Volunteer vies for votes to make donation
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- Published on Thursday, February 18, 2016
Submitted photo. Janice Meadows will be volunteering at this year’s Arnold Palmer Invitational. She hopes to be the lucky volunteer chosen to make a $10,000 donation to charity.
By Sheila Runions
Banner Staff
Janice Meadows quite literally grew up golfing.
“My parents, Allen and Elaine Campbell, owned Riverview Golf Course east of Brandon back in the 1960s/early ‘70s, so I grew up with golf right out the back door. Our whole family — Mom, Dad, my brothers and I, and even my grandma — were involved either looking after the clubhouse, mowing grass or raking sand greens. Almost 50 years later, I am still involved in the sport.
This June, I will be chairing the golf portion of the Manitoba Senior Summer Games [in Brandon] as well as chairing the Clear Lake Ladies Classic. I'm also part of a determined group who hope to bring back the Ladies Western Open at the Wheat City Golf Course. Unfortunately, with the flooding the past few years, the tournament has not been held, but we hope this will be the year we can showcase the course as it was in its pre-flood days.”
While Janice grew up a few miles east of Brandon, she now on lives on Brookdale Road with her husband, Allan. Her name may be familiar to readers because she was a school trustee for the Rapid City/Forrest/Douglas area from 1988-2003; she was the executive director of Brandon Regional Health Centre (BRHC) from 2000-2010; she’s currently on the fundraising committee for BRHC Foundation and is a paid part-time assistant to BRHC Auxiliary.
It was four years ago that Allan and Janice attended their first Arnold Palmer tournament.
“We first attended the Arnold Palmer Invitational as spectators and thought it was such a great tournament — so many big-name golfers who played on such a beautiful course. When we planned a return visit the following year, I was searching the website for tickets and noticed the volunteer tab. It was an easy process to apply; I thought, ‘What the heck? I'll probably never hear back,’ but I did! I was assigned to the shuttles committee and welcomed spectators as they arrived at the course, took photos of spectators with some of the Arnold Palmer signage and handed out the booklets of information with the day's golf pairings. This year, I will be working at the sponsorship tents located along several of the fairways.”
While Janice will be working in Florida next month, she also hopes to be the lucky volunteer chosen to make a $10,000 donation to charity. There is a volunteer challenge which, as of Feb. 17, has been accepted by 95 volunteers. These people are asking all associates and even strangers to vote for them; it’s free and online. The volunteer with the most votes will present a $10,000 cheque to Arnie’s Army Charitable Foundation for the Arnold Palmer Medical Center. To date, she leads the way by a mere 44 votes. If you would like to support her efforts to make this donation, visit www.pgatour.com/volunteers register to vote (free), select the Arnold Palmer Invitational and vote for Janice Meadows. (For the direct link, visit http://www.tourchallenge.com/ArnoldPalmerInvitational/Vote?entryId=11158). She also has a voting link on her Facebook page so voting and sharing there will spread the word even farther. For every vote she (or any volunteer) collects, an additional $1 will be added to Arnie’s Foundation.
The annual Arnold Palmer Invitational golf tournament in Orlando is March 16-20; voting continues until March 18. Only one vote per person is allowed and with nearly 650 votes, Janice’s circle of acquaintances is thinning, so please support a local lady who says, “I know the guy who is in second must want to win as bad as I do!”
