St. Jude Golf Tournament Honors Binghamton Basketball Official

As many of you know, 98.1 the Hawk has participated in the Country Cares for St. Jude event for the last four years. In February 2021, we raised over $50,000 in two days. That is outstanding especially considering that we were in the middle of the coronavirus pandemic.

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By the way, you can still donate to the St. Jude Children's Research Hospital and join me as a "Partner In Hope." They won't stop until no child dies from cancer and we will continue to support that effort.

You may recall the story about a friend and fellow basketball official, Chris Haynes. He was diagnosed with Acute Myeloid Leukemia in 2019 and was treated at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in New York City.

He saw many kids being treated for cancer and he knew that he wanted to make the best of his bad situation and help other children that suffered from this horrendous disease.

Chris Haynes Memorial Golf Tournament To Benefit St. Jude

He began to put together a golf tournament with our local basketball board (IAABO Board 49) and would donate all the net proceeds from the tournament to St. Jude. Unfortunately, he lost his life to cancer before the golf tournament could be held.

IAABO Board 49 decided to honor him and took up his cause in his memory. The golf tournament scheduled for October 11th, 2020 was canceled because of the pandemic. This didn't stop us and rescheduled the Chris Haynes Memorial St. Jude Golf Tournament for Sunday, June 27th.

The response to the tournament was so great that they had to have two separate tee-off times. Well, the results are in and I couldn't be prouder of this group of officials and their friends.

Chris Haynes Memorial Golf Tournament Donation To St. Jude

Earlier this month, Chris's daughter, Cailey gave a check in the amount of $8,233.50 in honor of her dad. On behalf of Chris's family and IAABO Board 49, I want to say "THANK YOU" to everyone that supported, contributed and volunteered their time to honor Haynesy and to help St. Jude Children's Research Hospital.

I want to add a special thank you to Brian Jester. He took over the reins for Chris and his hard work has made all the difference, this event might not have been possible without you. So thank you, Brian.

I'll keep you posted on next year's golf tournament and I hope to see you then. Below are some of the things that St. Jude offers to the kids and their families.