102 Players Raised Over $1200 at Veterans For Vets Event

If you follow Chris Baker on Instagram then you may have come across a post about a Veterans For Vets event that was held in Nashville, Indiana on December 12th. There were 97 players that showed up at Deer Run Park and raised over $1200 for the American Legion Post 13.

We wanted to find out more about the event and the efforts that went into being able to bring in so much money so we reached out to Chris to ask him a few questions.

What was it like running the event during COVID guidelines in your area?

"Initially, it was to be a 1 day 2 round event but county COVID guidelines limited gatherings to 25, so the event was changed to flex start C-Tier with tee times from 9a to 1p to limit player contact. We held a virtual players meeting, made an online caddy book, and emailed awards and recognitions."

How did you handle registration?

"I used Disc Golf Scene which makes it easy to set up with people being able to tell me shirt sizes and other information. I had set up pre-registration incentives to help me know how many player packs to order. In the first two weeks, I had 45 players registered. The incentive for early registration was a free raffle ticket for the Veteran basket and other donated prizes. I ended up ordering 90 player packs 17 days before the event and within a week of the event, we were full at 90 players so I ordered 21 more additional packs which arrive right on time.

I had 103 players registered leading up to the final days before the event but had a few cancellations and we ended up with 97 players on the day of the event. We were able to sell 5 player packs to players that could not make it but still wanted to donate."

What was the purpose of running the event as a PDGA Competition Endowment Program Charity C-Tier?

"I think the C-Tier status and the chance to get a rated round was huge at driving our participation which is why I really wanted to try it this way. I would recommend the PDGA Competition Endowment Program to anyone running an event like this. We run a winter series comprised of only these types of C-Tiers that benefit food banks, and a similar fall series where the local clubs pick the charity. The PDGA donating the $2 player fee and waiving the $10 non-member fees is HUGE. So basically the only cost to PDGA is the $50 sanctioning fee. It makes a great first tournament for people wanting to try something more competitive that doesn’t have a PDGA number yet but also gets those rated round for the ones that do want that. I would say at least a quarter of my players on Saturday were first-time tournament players."

Do you feel like the event was a success?

"I would call this event a huge success especially since it was mid-December and working to keep with the COVID guidelines. It was a very windy and somewhat rainy day but everyone was happy to play some disc golf for a great cause.

With the big turnout we raised over $1200 for the American Legion Post 13. We also ha 7 Veterans sign up and we were able to recognize them and thank them for their service."

The Veterans For Vets is great way to bring together your disc golf community to help a local Veterans organization. Learn more at VeteransForVets.com.