‘Tis the season… to golf that is, and local golf lovers have yet another charity event taking place on the greens to add to their list. This time it’s Coy’s Fun Day taking place on Saturday (June 16) at Coy’s Par Three, the picturesque nine hole golf course in Fairmont.
The event is the largest charity fundraiser that the Fairmont and District Lions Club holds once a year. Coming into its 23rd year, it is a longtime local tradition and this year marks the sixth years that the Lions Club has been heading it up.
Event organizer Mike Tanguay, also a club director, said the Lions expect to raise about $7,000 with 144 golfers having a blast throughout the day.
“The money goes to local charities,” Tanguay said. “We haven’t determined yet which it is [this year].”
Two years ago, the Lions Club donated $7,500 — raised through Coy’s Fun Day — to kick off the project to refurbish the emergency room at the Invermere & District Hospital; then last year, donated $7,200 towards a digital mammography machine for the Cranbrook Regional Hospital, which serves the whole valley.
“It will be some similar local project that we will do,” said Tanguay.
The fun starts at noon with the first draw of golfers, while a second draw commences at 2:30 p.m. There will be plenty of prizes donated by local businesses, from the large box stores to small mom’n’pop enterprises, as well as hole sponsors, where businesses pay to advertise their name at a given hole.
Golf will be followed by a sit-down roast beef dinner served banquet style complete with salads, desserts and coffee held at the historic and newly renovated Coy’s Barn at 5p.m.
Participants can expect to be entertained by a DJ playing music over loudspeakers throughout the day and evening, and there will also be a silent auction going on with even more great donated items.
The cost to take part is $30 for golf and dinner, or only dinner for $15. Tanguay said an additional 50 people tend to come just for the dinner, and that 30 Lions Club members take part in organizing and running the whole event.
The day is usually over by 7 p.m. but not before a champion male and female golfer are determined by a horse race, when the top four golfers per gender strut their stuff in an entertaining playoff.
Sign up for Coy’s Fun Day by contacting the clubhouse directly at 250- 345-6504.