When community leader and longtime CMN Hospitals donor Kelly Woolwine approached the Carilion Clinic Foundation and our Children’s Miracle Network Hospitals program director, Macy Ware, about hosting a golf outing to support our pediatric hematology and oncology unit, we had our reservations.  We were not eager to start an event from scratch, especially one that generally has a return of .50 cents on the dollar and takes up so much time and peoplepower. But Kelly was inspired. Kelly, along with his wife, Jess, and daughter, Charlotte, attended the 7-Eleven and Speedway Golf Tournament as a local hospital Miracle Child representative, and he wanted to bring a version of that event to southwest Virginia in Roanoke.  

The more we discussed the idea, we had no angle and it just seemed like another golf outing.  That was until we considered Play Yellow.  Partnering with Play Yellow changed everything, and with Kelly’s drive and determination, he decided that if we were going to do this, we were going to go big.  And go big he did, creating the Fighting Kids Cancer with Charlotte’s Play Yellow Invitational. 

The event was held at Ballyhack Golf Club, a private Dormie network club located in Roanoke. We set out to make it exclusive and focused more on the quality of a potential donor than the quantity of attendees. With Play Yellow’s connection and support, Kelly and his committee turned out to be one of the best golf outings ever for our region  

By partnering with Play Yellow, we were fortunate enough to have celebrities such as Joe Theisman, Clyde Drexler, Julius Irving, Roger Clements and many more come golf and interact with our donors.  This added so much gravitas to the event.  By the end of the two-day affair, the event netted close to $700,000. There is no doubt partnering with Play Yellow was a great idea.   

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• best practice
• Play Yellow