Amateur Golf

The fight against cancer is an ongoing battle and four women from Timmins, Ont are trying to beat it one golf shot at a time.

Lynn Gauthier, Nancy Woods, Leah Sasseville and Kim Hutteri might look like just any other foursome at the Hollinger Golf Club but they come packing a secret punch.

This group from the small Northern Ontario town of just over forty thousand almost raised a dollar for every Timmins citizen towards the fight to cure cancer through Golf fore the Cure. They did it with a lot of heart, plenty of support and a personal connection to the cause.

“When we took this on as friends, our goal was to try and make it an amazing event in Timmins and bring more of our friends in, because the more the merrier,” said Gauthier, a long-time golfer.

The event at the Hollinger Golf Club hosted 120 women in June and through fundraising efforts the team of four raised an astonishing $30,912. The team also won the Molson Canadian 67 Shoot for you Goals contest after submitting a recap of their event which brought their total to $37,612.83.

Each team member has been affected by cancer and the passion they dedicate towards battling it drives to lengths much farther than simply their tee shots.

Lengths so far, that one member actually shaved her head in honour of the cause.

“My best friend was battling breast cancer at the time of the tournament, so I made her a deal that if I raised a minimum of $500 I would shave my head that day,” said Hutteri. “She shaved it for me and I ending up raising $1300 on my own.”

The team would be the first to tell you they couldn’t have done this all on their own as they had amazing support during the fundraiser from all over the community. Even Gauthier, who teaches at O’Gorman High School, had the help from her high schools men’s soccer team.

“One of the boys [at my school] had testicular cancer, so the boys’ soccer team shaved their heads in honor for him and they raised $700 through their families and the school community,” she said.

The team later donated the $700 to Gauthier and her teammates towards their Golf fore the Cure event.

While the four women all are aware of the grim outcomes that Cancer sometimes brings, they tackled the disease head on by embracing their emotions and sharing the ups and downs with everyone.

“Sometimes in fundraising events I think they [other fundraisers] lose sight of what they’re actually doing, so even though we had laughter, we had emotions and we cried, we never lost sight of cancer and its importance,” said Sasseville, who was on the organizing committee.

The Hollinger ladies recently attended the National Golf fore the Cure event at the Summit Golf Club in Richmond Hill, Ont, and were presented with their donation cheque over the applause and tears of 110 other women in the room.

On top of their outstanding fundraising efforts, Golf fore the Cure has now raised over $400,000 for the fight against breast cancer in 2012, it’s now also brought in over four million since the inaugural event in 2004.

Gauthier and the rest of the Hollinger team are looking forward to participating again next year and only hope more women will join with them in the fight through golf by running their own Golf fore the Cure site or by joining theirs.

“We try to bring awareness of the good part, that ‘yes people can survive’,” she said. “Unfortunately some people don’t, but we can still celebrate their memories by being out on the golf course and saying we did this for this person and that’s what matters.”

For more information on how to become a part of Golf fore the Cure, click here.