SPECIAL EVENTS

PGI Golf Tournament for Literacy 2010

READ Saskatoon-PGI
Golf Tournament for Literacy 2010
September 17, 2010

On September 17th, READ Saskatoon hosted our  4th Annual READ Saskatoon PGI Golf Tournament for Literacy at The Willows Golf and Country Club.  Aside from the weather, it was a great day for golfers and guests with fun and laughter being heard around the course.  Golfers were welcomed to the event by Minister Rob Norris and Mayor Don Atchison who brought words of welcome from both the province and the city. We were also pleased to have Mike DeGagne, Executive Director with the Aboriginal Healing Foundation join us from Ottawa. He golfed with last year’s Gzowski Award recipient Mona Chappell.

The dinner at the end of the day was welcomed by the golfers as a way to warm up and get in  from the cold. Kareri Bittir, local CBC reporter did a wonderful job acting as MC for the program. As always the highlight of the day is the presentation of the  Kinsmen Learner Achievement Award. This year the award was presented to Margaret Bear. Margaret is a wonderful young women who continues to strive for a better future for her and her family. To read a copy of Margaret’s speech click here.

The 2010 Gzowski Award presented to golfer “that get’s it” was given to Ken Gunn. Ken is a long time supporter of READ Saskatoon. He  attends many of our fundraising events and has golfed in every READ Saskatoon PGI.  

Singer /songwriter Connie Kaldor was  our CBC Poet Laureate this year. She also performed at a house concert the evening before the gold day. The concert had been auctioned off in May as part of  the READ ‘n’ Feed Celebrity Auction.  All guests attending the concert were treated to a wonderful evening with Connie and her husband Paul.  Connie provided a wonderful closing for the 2010 READ Saskatoon PGI  with a great poem.

Literacy is important; more than 1/3 of Saskatchewan’s population experience daily challenges because of low literacy.  For over 30 years READ Saskatoon has delivered free literacy programs to address this issue.  We work with people to become more active citizens and more employable.  We help families, volunteer tutors and adult learners enrich each other’s lives through literacy.  The READ Saskatoon PGI supports our work to help address every Saskatoon family’s wish for economic and social success.

Peter Gzowski founded the first PGI Golf Tournament in 1986.  Since then the tournament has blossomed into a high profile event celebrated in every province and territory.  It unites golf, music and fun and honours a worthy literacy learner through the presentation of the Learner Achievement Award.

The READ Saskatoon PGI Golf Tournament for Literacy has raised nearly $90,000, with all money raised directed towards supporting Saskatoon families and adults.  Alongside national and local sponsors, including Affinity Credit Union, Kinsmen Club of Saskatoon and SYPE, you can help ensure READ Saskatoon’s programming can continue to touch the lives of over 3,000 people every year.

Click here to view the brochure for explaination of how you can help support literacy and READ Saskatoon.  Please contact Mavis McPhee at 652-5448 for more information on sponsorship or golf opportunities.

READ Saskatoon is a volunteer literacy organization that provides free literacy services to adults and families. Our vision is to help support a community that values literacy.

CBC's Shelagh Rogers did an interview with READ Saskatoon several years ago in regards to adult literacy issues, fundraising and the PGI Golf Tournament for Literacy. You can listen to it here:

PGI Golf Tournaments for Literacy

• It is more than just about golfing, it is a literacy event founded by Peter Gzowski in 1986;
• PGI’s have raised over ten million dollars for literacy and have grown to include a PGI in every province and territory.
• The PGI is generally quite informal, with music, a literacy quiz, the Learner award, Gzowski award and a Poet Laureate closes the day;
• Fun is an important part of the day!

The PGIs bring together so much that matters to me: friends, laughter, poetry, music--all playing to make a better world. Thanks to the thousands of golfers, corporate sponsors and hardworking volunteers, the PGIs have become a network that stretches from sea to sea to, as I am proud to say, sea. We've raised millions of dollars to help people learn to read and write or just make their lives a little better. And we're going to keep on doing it.

- Peter Gzowski   

READ Saskatoon-PGI
Golf Tournament for Literacy
2010 SPONSORS

Partner Sponsors

Saskatchewan Indian Institute of Technologies
Park Town Hotel
Pro Print
West Wind Aviation

Hole-in One and Specialty Holes Sponsors

Ace of Carts – Club Car
TCU Financial Group
Vaughn Wyant Automotive Group
Freedom 55 Financial
$250 Prize Draw – READ Saskatoon

Hole Sponsors

AREVA Resources Canada Inc.
Cameco
Creative Fire
Extreme Pita
Globe Printers
Greater Saskatoon Catholic Schools
HVB Chartered Accountants
Ministry of Education
Meyers Norris Penny
North Ridge Development Corporation
Pelican Media
Radius Community Centre for Education and Employment Training
Rob Norris, MLA
Saskatoon Business College
Saskhouses.com
Snooker Shack
Supreme Basics

Cart Sponsor

PGI Printers

Friends of READ Saskatoon

Alex Murphy
Beam Global Spirits & Wine Inc.
Fidelity Investments
The Giggle Factory
Saskatoon Co-op

Gift or Prize Donations

Action Office Interiors
Colliers McClocklin
Golden Opportunities Fund Inc.
Direct West
Janea Bellay, Performance Financial Services Inc.
Ken Cheveldayoff, MLA Saskatoon Silversprings
PotashCorp.
TD Mutual Funds

National Contributors

HarperCollins Canada
House of Anansi Press
McClelland & Stewart Inc.
Penguin Group (Canada)
Random House of Canada Ltd.
St. Joseph Media
The Globe and Mail
The Walrus

Plus all the Celebrities, donors and guests who were part of READ ‘n’ Feed Celebrity Auction for Literacy in May 2010.