If golf is your game — or supporting kids with serious health conditions and their families is your dream — then Tucson is the place to be in August.
First on deck is the Courtney’s Courage 25th Anniversary Tee Up for Tots Golf Tournament at 8 a.m. on Friday, Aug. 23 at Sewailo Golf Club at Casino Del Sol, 5655 W. Valencia Road.
The tournament raises funds for pediatric cancer research at UA Steele Children’s Research Center and supports kids battling cancer and their families. It has raised more than $1 million for research alone over the past 25 years and has become iconic among local golf fundraisers, with many participants and sponsors returning year after year.
“We have seen many golf tournaments come and go. Some make it five or 10 years, which is amazing, and we can’t believe this is our 25th year. As a board, we look back and are so proud of what we have done. Without our board’s hard work and our sponsors and supporters, we wouldn’t have this tournament and be able to do what we have done. Tucson is a very generous community,” said Kathy Zillman-Ogden, co-founder of the tournament and ambassador for Courtney’s Courage.
People are also reading…
It has been a labor of love for Zillman-Ogden in honor of her daughter, Courtney, who lost her battle with neuroblastoma at the age of four. Courtney would have turned 29 on Aug. 31.
“It has been 25 years without her and sometimes I marvel that I am still here. It is not as raw as it was in the early years, but it never goes away. It is something you just learn to live with,” Zillman-Ogden said.
She is gratified that funds funneled into Steele Center have served as seed money to attain large grants for additional research from the National Institutes of Health and other institutions.
“We have made an impact through research. Some treatments have improved — it is slow, and we just wish it could go a lot faster — but we can look back and see that we have helped,” Zillman-Ogden said.
That help comes in many forms, including financial assistance with rent, utilities, gas and other expenses for families whose children are in treatment.
Other assistance includes “Mom’s Dinners,” which offer evenings of support and camaraderie for the mothers of diagnosed children and an annual “Southwest Hope & Healing Bereavement Retreat” geared to parents who have lost a child to cancer.
Additionally, the nonprofit provides customized, themed admission bags for newly diagnosed children. These “Courtney’s Paks” were created with a grant from Angel Charity for Children and contain pajamas, slippers, and items personalized to each child. Angel Charity has also facilitated age-appropriate “Courtney’s Angel Sibling Paks” for siblings of children undergoing treatment.
“My focus and heart are in helping the families in whatever ways we can,” Zillman-Ogden said.
Hearts are at the forefront during the Chip-In TopGolf Fundraiser to benefit /CHD Families of Tucson at 9 a.m. on Sunday, Aug. 25 at Topgolf Tucson, 4050 W. Costco Drive.
The event, staged by the all-volunteer nonprofit, seeks to raise at least $15,000 to assist families of children born with congenital heart defects (CHD), which impact one in 100 kids.
“We are small, but mighty,” said Stacy Lipinczyk, who co-founded CHD Families of Tucson (https://chdtucson.org/) with fellow “heart mom” Melissa Nail in 2016.
Lipinczyk was inspired out of necessity when her daughter, Kinley, was born with an undiagnosed critical congenital heart defect in 2014. Kinley was life-flighted to Phoenix Children’s Hospital for open heart surgery when she was 10 days old, followed by a month of hospitalization with frequent follow-up visits and several other diagnoses.
“When we came back to Tucson, we were being followed by 13 different specialists and therapists. Trying to keep all those balls in the air at one time was impossible, and when we reached out to see if there were any resources locally, we found there was no real network of heart families,” Lipinczyk said.
Zipinczyk and Nail decided to change that. They started CHD Families of Tucson as a Facebook group and had so many friends and family members offer support that it morphed into a nonprofit. Now 200 members strong, the organization provides financial, emotional and education support to local families raising children born with CHD.
“Every dollar raised goes directly to benefit heart families. There is no overhead and no paid staff. There are so many expenses associated with CHD … we call these kids ‘million dollar babies,’” Lipinczyk said.
She said that CHD Families of Tucson can provide families with assistance for groceries; gas and travel expenses; lodging during children’s hospitalizations; utilities and cell phone bills; and other essentials of daily living.
The emotional support is equally powerful, according to Lipinczyk.
“We have a private Facebook group and only parents or guardians of children born with CHD are members. Families can go on to vent and bounce ideas off of each other: It is a no-judgment zone and is very uplifting. It provides great resources and tools for families,” Lipinczyk said.
