2012 5th Annual Golf Outing and Auction

Event Date: August 4, 2012

On August 4th, friends of Kali’s Cure returned to Dunmaglas Golf Club in Charlevoix, Michigan for the charity’s annual golf outing and auction. Friends from across the country look forward to this time of year when they head to Northern Michigan to reunite with their golfing buddies and fellow KC supporters. Although each year has been filled with great memories and countless achievements, this milestone event will go down in the record books several times over!

Throughout the last 5 years, the golf outing has remained our signature fundraiser and each season we are joined by countless returning supporters and many new friends ready to jump on board to be part of the CURE! Although we didn’t set out with a specific 5 year goal, with hard work and dedication, our contributors made it happen! Our message began to spread and our small charity was not only doing big things and helping many people but raising more money and spending less than organizations who had been at it for decades! When the 2011 golf outing was said and done, and we began to think of ways to make our 5th anniversary event even better, it became apparent that, perhaps, our first million was within reach! We knew it would be a challenge, however, once this number was realized, anything short of achieving our goal wasn’t an option!

We inched our way towards the anniversary celebration but even with a lot of extra work, more volunteers, continued dedication and sheer determination, the live auction began with what appeared to be an insurmountable uphill battle. As people generously placed verbal bids on a wide variety of items, we continued to track our progress on an ever present “thermometer” made especially for this occasion by our friends at ExhibitPro. With only 3 items left to auction, we were still several thousand dollars from achieving the million dollar mark and, although we knew we had saved the best for last, we did so knowing there was a chance these items wouldn’t go for top dollar and instead would be placed in a month long online bidding war. Thanks to the Red Wings Alumni Foundation and PGA star Dan Pohl, these items ended up being some of the fastest to go!

First, Bruce and Mary Ann Becker were the high bidders for a two day golf extravaganza with golf legend Dan Pohl and hockey great Joe Kocur! Next, Hank and Bonnie Graff officially put us over the million dollar mark when they instantly bid $10,000 to play on the famous Joe Louis ice with the Red Wings Alumni! Not to miss the chance to play with these hockey greats, Al Kommel matched their bid for a duplicate package!

Finally, the night came to a perfect end for Kali’s Cure. Having already achieved our million dollar goal, it was just icing on the cake as an additional $1,000 per ticket was bid for 20 seats to watch a Red Wings game from the Alumni Suite at the Joe Louis Arena…a game not to be attended by bidders Ed Miller, Bruce Becker, Frank Beckmann, or Mike Bierlein but watched by 20 of our nation’s bravest, injured while defending our freedom!

It was hard to find a dry eye in the house when benevolent friends of Kali’s Cure could end the night by generously donating to one of their favorite foundations while supporting our wounded soldiers. By helping us not only achieve but surpass our 5thanniversary goal and setting two new event records ( $83,943 auction total and $216,348 event total), our supporters brought us one step closer to the CURE with contributions to the Diaphragmatic Pacing Program, Life Beyond Barriers, and the Rehabilitation Institute of Michigan Fund.

We would like to thank everyone who has contributed their time, talent and money to our organization over the last 5 years. Without you, none of this would have been possible!

We would like to offer a special thank you to all of those who came together to make the 5th annual event such a success!