Courses

Volunteers To The Rescue

June 26, 2009
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Here's a feel-good story to start the weekend right. According to this piece on a Fox News affiliate ("Your Online Source for Balanced News and Severe Weather Coverage"), the Waushara Country Club in Wautoma, Wisc., has pulled itself from the brink by having members *volunteer their time *working at the club.

That's right -- members are helping with maintenance work, tending bar, running the beverage carts and more, all to keep the 27-hole course afloat.

Struggling financially, the club had to cut its paid staff in half, so it's obviously tough luck for employees who lost their jobs. But head pro Bob VanEffen is quoted as saying the volunteer effort saved the club $250,000 in its first year and it's been profitable ever since. "Without the membership force volunteering, we probably wouldn't be here today," he told the reporter.

He adds: "It's really brought the membership closer together. It's like one big family."

-- P.F.