Christel House golfers are best par none!
The 14th RCI Christel House Europe Open held on 6 June was another great day in the tradition of the international tournament, raising close to £50,000 for the children’s charity.
Industry executives from across Europe once again proved great sports both on and off the course, showing amazing generosity and commitment to help Christel House raise such a significant sum to help children in Africa, India and Mexico to break the cycle of poverty.
Vivienne Noyes-Thomas, European development director for Christel House International, said: “With a couple of late ‘matching’ bids and gifts that have just come in we expect to reach a net total of £47,000 – a really great effort considering we had fewer attendees than last year.”
As always, 100 per cent of the amount raised will go to programmes to support Christel House children as they learn the skills that will transform their lives.
The perfect cloudless skies and the lovely course at Badgemore Park were a beautiful backdrop for the 12 teams who enjoyed a great day’s play, while the evening fundraising fun was enhanced by former international rugby stars Simon Shaw, Iain Balshaw and Peter Scrivener testing the guests’ courage with their “extreme” passing techniques.
Bidding was keen for a selection of great holidays and artwork created by Christel House students.
Tournament runners up, RCI Team 1
Healthy competition
The golf tournament was also hotly contested, with the team from challenger bank Shawbrook, comprised of Kam Sanghani, Julian Nutley, Andy Davidson and Mike Bradshaw coming out on top, one stroke ahead of RCI Team 1 (Will Hall, Malcolm Hoad, Rishi Ramsey and Peter Gilchrist). Third place was shared between by foursomes from Silverpoint, Nexus (Team 1) and RCI (Team 2).
Clarion Golf supplied the Golf GameBook live scoring system and managed the Tournament – the full team and individual results can be found here.
The charity’s founder Christel DeHaan, who also co-founded RCI, said: “One of the greatest figures of modern times and one of my heroes, Nelson Mandela, wrote ‘education is the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world’. The combined impact of a Christel House education and Christel House values is transforming the lives of thousands of children who would otherwise be trapped in a vicious circle of poverty.
“None of this would be possible without your help. You have been wonderfully generous in helping us to accomplish our mission. There is much competition nowadays for charitable contributions and charities must be transparent and deliver on their promises.
“Our high-achieving Christel House graduates are the proof that our approach works. It is complex and expensive, but you make it possible for us to continue. To you all, our players, our guests and our many sponsors around the world, especially our Title Sponsor RCI and our Signature Sponsor in Europe, Nexus Leisure, I send my deepest appreciation.”
