Local Courses Hosted fundraising Tournaments
First Tourney 1989
First Tourney 1989
First Tourney 1989
Favorite Stonington course for many southeast Connecticut golfers
Last Tourney 2000
First Tourney 1989
First Tourney 1989
Popular par-3 nestled off 161 in East Lyme
Pequot Golf Club and Cedar Ridge
The Tournament
Sign Craft owners, Julie and John Wilson, local DJ Jammin Johnny, began their golf tournament, the Jammin Johnny Open (JJO), the same year Care & Share made its debut in East Lyme, 1989. Over the years, the JJO raised funds for local non-profits, including Care & Share. The Wilsons later morphed it to a dedicated fundraising format. The 1999 & 2000 tournament proceeds went entirely to Care & Share.
Team Involvement and Socializing
C & S supporters and volunteers learned to appreciate firsthand how dynamic a golf tournament could be to fundraising and community building. Over 12 years the JJO introduced hundreds of golfers to Care & Share, which they supported during the Open and afterwards. Each year's tournament gathering grew, as shown to the right. One year there were 144 golfers participating.
The Wilsons were always generous to local charities and supported Care & Share over many years . . . and continue to do so today.
The Importance of Fundraising
Every tournament produced winners. Those with scores on the course. Those with prizes won afterwards. And all participants who enjoyed food, fellowship, fun and great music and entertainment from DJ Jammin Johnny and friends.
From early in its existence, C&S quickly perceived the need for funding sources and how fundraising accomplished two things simultaneously --
(1) obtained funds to buy things needed to establish the Pantry and to acquire food and other necessities, and (2) established or solidified long term relationships to benefit the mission of C&S.
JJO Pictures Through the Years
East Lyme D.A.R.E. $ 2,000 Award
Sign Craft mantra about assisting community charities was:
"Enhancing East Lyme, One Stroke At a Time."
Fun for All Ages and Families
Taking a page from the professional golf tour,
signs abounded on the course to encourage proper etiquette - and compassion - among friends and families out for fun at the JJO.
The PGA may have had its GHO (Greater Hartford Open) up in Cromwell, but East Lyme had its own homegrown
Jammin Johnny Open (JJO) for a dozen years
from 1989 to 2000 right near home.
Above Par Fun and Games
There was no "Monday qualifying" for the JJO.
Skill levels never mattered.
It was all about the fun and having a good time.
New Friends Discovered Every Year
John Wilson (purple shirt) enticed two street buskers (white shirts) in Saratoga NY to come to the shoreline to play their guitars and sing for the post-JJO dinner crowd along the shore at McCook Park one year.