PLAYERS Giving Back Week: Community Health Fair

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THE PLAYERS Championship contributes to a diverse group of charities throughout Northeast Florida, living by the PGA TOUR's mission to give back to the communities in which it plays. Since 1977, when THE PLAYERS moved to Ponte Vedra, more than $28 million has been contributed to Northeast Florida charities, ranging from health care to youth and education to human services. From Nov. 17-21, representatives from the PGA TOUR and THE PLAYERS Championship, along with several TOUR players, will visit different charitable organizations in Jacksonville as part of "Giving Back Week." The following event took place on Thursday.
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PONTE VEDRA BEACH, Fla. -- As part of THE PLAYERS "Giving Back Week," 2009 PGA TOUR rookie and local resident Jeff Klauk and his wife Shanna Klauk helped highlight THE PLAYERS multi-year commitment by donating $150,000 to the new Beaches Community Healthcare Clinic, a Sulzbacher Center clinic, as well as raise awareness of the community's need for food donations to BEAM (Beaches Emergency Assistance Ministry), by participating in "THE PLAYERS Championship Community Health Fair."

Badz/PGA TOUR

Jeff Klauk has his blood screened at the Beaches Community Healthcare Clinic.

Beaches Community Healthcare, a Sulzbacher Center Clinic, is a unique community collaboration between church, hospital, local non-profits and organizations such as THE PLAYERS. THE PLAYERS Community Health Fair featured a variety of health screenings, free flu shots, nutritional information, dental hygiene supplies and much more.

"Everyone in the community needs to understand that when they support THE PLAYERS Championship, through tickets, sponsorships or by volunteering, that they are in fact supporting this community and projects like this health care clinic," said Cindy Funkhouser, Vice President of Health Services for Sulzbacher. "This community is the home field of the PGA TOUR and we are so grateful for their support."

Klauk, along with Jay Monahan, Executive Director of THE PLAYERS, took a hard-hat tour of the new facility, helped to unload food to stock the BEAM pantry and served lunch to participants, provided by TPC Sawgrass.

"It's always great to see how our tournaments and the PGA TOUR find ways to give back," Jeff Klauk said. "It's even more gratifying and exciting when it happens in a community that I've called home since I was a child."

Also part of the day was the Ronald McDonald Mobile Heath Care facility, which was founded five years ago by Dr. John Schneider due in part by funds from THE PLAYERS Championship. THE PLAYERS has agreed to fund the start of another mobile clinic.

"When they talk about universal health care, access is likely the most important thing. With the mobile clinic, we are able to go to schools and communities where the kids need the most attention," Schneider said. "When we started the mobile clinic, we hoped to see about 2,500 patients a year. Last year, we helped 9,700."

Local churches joined to form Beaches Emergency Assistance Ministry (BEAM) in 1985 to answer a large volume of direct requests for crisis help in the community. BEAM enabled them to pool their resources and helped prevent duplication of services. Today, BEAM is a nonprofit social services agency supported by churches and many generous individuals, service organizations and businesses that care deeply about their neighbors in need.

Beaches Community Healthcare, a Sulzbacher Center Clinic, is a satellite of the Sulzbacher Center's federally qualified health center in downtown Jacksonville and will be sustained by a three-year, $1.9 million federal grant to the Sulzbacher Center. The clinic is the result of a collaboration between the Sulzbacher Center and the Beaches Community Healthcare Initiative, which includes Baptist Medical Center Beaches, BEAM, Christ Episcopal Church, THE PLAYERS Championship as well as many other concerned community partners. Sulzbacher Center provides the opportunity for homeless men, women and children to achieve a better life through comprehensive services. Every day, the Sulzbacher Center is home to more than three hundred homeless members of the community, many of whom are children.