By MADDY VITALE
Every year, Ocean City Policemen’s Benevolent Association Local 61 donates thousands of dollars to good causes, from providing scholarship funds to high school seniors to helping families in need around the holidays.
But each year, it takes a lot of fundraising by the organization to provide the roughly $14,000 annually to graduating seniors, to fund Christmas shopping to give kids a good holiday and to help local sports teams. This year Local 61 provided the money for an Ocean City baseball team to buy a new scoreboard.
One of the biggest ways that the PBA raises money for such charitable donations is through the PBA Golf Tournament. And this year marks a major milestone — 25 years of the all-day golf outing fundraiser.
It will be held at the Avalon Golf Course on Oct. 14 beginning at 12 p.m. Registration starts at 11 a.m. The cost is $145 per golfer. About 100 participants are currently registered and 45 slots remain open.
Ocean City Patrolman Colby Meloy has been in charge of the tournament for the past two years.
“It usually grosses $25,000 a year. It is one of our biggest money makers for the PBA,” Meloy said Monday. “We count on it and it is normally our second-biggest drive.”
The first, he noted, is the fundraising campaign in which the PBA sends letters to local residents. The letters describe the number of calls the police department responds to throughout the year and other duties. The public, in turn, can make donations to the PBA.
“We pride ourselves on giving to the high school graduates. We try to give back to our community as much as possible to help everyone out,” Meloy explained.
For this year’s golf tournament, there are some special additions. The first is that it will be held once again at the Avalon Golf Course in Cape May Court House. Last year it was held at another golf course.
“It is a nice course and a good place for our 25th” Meloy said of Avalon Golf Course.
Meloy said participants can expect to see some cool prizes.
“We have some good raffle prizes coming in. We are giving out a golf fleece, a tumbler and a wallet,” Meloy noted. “We also have a hole-in-one car coming that will be on hole three.”
Meloy said they like the course at Avalon Golf Course and the management welcomed them back with open arms after not hosting the tournament there for a while.
“The people there were eager to have us back and everything is going smooth,” he said.
For Meloy and the PBA Local 61 members who have been preparing for the big fundraiser, they are nearing the finish line.
“The past few months we revamped it and made sure it is good to go. We want the golfers to have a great day with a lot of prizes and good weather,” he said. “Other than that, we want to just make it special and hope that everyone enjoys themselves.”
For more information contact Patrolman Colby Meloy at ocpba61golf@gmail.com.
