Tournament Raises $38K for Military Personnel

With a mild day and a slight breeze, nearly 100 golfers made the rounds of the SemperComm Golf Classic tournament on September 15 at Fort Belvoir Golf Club in Alexandria, Va. Players and their sponsors helped raise more than $38,000 to benefit the SemperComm mission.

"This was a first for us, since our major fundraising event to date has been our annual Gala, which is in the spring. It's great that we can have fun and still help our men and women in uniform,” said Lara Coffee, SemperComm's executive director. "Without a doubt, the Golf Classic has been a big success because we met our fundraising goals. Our players and sponsors have expanded our ability to offer the 'SemperComm Suite' to new U.S. military bases around the world.”

The "SemperComm Suite” is a package of equipment and services SemperComm sends to small, remote overseas U.S. military installations that lack easy ability to keep in touch with friends, family and their lives back in the United States. The package includes secured communications capabilities, a satellite dish, televisions, DVD players, movies, computers, and Internet access, satellite television and VOIP telephone service – all meant to boost the morale of military men and women through their ever-expanding tours of duty.

The big hit of the day was former "JAG” actress Karri Turner who attended through SemperComm's major partner, Stars for Stripes. Turner was on hand to cheer on the participants and help encourage people to give to SemperComm.

"SemperComm and Stars for Stripes is the perfect partnership,” Turner said. “I have been so blessed to be able to visit our troops deployed to really remote locations throughout Korea, Kuwait, Iraq, Afghanistan and many of the other '-stans' since my first tour in 2000. I see first-hand the importance of providing these wonderful men and women with communications and entertainment equipment as well as visits by celebrity entertainment. All of this is so important to the overall morale of our military personnel who are sacrificing so much to defend our freedoms,” Turner said. "I'll be going on a Stars for Stripes tour to Southwest Asia this holiday season, which will be my second trip to that area this year. We're hoping to visit one of the adopted SemperComm bases while we are on the holiday tour.”

"The Golf Classic brought together a great mix of private citizens, military personnel, contractors and supporters, all with the idea of making it possible for our men and women stationed overseas to stay in contact with their friends and families,” Coffee added. "We’re very happy with the progress we’ve made.”

About The SemperComm Foundation

The SemperComm Foundation is a 501(c)(3) charity dedicated to supplying morale-boosting communications and entertainment equipment, software and services to small, overseas remote U.S. military bases. SemperComm receives major support from Computer Systems Center Incorporated, a unique defense-oriented software development company; Stars For Stripes, a nonprofit that brings celebrity entertainment to U.S. military personnel; and PC Recycler, an electronics recycling and services company. For more information about SemperComm, visit www.sempercomm.org.