Antrobus Golf Club Past Captains David Carter and Liz Cowan made a great team for their joint chosen charity 1Voice during their year in office.
Liz said: “When Antrobus Golf Club were looking for a Lady Captain for 2024 I was delighted to accept – not only because I was keen to be part of the running of the club and felt I would be able to bring something to that role, but because I also knew that it would be a great opportunity to raise some funds for 1Voice Charity.
“1Voice charity organises social opportunities for individuals and families who use alternative forms of communication (AAC), to be part of an AAC community, meet role models, and access regional, national and online events.
“What is AAC? Most people use their voices to communicate, but lots of people (children or adults) may have difficulty expressing themselves in a way that is understood by others. This could be due to lack of speech, difficulties with speech intelligibility, motor speech difficulties (controlling the physical movements necessary for speaking), and can result from many congenital or acquired difficulties e.g. cerebral palsy or stroke. The term AAC is used to describe the different methods that can be used to help people with disabilities communicate with others – both powered alternatives like eye-gaze devices, and non-powered, like books of symbols, partner-assisted scanning, or sign-languages like BSL or Makaton.
“I have been aware of 1Voice for some years now. I am a paediatric physiotherapist and work with lots of AAC users and families, so I see the invaluable work the charity does for individuals, families, and support teams.
“We raised the money in some traditional, and perhaps some less traditional ways.
“At Easter and Christmas members donate bottles and seasonal fayre to make up Hampers for which they then buy tickets to win back. The raffles raised £1600, despite some of the bottles being recognised as having been won in previous raffles!
“The Green keepers fined players for minor misdemeanours during their Green keepers Revenge event.
“One member pledged to donate £5 for every birdie he got during the summer season. Another donated a sum of money at the start of the year so that he would not be badgered to buy raffle tickets but then bought some anyway and was rewarded by winning two gorgeous hampers.
“Member Roy Ainsworth very kindly did the hard work of organising a Charity Golf Day with prizes donated from local businesses. 1Voice Role Model Eva attended and helped sell raffle tickets whilst explaining the work of the charity to the players, using her AAC. This helped raise awareness of the work the charity does and caught the attention of one of the players in particular. “He told us that he was a trustee of the Pauline & Geoffrey Martin Trust, and he was sure that the Trust would want to fund match what was raised by the Golf Day. The day raised £3008, and the pledge came good from the charity who kindly donated £5000.
“Mr Captain persuaded members to dress up and try to ‘Beat The Pro’ during his Captain’s Day, raising £600.
“My husband raffled his services as a ‘Caddy For The Day’, promising to provide a top class service including cleaning golf shoes and clubs before and after the round, transporting the lucky player to and from the course in a sponsored car and gaining priority parking in the President’s parking space for the day, providing snacks and of course invaluable insider knowledge of how to play the course. The prize was much sought after, raised £700, and the idea will be taken forward again to fund raise this year.
“I took myself out of my comfort zone to do a “Wing Walk” on a beautiful aircraft on a sunny day in Lincoln. An awesome, exhilarating experience that I highly recommend but won’t be repeating!
“Jo Cope, administrator at 1Voice, attended the AGM to receive the cheque for the final amount of £13,136.00, to thank the members and give more information on how that money will be used.
“We had a lot of fun over the year raising the funds, and I hope we have gone some way in highlighting the difficulties/barriers faced by families and the difference AAC and 1Voice can make to so many lives.”
Pic – Liz and David with their cheque
Copy: Geoff Garnett
