The First Tee Golf Clinic 8/22/14
On Friday, August 22nd, Henderson High School sophomore, Pat Muth, rounded up 25 of his friends to volunteer at The First Tee Golf Clinic. The event was sponsored by The First Tee, which is an international youth development organization that introduces the game of golf and its inherent values to young people. Their mission is to impact the lives of young people by provided educational programs that build character, instill life-enhancing value and promote healthy choices through the game of golf.
The Foundation brought 40 Chester children to Henderson High School for a three hour event. The activities were supposed to take place at The First Tee’s facility at FDR Park in Philadelphia, but thunderstorms were threatening and the call was made to move it to Henderson High School. We are so grateful to Ken McCormick, HHS Athletic Director, who always makes Henderson’s facilities available to us!
The day began by separating both sets of kids into two groups. Half of the HHS students and half of the Chester students were sent out onto the soccer field to practice their chipping and the other half of the kids were sent to the tennis courts to practice their putting. Phil Blonski with The First Tee taught the kids all about the patience and concentration needed to sink a putt. Dave Zimmaro, also with The First Tee, taught the other set of kids all about how to hold the club and pull back their arms for a perfect chip.
Almost none of the kids had ever held a golf club before and there were certainly no experts in the field, but everyone learned a lot about both techniques. Pat Muth is on the HHS golf team and some of the volunteers are really good golfers, but for the most part, everyone just gained exposure to the sport, some experience and had a ton of fun!
At noon the whole group headed indoors to the cafeteria to get some pizza and water and to relax and get to know each other better. In some ways it was a bit of a camp reunion as many of the volunteers had also volunteered at Camp Paradise, and some of the Chester golfers had just been at Camp Paradise too! Even Ricky, the boy in the center pictured below, lives in Chester and was a Counselor at Camp Paradise. He came as a Chester bus chaperone and was reunited with Alex (left) and Matt (right) who were Counselors with him at camp!
After lunch everyone took turns playing fun golf games and practicing what they had learned in the morning. The group had such a good time together and celebrated the last full day before school began again in Chester.
Special Thanks:
Phil Blonski and Dave Zimmaro, The First Tee of Greater Philadelphia
Henderson High School
Krapf Bus Company
Culinary Delights
