Burns & McDonnell, the supervising company for SaskPower’s Great Plains Power Station, kicked off their third annual charity golf tournament on Friday morning, with proceeds going to River Street Promotions’ Homestand ’23 concert this time around.
“This is Burns & McDonnell’s third annual charity event, and it’s also our third annual Homestand concert, so to have the two of them coming together here today is a nice synergy,” said James Murdoch, one of the founders of River Street Promotions.
“And, you know, last year the tournament ended up giving $26,000 to Hunger in Moose Jaw, and the year before that was $17,000 for Joe’s Place, so that’s considerable growth. … In the three years that Burns & McDonnell has had a presence here, you can see how they’ve been a perfect fit for our great city of Moose Jaw, so we’re happy and honoured to have been chosen, and these dollars will truly help and benefit our youth in south Saskatchewan.”
This year’s tournament, hosted by Hillcrest Golf Club, reached its capacity of 144 golfers within only a couple of weeks of being announced, organizer Jami-Lee Cuthbert said. Cuthbert, B&M's site manager, added the tournament has been tremendously well supported by businesses and organizations in the community, as well as all the workers and subcontractors at the power station site.
“We have activities and different giveaways or challenges on 17 out of 18 holes, we have a 50/50 raffle table, and immediately after the golf, everyone will make their way over to the Heritage Inn where Brad [Butcher, B&M Project Manager] will give a speech, then we’ll hear from James from River Street Promotions, and maybe Amanda [Olson] from Prairie South School Division. Then, we jump right into our tournament prizes,” Cuthbert explained.
“Then we go through all our raffle prizes and then we have Scott Johnstone, the local auctioneer, coming out to join us for dinner and conduct our live auction. We eat dinner at 6:30, and after that everyone is free to go home or keep partying, so, quite a day.”
Proceeds of the tournament will go to the River Street Promotions (RSP) fund, which is administered by Prairie South School Division and shared with the Holy Trinity Catholic School Division.
The RSP fund enables mental health initiatives such as speakers, activity days, and increased mental health wellness resources for the two school divisions. The Homestand series of concerts have also turned into a boost for the entire city of Moose Jaw, bringing international and Canadian performers to the city and supporting the local economy.
“We all chose River Street Promotions and their Homestand ’23 concert because of the great work they do with Saskatchewan youth,” Butcher said just before giving a welcome speech to all the participants. “They focus on improving kids’ mental health, especially with the aftereffects of COVID, that’s their main thing, and that lines up with our priorities and really hit home with us.”
The event was supported by many prominent Moose Javians, with Mayor Clive Tolley and Maryse Carmichael, the new city manager, preparing to tee off together, restaurant owners Alex Carleton and John Iatridis supplying food and drinks at several holes, Chamber of Commerce president Rob Clark claiming a spot, and representatives from city council and both school boards all there to contribute, among many others.
Murdoch made a surprise announcement of another RSP event for 2023, although the non-profit group is laser-focused on Homestand ’23 for now. That concert, held at Ross Wells Ballpark and featuring Corb Lund, Lindi Ortega, The Mike Plume Band, and Jordyn Pollard, is coming up fast on Saturday, September 9.
“We are excited to announce that we will be doing a repeat of our Nashville night at the Mae Wilson, coming up in December 2023, so we’ll have four Nashville artists coming up to Moose Jaw once again. There are more details to come on that,” Murdoch said.
