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June 2016 Have a Ball – It’s So Much More Than a Golf Tournament By Jody Morgan Even more remarkable than the story of Bob Hammer’s miraculous cancer cure is the saga of how Bob and his family have managed to give the entire community the opportunity to enjoy their good fortune. What began with a simple desire to contribute to the organization serendipitously responsible for allowing the Hammers to become a family of four has turned into an annual fundraiser supporting 30 cancer-related causes. Since the Have a Ball Foundation’s golf tournament debuted in 2005, the non-profit has raised $2.2 million dollars. But beyond becoming one of the nation’s largest privately run golf tournaments, Have a Ball Golf takes pride in ensuring that every one of the 600 yearly participants as well sponsors, beneficiaries, and volunteers feels like part of the family. Given a 15% chance of survival following the recurrence of his testicular caner, Bob Hammer raised sufficient money to travel to Lance Armstrong’s “Ride for the Roses” in April 2001 shortly after completBob and Josh Hammer share a tournament day high five. Photo ing 26 rounds of chemotherapy over the by Danielle Jess Photography course of eight months. He was scheduled for surgery a few days after his return from the Texas event. He arrived certain his toddler daughter Shayna would be his only child. An introduction to Dr. Craig Nichols changed the course of Bob’s life. Lance Armstrong’s oncologist listened carefully to Bob’s medical history. In a telephone consultation with Hammer’s California physician, Nichols advised against surgery. In 2003, Bob and Kim Hammer welcomed their son Josh to the family. In 2005, Bob and Kim orchestrated the first Have a Ball Golf Tournament with the modest goal of raising $2,500 to donate to the Lance Armstrong Foundation. Having run golf tournaments for his employer, Bob had experience in putting similar events together. The tournament didn’t net $2,500. It brought in over $50,000. Kim and Bob decided to do it again. Community and family are the focus of Bob and Kim’s lives. Despite each holding full-time jobs, they put an equivalent amount of time into planning each year’s tournament and serving the community in ways that allow them to spend quality time with their children, such as coaching sports. As Have a Ball evolved, helping members of the community became central to the mission of “chipping away at cancer one ball at a time.” Tournaments for 2016 will be held on July 18 and September 12 at Crow Canyon Country Club. Since 2011, Have a Ball Golf has actually run four
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Local residents of the Alamo community recently gathered for the second Alamo Community Walk-About enjoying treats from local restaurants, wine, special vendors, live music, and more. The event supported the Community Foundation of Alamo which sponsors the annual Alamo Tree Lighting Festival during the holidays. To learn more about the Foundation visit www.communityfoundationofalamo.com.
Lindsay Wildlife Experience By Fran Miller
“Tell me and I forget. Teach me and I may remember. Involve me and I learn.” Benjamin Franklin might have been referring to the philosophy of the Lindsay Wildlife Experience when he turned this wise phrase more than 200 years ago. The Lindsay Wildlife Experience (formerly the Lindsay Wildlife Museum) and its Wildlife Rehabilitation Hospital have always been more than the dictionary definition of its former ‘museum’ name implied – a building in which objects of interest are stored or exhibited. Lindsay’s live animals, its vibrant, hands-on displays and programs, and its real hospital care presentations are so much more than museum material, and thus, the Museum last year revealed its new, more apropos name. Officially founded in 1955 by Alexander Lindsay, a local businessman who had studied ornithology and taught neighborhood children about nature, the Lindsay has experienced a number of name changes over the years. Originally housed in an elementary school, the Lindsay Junior Museum moved in 1965 to a water pump house in Larkey Park where it housed nonreleasable native wildlife and natural history objects. In 1987, the ‘Junior’ was dropped in order to reflect its appeal to all age groups, and in 1996, the word ‘Wildlife’ was added. Lindsay is the living embodiment of Franklin’s “Involve me and I learn” tenet. More than 100,000 visitors each year, including 40,000 school children, experience Lindsay with hands-on, on-site, and in-school programs such as the Petting Circle where one can learn about and touch a rabbit, guinea pig, or hamster. The Raptors! exhibit allows for a true bird’s eye view of flight, as participants soar over a simulated Volume XVI - Number 6 local landscape a la Disney’s Soarin’ 3000F Danville Blvd. #117, Over California. “Educating children Alamo, CA 94507 See Ball continued on page 20 about wildlife and connecting them Telephone (925) 405-NEWS, 405-6397 with charismatic animal ambassadors Fax (925) 406-0547 PRSRT STD such as great horned owls, golden Alisa Corstorphine ~ Publisher U.S. Postage eagles, and king snakes is the best Editor@yourmonthlypaper.com PAID Permit 263 Sharon Burke ~ Writer way I know to instill a passion for opinions expressed herein belong to the writers, and do Alamo CA wildlife conservation,” says Lindsay’s The not necessarily reflect that of Alamo Today. Alamo Today executive director Cheryl McCormick. is not responsible for the content of any of the advertising ECRWSS
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herein, nor does publication imply endorsement.