HOW TO SAVE A CHILD WITH A GAME OF GOLF

It’s a team effort for Glen Rice and friends as they golf to raise money for a children’s crisis center.

Nearly every day, the Crisis Center at Community Health of South Florida, Inc. (CHI) sees a child brought in by his or her parents or school police because of a mental health breakdown. Usually the child is at risk of harming themselves or others. It’s a particularly difficult situation because the adult Crisis Unit at CHI is not equipped to see kids. So, it might be hours before that child is transferred to a children’s crisis facility with an open bed.

If the thought of bringing your child to an adult crisis center is frightening to you, it is that and more for the parents of nearly a thousand children put in this position every year. With their child’s emotional health spinning out of control, many of these parents are grasping for a turning point, a place that can make a meaningful urgent change in their child’s behavioral health when all seems hopeless. This moment in time can be the difference that sets them on a healing path for life or further compounds a severe problem.

It might seem like a stretch to say that golf could be the solution. But when dozens of golfers and celebrities tee off at the Biltmore golf course on April 3, 2020, they will be swinging away for this very cause. The annual CHI Glen Rice Celebrity Golf Tournament will help fund the building of the first children’s crisis center in southern Miami-Dade County.

“These children can’t wait any longer,” said Brodes H. Hartley, Jr., President and CEO. “We have to join forces and ensure they have access to quality, comprehensive, compassionate intensive behavioral healthcare.”

The tournament will include teams from local businesses as well as individual golfers. It’s a fundraiser that promises to be a day to remember. The lush, Bermuda grass fairways of the Biltmore championship course with laser leveled tees will offer 18 holes of golf with lunch and an entertaining awards dinner at the end of the day.

In the past, celebs such as Glen Rice, Scottie Pippen, Mercury Morris and others have enjoyed supporting the CHI tournament as they know it’s always a relaxed, fun day with an important goal in mind, to save the minds of young fragile children.

“I am so proud to be a part of this fundraiser,” said Glen Rice. “I do it because I know that CHI does enable kids to heal their hearts and minds. This is something that affects all of us. Together we need to make a change.”

If you’d like to meet Rice and community leaders who want to golf for the children, register at chisouthfl.org/golf or call (305) 252-4853.