On Saturday, July 19 the Danville Chamber of Commerce will hold its 30th annual golf scramble fundraising event at Old Bridge Golf Course. The entry fee is $400 per four golfer team.

The scramble will start with a noon lunch from the course grill, provided by Northwestern Mutual and will conclude with a dinner provided by Triple J and C Barbeque — award winning barbeque masters from Harrodsburg — at an awards ceremony at 5:30 pm.

Executive director of the chamber Jeff Jewel said that the golf scramble is one of two major fundraising events in the year, which represents a large percentage of the funding for the chamber, which accepts no government funding.

“It’s just a really friendly, fun tournament. The money goes to a good cause,” he said. “Our sponsors have been awesome. A lot of them have been doing it, some of those guys have been in those same sponsor roles as far back as I can check the records.”

Jewel said that one of the goals he hopes to achieve with the scramble is to create an environment that is welcoming to golfers of all skills.

“The thing I love about the scramble is that we definitely gear it so that the good teams can go out and compete, the teams in the middle can have fun, but even if you’re just out there just to have fun, you can still have a good time,” he said. “We even set up our prize structure that way in that we give great prizes, really nice drivers and putters everything. We give really nice prizes to the top teams, but we also give a really nice prize package to everyone on the dead middle team and the second to last team. I love that, everyone stands a shot at winning something. 

“We have so many nice door prizes like a night at a hotel or something. I’d say about 50 percent of the people who participated walked away with something, and that’s always fun. It generates a lot of excitement.”

Two of the big prizes of the day will be at two holes. Bob Allen Motor Mall and Stuart Powell Ford-Lincoln-Mazda will be giving out new cars for a hole in one. 

“Last year at the Bob Allen hole, this guy’s ball on the hole in one was about three blades of grass away from going in,”Jewel said of last year’s event. “He was ready to grab those keys and leave. The hole in one thing is always awesome, anytime you can sink a hole in one and drive away in a new car is great.”

While it is a golf tournament, Jewel wants people to come out more for the community aspect of the event and to have a good time regardless of their interest in the sport.

“There’s really, and I mean excellent food at the beginning and the end. It’s super friendly and not overly competitive. We’ve done everything, with how we’ve structured from introducing everyone in the beginning to the prizes at the end, to make it welcoming to everyone. We’ve taken pains so this tournament is that if you’re a great golfer, you’ve got people to go out and compete with and have fun and if you’re a lousy golfer, you’ve got people you can make friends with and have fun,” he said. “That’s really the whole gist of this. It’s just a way to bring to the various parts of the business community together and do a little bonding, that’s really what it’s about.”

Jewel also hopes that events like these will help get information out about the different services the Chamber of Commerce provides. He believes that a lot of the confusion comes in that the role of the chamber varies from town to town. 

“Most importantly, we try to help businesses, especially start-ups, with budgeting and marketing plans and outreach and websites, we do a lot of that,” he said. “Mom-and-pop business start up in town on Main Street or the bypass or wherever, we do any kind of business service we can to get them out of the shoots. Then we try to help them network with other businesses.”

The chamber also provides different programs around town to help foster those relationships between businesses and other business owners, banks, and the customers. It also has a non-profit called the Challenge Foundation that works with high school students.

“We do youth leadership and youth business programs. One of my favorites is we do this youth entrepreneur program where high school students get with a team or work on a solo project,” Jewel said. “They develop a product and go all the way through planning it, how you produce, what it does it cost, how to get it on shelves and sell it. Then they actually produce the product and bring it to this judging where Centre College economics professors grade them. There’s prize money to actually start the business, and the winner gets a scholarship as well.”

The chamber is still accepting registration for teams. 

If you are interested in signing up, you can contact Jewel at jeff@danvilleboylechamber.com.