The La Porte Economic Advancement Partnership (LEAP) invited people and businesses throughout the community to their annual Play Day Golf Outing. The event was hosted at Beechwood Golf Course on Friday, July 12.
Bert Cook, executive director of LEAP, discusses the sentiment of what this golf outing is all about for the organization.
“Today is an opportunity for us to gather the business community and all of our community partners to spend the majority of the day here at Beechwood,” Cook said. “We give people a chance to network and be engaged with us as well.”
This is the 50th annual Play-Day golf outing event put on by LEAP. Nurturing a tradition that has lasted half a century is an impressive feat to accomplish. Cook is appreciative to see how this golf outing has continued to build a great reputation in the La Porte community.
“It’s hard to believe that much time has gone by,” Cook said. “I think it speaks to the fact that you have an organization that is so well established in this community. We have been well supported by our partners for a very long time. It also speaks to the consistency of our city.”
Various contests were featured at this year’s golf outing. This included a hole-in-one contest, a longest drive, and a putting contest.
"There are a few different things on the course that are pretty cool,” Cook said. “We have the Indiana-Kentucky Regional Council of Carpenters that brought out a giant screen for the course. We have the La Porte Educational Development Foundation on hole nine which has an opportunity to dialogue with the business community. There's a lot to appreciate on the course and it couldn’t be possible without the help of additional organizations.”
The golf outing consisted of 44 foursomes, which were split up into 24 groups playing in the morning and 20 groups in the evening.
Mayor Tom Dermody was one of the participating golfers in the morning. He’s always been a big fan of this event and how LEAP helps make La Porte a better place.
“LEAP does an unbelievable job for our community,” Dermody said. “They help bring jobs and quality employment to La Porte. It’s a great opportunity for not only the business community, but nonprofits and many others to get together here on a beautiful day and play some golf.”
Alongside Mayor Dermody at this year’s outing was State Representative Jim Pressel. Growing up in La Porte County, Pressel is excited to see the work that organizations like LEAP and their sponsors do to improve the city and host special events for the community.
“Every member of the community really gets behind this,” Pressel said. “We all want to see La Porte grow. Stability is a huge factor as well, which is a big part of what the sponsors play in helping out LEAP.”
There were many tee sponsors and hole sponsors spaced out throughout the event. Brenna Klosowski was one of the volunteers for the event. She also mentions that her company Fidelity National Title helped sponsor a hole.
“It’s beneficial for us to network with all sorts of customers,” Klosowski said. “This golf outing is special because we have about 200 golfers in attendance. There are plenty of city members here and it’s nice to be outside of the office and have a good experience like this together.”
For more information on LEAP, you can visit their website.