“Our Business is Your Business”

There’s something about the CV Chamber golf tournament that people love. I was asking attendees last Friday what they liked and they couldn’t quite put their finger on it but the appeal seems to be a mix of casual relaxation, friendly conversation, heartwarming presentations, fun prize-winning, gorgeous weather and satisfying food. Oh, and golf.

Chamber director Leonard Ghazarian, with a strong support team of Kaipo Chock, Mike Riley, Ken Biermann, Jean Maluccio, Steve Pierce, office staff and volunteers, put on a great event at Scholl Canyon last Friday. We honored this year’s recipients of the CV Chamber scholarship grants: Jessy Shelton, Annie Blood, Jackie Dall and Avery Barnes. Assemblymember Laura Friedman was on hand to congratulate the recipients as were Vickere Murphy from Senator Anthony Portantino’s office and Shant Sahakian from the GUSD board of education. We thank them for their participation.

We heard a little about the students’ future plans and feel confident that our funds are well-spent. Being strong supporters of our community, I imagine all the recipients will return to the Crescenta Valley, bringing their higher education and philanthropic tendencies with them. It’s an investment in the students’ futures as well as the community’s.

Besides the scholarship winners, there were other award recipients last Friday. Coming in first place in the overall golf tournament was the far-driving, accurate-putting foursome of Bernie Geestman, Al Zowolko, Al Bourque and Jimmy Jones with a team score of 11 under par. In second place were Ron Geer, Clayton Geer, Herb Marshall and Chris Marshall. Frank Williams, Ron Williams, Craig Nelson and Chris Ercek came in third. The putting contest was quite difficult according to contest coordinator and Honorary Mayor Mike Riley. Only eight out of 35 participants even completed the course. With a score of eight Don Patrick won the gift card prize.

Sadly, nobody scored a hole-in-one so the Toyota iA, the $10,000 and the cruise to Mexico went unclaimed. We thank Bob Smith Toyota, Chris Aristo State Farm Insurance and Montrose Travel respectively for those sponsorships.

We also thank the many tee sponsors of our tournament including CV Weekly, Crescenta Cañada Pet Hospital, Caspian Services Inc., JR Hardware Sash & Door, HireClout, The Sheffield House, Gene’s Auto Body & Paint, Paco’s Barber Shop, J Boy Media, Knights of Columbus, JM’s Cigars, Zigabid, Maria Muriello, Montrose Complete Health, Current Electric and Assemblymember Laura Friedman. Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf and Albertson’s donated to our breakfast table and Michelson Laboratories came through again as our awesome goodie bag sponsor. The bag was filled with valuable swag from Montrose Barber Shop, JR Hardware, Glencrest Team, Dignity Memorial, National Cremation Service and others.

We had an amazing raffle with great prizes from Massage Envy, The Pilates Studio, Sport Clips, Scholl Canyon GC, Chevy Chase CC, GolfTEC, Dream Dinners, CV Sheriffs, Caspian, Ken Biermann and John Wray. Thank you, donors!

The Desi Geestman Foundation, with whom we put on this tournament, joins the Chamber in thanking everyone who helped and will share in the proceeds from the event. We hope you can join us at next year’s event taking place the last couple weeks of June.

Upcoming: Monthly mixer on Wednesday, July 12 at Chris Aristo State Farm Insurance, 6 p.m. to 8 p.m. There’ll be a barbecue in the back at 2409 Honolulu Ave., Montrose. Member jackpot is up to $825.

  Lisa DUPUY