First Tee DRIVE Gains More Support From Community
Develops Rewarding Inspiring Values for Everyone! We have witnessed this motto in action with the kids in The First Tee D.R.I.V.E. program in Odessa, Texas which launched in 2017. We have 7 volunteer coaches from the Odessa Rotary Club, and we’ve reached about 35 kids from the Woodson Boys & Girls Club. Rewarding? Absolutely!
This program started as a Rotary project and a way to utilize grant funds. It has since transformed into a way of life for all involved. As a coach, hearing our 3rd through 5th grade kids use and understand words such as chip, putt, drive, as well as respect and courtesy, is rewarding. Observing our kids practice basic golf skills is rewarding. Visualizing the impact that these new words and skills could possibly have on their future is not only rewarding, but also exciting and heart warming.
Odessa College, Odessa High School, and Permian High School male and female golfers and coaches have become involved in our program and have inspired our girls and boys. The coaches have made observations that many of our kids already have enough basic golf skills to try out for, and make, a middle school golf team. That, my friends, is life-changing.
Will the kids stick with it and try out for the middle school, then high school golf team? Will they continue to develop golf and character skills and have college scholarship options? Maybe. Hopefully. Possibly. But we know that without this program, the answers to those questions are “doubtful” and “probably not”.
The First Tee D.R.I.V.E. program has made a difference in the lives of our boys and girls, and we know that they have options in their future that may not have been realized without the vision and efforts of a few community-minded Rotarians and The First Tee.