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COMMUNITY BULLETIN BOARD 16 | THE COLONY NEWS | SEPTEMBER 2021 | By Dennis Murphy You will have noticed that during the pandemic many activities were compromised throughout The Colony, and one such activity missing has been that fun social event on a June or October Saturday morning. There were a couple of Saturdays each year when you would rise up in the morning and not have to worry about planning and preparing morning breakfast or cleaning up dishes afterwards. Yes, what happened to the Colony Men's Golf Club semiannual Pancake Breakfast? Like all other activities here at The Colony, it was put on hold because of COVID-19. (HEADS UP! It will again take place on Saturday, Nov. 13, so mark your calendars!) The CMGC wants to thank you, the residents of our community, for supporting our fundraising efforts to provide scholarships for the three local high school golf teams. It appears that the light at the end of the tunnel of this pandemic is in our future. Since our program for the academic year of 2020-21 has been put on hold, I thought this would be an opportune time to share with you the history of our scholarship program. The History The Colony Men's Golf Club has been providing scholarships to the local high schools' golf team athletic programs for many years. Early on, the club had taken a somewhat passive role in the scholarship award process. While our scholarships were handed out to the recipients in a public forum, our club had not taken an active role in the process. In the academic year of 2013-14, that was all to change. The Men's Club worked diligently to provide funds to the school district to underwrite the program. Those activities included a 50-50 monthly luncheon drawing and the two pancake breakfasts held annually for The Colony community. In 2012, the Murrieta School District announced that they would continue to distribute scholarship funds for the Colony Men's Golf Club, but would not return unused scholarship funds. They indicated that they would hold them until the next academic year for distribution. The CMGC essentially had no oversight on those funds generated by our volunteer membership. The club at that time severed its relationship with the Murrieta School District and began to develop direct distribution to the students by partnering with the local high schools' Athletic Directors and coaches, thus establishing protocol* and oversight. In the academic year of 2013-14, we began to hold our first onsite tournament, followed by an awards luncheon in June as the school year began to wind down. This allowed for a "Meet and Greet" approach to recipients of our scholarships and our club membership. The players and coaches are hosted at the tournament and luncheon, during which scholarship award certificates are handed out as the student athletes receive their college scholarships. This process has continued since that time. Many years ago, the local high schools used the CA Oaks Golf Course as a practice course during golf season. That was not the case in recent years, as management was not inclined to be supportive of our local high school golf programs nor the CMGC scholarship program. I am pleased to announce to The Colony Community that there have been some partnership changes implemented between The Colony Men's Golf Club and the current management of the CA Oaks Golf Course. First, the golf course Receiver has agreed to partner with CMGC in our Scholarship Awards Program by underwriting the greens fees for our visiting students and coaches during our annual June tournament event. Second, they have also reached out to our local high schools and offered the CA Oaks Golf Course as a practice course for their golf programs. One high school has already responded and begun practice sessions for their golf team student golfers. The golf course and our local high school golf programs are also entertaining the idea of utilizing CA Oaks GC for local tournaments involving our three local schools. We are hoping to restart our Scholarship Program when the COVID-19 restrictions allow us once again to resume our monthly CMGC luncheon 50-50 drawings and semiannual Pancake Breakfasts that provide financial support to our program. Thanks again for your continued support. *You can review the established protocol the club has implemented by dropping me a note at dmurph44@verizon. net. I will gladly transmit a copy of our SCHOLARSHIP PROTOCOL to you. MEN'S GOLF CLUB SCHOLARSHIPS

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