SOLON — Golfers converged on the Saddleback Ridge Golf Course Monday, June 19 for the American Legion of Iowa Foundation’s fifth annual tournament. 30 teams participated in the event, which serves as a fundraiser for the Foundation, which then makes donations across the state.
“They go to veterans’ affairs, people that are helping veterans. In particular we did an $8,000 donation to the Iowa Veterans Home (in Marshalltown),” said Dave Rehbein, President of the American Legion of Iowa Foundation. “We also do donations to folks that are doing Americanism, children and youth, community service projects in the cities and towns across the state. We also help fund a number of the American Legion scholarships for youth projects and youth programs (which includes American Legion baseball, shooting sports, an oratorical (speech) contest about the Constitution, Boys State, and Girls State).”
Rehbein noted the Foundation has been in place for about 40 year and has been steadily growing and raising funds over the years. “We have about $2.5 million invested so the interest off of that this year was $111,000.” The Foundation makes its donations from the interest earned on the investment and uses donations received to further build the principal amount in order to generate even more interest for the following year. “It’s been kind-of a tough economy for investments, but our investment advisors have done a really good job of protecting the money and making sure there’s interest there that we can spend,” he added.
Henry Rios, one of the key local organizers, said “Larry (Swan) started this Foundation fundraiser, and I guess he got me to run it for him (he said with a smile). We’ve been pretty successful in the last five years. This year we’ve got 30 teams, and the first year we started with nine. We’ve got a lot of prizes, everybody has a really good time, and we raise a lot of money.”
The tournament is the culmination of six months’ worth of meetings and planning, Rios said.
It’s all about growing that nest egg for the Foundation, said Swan. “We’re trying to get it up to a $3 million nest egg,” said Swan. When he started looking around for a committee, Swan said he knew Rios was a must. “He’s the guy who’s really the brain, we’re doing good, and we’ve got a good thing going.” Swan added that in addition to contributing to the Foundation, proceeds from the event also include organizations such as Camp Courageous near Monticello. Proceeds from the day also go to Birdies for the Bird House Hospice, March of Dimes, Big Brothers-Big Sisters, and the University of Iowa’s Children’s Hospital.
“We’ve got a good thing going, I think. People I talk to say you’re putting the money to the right place. That’s the big thing.”
Rehbein agreed with Swan, saying “When you’ve got a group of people like you have here in Solon who organize this, then the golfers will turn out. And the organization group here is very good. I’ve seen this grow over the five years and it gets bigger and better every year. I am very pleased and thankful to the group here in Solon that puts this golf outing together. Larry Swan is one of them, he’s on our Board of Directors, but he’s not the only one. Jim Leland and Henry Rios, and their whole crew have done an outstanding job putting this together and helping to build that principal, so we have more money to spend next year.”
The golfers themselves are special, he added. “Golfers like to come do this. I’ve seen a number of golf outings around the state and golfers are the kind of people that come out here to have fun and contribute to their community and their state at the same time. They’re just good people.”
For more information about the American Legion Foundation of Iowa, go to their website, www.ialegion.org.
Golfers roll out to their first tee at the start of the fifth annual American Legion of Iowa Foundation Golf Tournament at Saddleback Ridge Monday, June 19.