Area business leaders gave Chairman of the Board of Commissioners Skip Alston his own golf tournament this year, and it was a raging success in that it raised money well past its goal and expectations.

The tournament ­– the “Melvin ‘Skip’ Alston Golf Classic To Benefit The Homeless” – was held on Monday, Oct. 21 at Grandover Resort.

A few days before the tournament, Alston informed the Rhino Times that the goal of the new tournament was to raise $100,000.

When asked how much it had raised so far Alston looked despondent and said “$23,000.”

After a brief pause, he laughed and said, “Naw, we’ve raised $160,000.”

In the end, the tournament raised even more than that to benefit those who have nowhere to live in Guilford County

“We had 168 golfers and raised $175,000,” Alston said soon after the golf tournament, which will now be an annual event.

The chairman of the Board of Commissioners added that he was very appreciative of what Koury Corporation did to help make the tournament a success.

 “We had $5,000 in expenses – for trophies, banners, hole signs, door prizes, and refreshments,” Alston said. “The entire expenses related to players’ cost and luncheon were completely underwritten by the Koury Corporation.”

 All checks for this event were written to the Welfare Reform Liaison Project, which will be responsible for allocating the funds towards homeless initiatives in the local community.

That non-profit has a stated mission, “To provide services that will enable economically disadvantaged individuals and families to move toward self-sufficiency through collaboration with the federal and state agencies, the faith community, corporations, other agencies from both public and private sectors, as well as the local citizenry.”

That organization has been attempting to fulfill that mission in Guilford County for more than two decades.

The Good Lord also helped make the event a success by providing perfect weather for golfing that Monday.

“We had good sunshiny weather of 75 degrees,” Alston said, adding, “Everyone was upbeat and delighted to be a part of helping the homeless community – especially with the recent news that the Interactive Resource Center was changing their hours and only being a day center now, open from 7 a.m. to 3 p.m.”

That downtown Greensboro center for the homeless, until recently, was taking in the homeless at all hours of the day or night but a plethora of problems and complaints from nearby business owners and residents eventually led to a situation where the center’s leaders felt compelled to return to being a day center.

Alston said the tournament was one way that he knew local community members could help.

“We had great committee members and everyone was very excited to volunteer their time,” Alston said.

At a Guilford County Board of Commissioners meeting in mid-August, a county department director announced that a local organization of prominent area black business leaders had come to Alston and asked to establish a new yearly golf tournament in his name – The Annual Melvin ‘Skip’ Alston Golf Classic.

Alston eventually agreed – but only if all of the proceeds went to help the homeless, so the new official name of the tournament became the Annual Melvin ‘Skip’ Alston Golf Classic To Benefit The Homeless.

Alston said he wasn’t sure he was hearing right when he first got asked.

“I was totally flattered,” he said.

The chairman said the group of business leaders had selected him because for decades he had been a proprietor of several successful businesses and they were also aware that he was an avid golfer.

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