Locker room volunteers give tips to charity
With a smile, Pete Stefancin said, “It’s fun giving away other people’s money.’ That may be, but the 12-member locker room committee at this week’s 84 Lumber Classic in Farmington is making a significant difference as it gives away its tips to charity.
The committee, composed of volunteers and headed by Stefancin, last year gave $10,000 to Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh, the charity designated by Nemacolin Woodlands Resort and Spa owner Joe Hardy to benefit from the PGA tournament.
This second year of the tournament, the locker room committee will make a donation to the Uniontown Hospital’s pediatric unit, which will use the money to buy specialized hospital cribs, and to the ALS Association, Western Pennsylvania Chapter, which is using the money for research.
“As long as I’m chairman, that’s what I intend to do,’ Stefancin, a Hopwood resident and fifth-grade teacher at Hatfield Elementary School in the Laurel Highlands School District, said of these charitable efforts.
And Stefancin has the support of the other 11 volunteers who make up the locker room committee, whose job it is to perform services for the professional players at the Falling Rock clubhouse during the PGA Tour event this week.
Although Stefancin joked that it’s other people’s money, the locker room committee members work hard for these tips. They clean shoes, change spikes on the shoes, help carry boxes from company representatives and distribute these supplies, and even find someone who will dry clean clothes for the players.
“We do just about anything that needs to be done,’ said Stefancin, who explained that volunteers work different shifts that put at least two to three people at a time in the locker room from 6 a.m. to 9 p.m. throughout the tournament.
And long before the tournament started, the locker room committee was already thinking about which charities would receive this year’s donation.
Gary Macioce, vice president of operations at Uniontown Hospital, said Stefancin approached him about the donation several months ago and how it could be used. Macioce asked the head of the pediatric unit, who immediately identified the need for the specialized cribs.
“It was unsolicited, and that makes it even more gratifying for the hospital,’ Macioce said of the donation. “To have members of the community identify the hospital as a beneficiary of their work is really gratifying.’
The decision to give money to ALS research came from a book Stefancin read this summer called “Caddy for Life: The Bruce Edwards Story.’
“He was Tom Watson’s caddy and developed ALS and died this past year,’ said Stefancin, who noted the difficulty in diagnosing the disease and that there is no cure. “You simply get it. Your ticket’s punched. And because of the way the tour treated us last year with tips, we decided we’re going to donate to ALS. It’s our way of telling the tour players, ‘Thank you, and we’re going to take care of one of your own.”
According to the ALS Association Web site, amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, often referred to as Lou Gehrig’s disease, is a progressive neurodegenerative disease that attacks nerve cells connecting the brain and spinal cord with muscles, eventually leading to death.
Michael Bernarding, executive director of the western Pennsylvania chapter of the ALS Association in Pittsburgh, said the committee wanted the money to go for research and that it is being directed towards a project taking place in Pittsburgh.
The money will help fund a biomarker study by Dr. Robert Bowser of the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine that some people consider to be “the most exciting research for ALS in five years,” Bernarding said.
“The donation is wonderful. We appreciate everyone’s efforts tremendously and that they want to raise awareness for ALS,” he said.
He said the research is trying to sequence proteins specific to ALS in order to diagnose the disease sooner. Currently, a diagnosis can take almost a year, with sufferers going through many procedures. Officials hope that eventually ALS can be diagnosed through a simple blood test, and Bernarding noted that earlier diagnosis means earlier treatment.
“And the earlier they start the medicine,’ he said, “the longer the survival.’