital, Dr. Diane Kerstein,
was also in attendance to show support for her patient.
The Abraham's would like to give special
thanks to their sponsors, including British Airways
(tickets to London), Cathay Pacific (Hong Kong), Qantas
(Sydney), Air Tahiti Nui (Tahiti), KLM (Amsterdam),
Eurofly (Bologna, Italy), America West (USA), Jet Blue
(3 pairs of tickets donated to anywhere they fly), Air
Jamaica (Montego Bay), Grupo Taca (Costa Rica), All
Nippon Airways (Tokyo), Mexicana (Mexico), and South
African Airways (South Africa). In addition, they would
like to thank Chaps (a Warnaco company) which provided
financial support and underwrote the costs of the 170
golf polo shirts for participants.
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