Golfers hoping to take a swing at the annual Frog’s Breath Charity Golf Tournament and Social event will have to wait as this year’s has been cancelled.
Held in the Tri-Town area, the event typically features two qualifying rounds at local golf courses before moving the players to the Frog’s Breath course in New Liskeard. The final competition pairs Canadian PGA professionals with participants, who vie for the top prize of a trophy and bragging rights. Net proceeds from the event, which also includes an auction and dinner, are donated to a variety of causes and organizations in the Tri-Town and Timmins areas.
The cost of the event is largely funded by Grant Forest Products, with the assistance of additional industry sponsors.
However, industry-wide financial hardship has halted this year's event. “This year, there’s been a downturn in the oriented strand board industry and the forestry industry as a whole, and we don’t want to put undue pressure on Grant Forest Products or their suppliers,” says Susie Johanson, executive director, Frog’s Breath Foundation.
“Many people in the industry have been laying off employees just to stay afloat, and we can’t be asking them to be giving money to this event, even if it is a good cause. So cancelling it this year is the responsible thing to do.”
Last year, 190 golf teams participated in the event and over 1,100 people ate at the follow-up charity dinner.
As a result of event proceeds, sponsorships and donations, the foundation was able to donate $750,000 towards the Kirkland District Health Centre in 2006, as compared to the $500,000 split between the Temiskaming Hospital and the Englehart and Area Community Complex project in 2005.
The tournament has raised over $10 million over the last nine years, helping to fund various large-scale projects as a CAT scan machine for New Liskeard, as well as a local sports complex and a hospital project in Englehart.
Johanson says such amounts are extremely strong for Northern Ontario, especially when compared to similar events involving high-profile participants.
“I was looking at an event that Mike Weir attends which is for Heart and Stroke, and the event brought in $37,000. And I thought, ‘Oh my goodness,’ in comparison to us, a small town giving out a cheque for $750,000, it’s unbelievable.”
Despite the cancellation of this year’s event, Johanson says the foundation remains financially strong, largely because Grant Forest Products provides it with an amount similar to that which it has raised.
This allows the foundation to use the interest from this investment to make a series of small donations in two periods throughout the year. Because such donations are not pulled from the foundation’s primary finances, the cancellation of the charity tournament will not prevent similar small donations from being made next year.
The foundation recently provided $100,000 worth of donations to various local clubs and foundations, such as the Englehart and Temiskaming nordic ski clubs, a local minor hockey team, a community choir and the Cobalt Classic Theatre, among others. Following the June deadline for donation applications, another round of small donations will be held.
Such successes have been due to the generosity of Northern Ontarians, she says, pointing to the fact that the scope of the event requires the assistance of nearly 500 volunteers.
She also credits Grant Forest Products, whose founder Peter Grant Sr. also began the Frog’s Breath Foundation.
Regardless of the current state of the industry, Johanson says the foundation expects forestry’s fortunes to improve enough to allow for on the tournament again next year.
“It’s going to be our 10th anniversary, and we want to be able to do it in a big splash, so we’re really hoping that by then, things will have turned around. It’s a cyclical industry, and we fully anticipate that next year we’ll be hosting the event again.”
