Above-Par Results for Scouts’ Fund-Raiser
If you planned to contribute to the Boy Scouts of America Los Angeles Area Council this year, by far the most painless way to do it was to write a corporate check for $5,000 and send yourself as part of your company’s foursome to the recent Cushman Realty Corp./Boy Scout Golf Classic.
But only if you sent your check in early.
Just 3 years old, the event has become so popular that Cushman and the Boy Scouts had the painful task of returning $55,000. The 18-hole course at Friendly Hills Country Club in Whittier could not absorb another 11 foursomes.
The event brought in upward of $320,000, netting about $225,000 for the Scouts, up about $25,000 from last year. All this at a time when most fund-raisers are lowering ticket prices, cutting costs and still reporting slow sales and disappointing, down-from-last-year results.
“This year it couldn’t have been easier,” says Eagle Scout John Cushman III, president and chief executive officer of Cushman Realty in Los Angeles. “The only thing that prevented us from easily making half a million dollars is we’d need two 18-hole courses. But there are technical problems with that.”
Participants say Cushman has only himself to blame for the success.
“It’s the most popular tournament I’m aware of . . . and it’s (due to) John Cushman’s personal, unique commitment and dedication,” says Paul Shay, of Southern California Edison. “You leave feeling very good about participating. And the prizes are very attractive. It’s almost like Christmas.”
Several participants resorted to Santa Claus analogies to compare how they felt about the crystal trophies, the 1991 Bentley Turbo R parked at the 16th hole as a reward for a hole in one, the tee prizes, the first-class trips to Paris at the silent auction. And Santa brought more than his sack of goodies, rolling out the red carpet and keeping it out for the duration.
Uniformed Boy Scouts carried players’ clubs to registration. Warm greetings and a bottle of wine from Cushman staff, a Cushman valet to help you put on your new Nike golf shoes, a buffet breakfast and a golf clinic. Great tee prizes--tiny computers, binoculars, Ray Ban sunglasses, you name it. Refreshments and lunch on the course. The high number of executives and managing partners, the camaraderie and lack of pressure, the great informal dinner and silent auction at the end.
“He just makes it fun all the way through,” says Michael Paselk, executive vice president of Turelk Construction in Long Beach. So much fun that Paselk got carried away and wound up placing a successful bid of $14,000 for four first-class flights to Paris and five nights at the Intercontinental’s Le Grand Hotel. Split four ways, at $3,500 each, he reasons: “It’s a bargain.”
And all for a good cause.
“We try to make sure they have fun,” Cushman says. “It’s the quality of people--CEOs flew in for this--and the fun they have. They don’t have to listen to some big long speech about scouting. It does take a while to play, there are some waits, so we try to provide some distractions and a few surprises.”
One distraction caused what seems to be the event’s only displeasure for some. Several young women wearing thong bikinis gave out the tee prizes--belts at one par-three hole with a long wait. For those willing, one of the scantily clad women would remove the golfer’s belt and put the new belt in its place. And those who chose, and many did, could then put their arms around the women and pose for a photo.
Some participants found the photo op out of place, embarrassing, even shocking considering the fund-raiser was for the Boy Scouts; several called it “tacky” or “distasteful.” (Some foursomes included women.)
Cushman acknowledges that he will have to rethink the idea. “But,” he adds, “it was all in good fun. The Boy Scouts were not out there on the course. It could have been an issue for some of the women who played. I received two comments.”
And one tournament official, he says, did get a complaint from a woman participant: “She wanted to know why there were no Chippendale boys (male strippers).”
Richard Franz, L.A. Boy Scouts vice president for development, attended the tournament and said the situation was questioned only after the event, when several staff members reported there had been comment. The event is the Scouts’ largest single-event fund-raiser. Next year, Franz said, “I feel confident the girls won’t be invited.”
Most participants downplayed the young women’s presence. And several jokingly complained--including Shuhei Okuda, CEO of Mitsui Fudosan Inc., a real estate corporation: “I couldn’t concentrate. It’s because of the girls I didn’t play well.”
No one won the Bentley nor any of the other three luxury cars offered as hole-in-one prizes. Most said they were not there to play serious golf. They were there for fun.
Paselk plans to be back, saying the combination of fun and business connections can’t be beat: “If it got down to one event a year that I could afford to do, this is the one.”
