Golf Foundation to donate $500K

Tuesday, Oct. 12, 1999 | 11:23 a.m.

PGA Tour players aren't the only winners during the Las Vegas Invitational.

Many local charities profit as well.

Proceeds from the LVI are placed in the Las Vegas Founders' Golf Foundation, which distributes the money to different charities.

Over the years, the Foundation has been in a position to aid numerous groups and enhance the quality of life for the residents of Las Vegas. Ted Wiens, Jr., Foundation chairman, says that the Foundation will be making some of the largest charitable contributions in its history when it donates more than $500,000 to six local organizations in 1999.

Monetary contributions will be made to the following local organizations: The Lied Discovery Children's Museum, which will use the funds to construct an Early Childhood Pavilion that addresses the needs of young children up to the age 5 and their families; the Discovery Museum, which is considered a major educational and cultural institution; and the Southern Nevada Junior Golf Association, which will use the grant to cover expenses for the 1999 Las Vegas Founders' Legacy Junior Golf Tournament in June.

The SNJGA is devoted to providing positive life experiences through competitive golf.

Other aid recipients include the Children's Services Guild of Southern Nevada, which will purchase and install a specialized playground surface at Child Haven, known as "Tot Turf." Child Haven is a division of Clark County's Department of Family and Youth Services, and is a public shelter for abused and neglected children.

The Boulder Dam Area Council and the Boy Scouts of America will apply donated funds to cover expenses for a Kitchen Facility at Camp Potosi, and to secure two 12-passenger vans for the Scoutreach and Outdoor Program that serves at-risk youth in every neighborhood.

The Las Vegas Natural History Museum will construct an interactive African Rainforest Exhibit that will recreate a night scene to illustrate the diverse life that inhabits this ecosystem.

M.A.S.H. Village Cold Weather Shelter will use the grant to help purchase a tent structure, which provides emergency shelter and a continuum of services to Las Vegas' homeless population. M.A.S.H. Village is dedicated to the mission of addressing the immediate needs of the homeless person.

To date the Las Vegas Founders' Golf Foundation has contributed $2.7 million dollars to worthy organizations in Southern Nevada.

* BIRDIES FOR CHARITY: The founders club will be welcoming the Birdies for Charity program to the LVI. The program enables local nonprofit organizations to raise money for their programs by selling $10 tickets for their drive. The organizations get to keep $8.50 while $1.50 goes to the Clark County Public Education Foundation.