“The support is unbelievable… Dillon was a great kid.”
The Prince George Golf and Curling Club is packed hole-to-hole yesterday (Saturday) for the 14th annual Dillon Adey Memorial Golf Tournament.
Golfers gather every year in support of the Adey family, and to raise money for a CNC student endowment that has supported 85 people so far.
Dillon passed away in a motor vehicle accident in 2009. He was a CNC business student at the time.
“The support is unbelievable,” Perry Adey, Dillon’s father, emotionally told My PG Now before the tournament. “What can you say? I’m speechless.”
“Dillon was a great kid,” he said. “He was a volunteer in the community. If you needed a hand, he would give you a hand.”
Dillon was the first male volunteer for Prince George’s Evening of Pink, an annual breast cancer fundraiser.
Perry laughed, saying “we found out why after he passed, he was alone working with 25 to 30 gorgeous young women.”
Looking back at the previous 14 years, Perry said “his friends came up with the idea for a golf tournament. They disappeared and [I] ended up running the thing.”
“We thought we would keep his legacy going for a little bit… but now the tournament is such a big success I am having a hard time walking away from it all.”
Perry added some of the students who have received the bursary in Dillon’s name were taking part in the tournament today.
“One of the young guys just bought a house just up the road from us,” he said. “We are seeing the impact of what the money meant to them. We are still getting kids coming up 10 to 12 years later thanking us.”
“Out of a tragedy, the Adey family has built a legacy,” said Mark Karjaluoto, CNC’s Executive Director of Marketing and Communications.
“85 students have benefitted from the awards that were made possible from the funds that have come from this tournament, and because that’s an endowment, that is going to keep on going,” he said.
Karjaluoto added the Adey family and tournament have been directly responsible for teaching aids in the trades, technologies, and health sciences fields.
“This money is going to make a difference in someone’s education, and ultimately their quality of life.”
Perry ended by giving a heartfelt thank you to Prince George, and especially Dillon’s family, friends, and everyone who has donated and played in the tournament over the years.
For more information on the tournament, and to donate, click here.
–Files by Will Peters, My Prince George Now