Samaritan’s 2024 annual golf outing raised more than $229,000 last month to benefit the nonprofit’s services.
Drive FORE! A Good Cause was presented by the Richardson Family dealerships and a committee of volunteers. Samaritan’s programs include those for seriously ill patients and their families, those grieving a loss and those experiencing the stress of aging.
“We really focus on providing our core services, but then our above-and-beyond services help us to serve more than 11,000 patients and families every year,” said Samaritan President and CEO Phillip W. Heath.
Those services include social isolation and loneliness support, pet and music therapy and aroma therapy.
Samaritan also hosted an online auction that coincided with the golf tournament, allowing both golfers and those unable to attend an opportunity to bid on a variety of items, from rounds of golf and other experiences to gift baskets.
The event featured the Lexus Champions for Charity, sponsored by Lexus of Cherry Hill, a contest that offers a chance to play golf at Pebble Beach in California.
“Most people that come here say this is the best golf fundraiser tournament that they’ve been in because of the fun and all the things that we do, and (there’s) just great people here and the cause is just phenomenal too,” said event co-chair Roy Fazio.
“We’re all somehow affected by aging parents or people in our families that need support when they get older, and that affects a lot of people’s lives.”
“The committee that we’ve put together and that have volunteered without knowing us have been just spectacular and are all engaged, and that’s just so important,” said co-chair Cliff Mancine.
“Just like successful businesses, it’s all about people you bring on, and we’ve got a golf committee that’s just phenomenal,” Fazio noted, “committed people that just have fun and enjoy the event.”
Samaritan was founded in Moorestown in 1980 as one of the first hospices in the country. It serves individuals in Atlantic, Burlington, Camden, Gloucester and Mercer counties and provides nearly $1 million annually in donor-funded, non-reimbursed care for patients and families.
“The most favorite part is really seeing people get together and enjoying themselves for a great cause,” Heath said of the golf outing. “It’s so important for people to have a reason to support, but also enjoy themselves in the process, because the work that we do, yes, it’s difficult.
“But it’s so rewarding,” he added, because we have a passion for what we do and our team members who are here from our development department to our volunteers to our employees and board members … (are) just amazing people to support the work that we do.”
To view the golf tournament’s digital program book or photo gallery, visit www.SamaritanNJ.org/Golf.
