The Olympic Club News

BUILDING CHARACTER THROUGH SPORTS
by John Trauth

For the last two years, it has been my honor and privilege to serve as President of your Foundation. With 25 active Board members, two wonderful staff, but most importantly with your faith and support, we have had our best year ever. Through the execution of a focused strategy, and working closely with the Club's Board of Directors, we have achieved a number of significant milestones in 2006, namely:

• Funded 28 grants for sports programs for less advantaged kids, totaling $355,000, which is the highest yearly total ever.
• Attained our $2 million goal, and presented our 2 millionth dollar grant to the Good Tidings Foundation.
• Made three grants to promising, needy young athletes to help them develop into the sports stars of tomorrow.
• Selected the 2006 Ohleyer Award recipient, Sam Finlayson (see related picture).

We accomplished our goals thanks to your generosity and participation in:

• Our Annual Campaign
• Our fall and spring "classic" charity golf tournaments and auctions.
• Our new "Post Up Challenge" basketball competition
• Our "historic" dinner with California historian Kevin Starr
• Our second annual "ultimate" wine dinner and auction at Lakeside.
• Our silent auction at the annual Tennis Banquet.
• Our annual Turkey Shoot.

Finally, we initiated our new Memorials program to complement our existing Planned Giving program.

We can all be proud that our Foundation has now funded $2 million in grants to sports programs which have benefited 50,000 kids all around the Bay Area. But while sports are the medium, it is really not about sports. It is about helping young athletes learn important lessons which will help them immeasurably both now and later in life. Among these are leadership, confidence, personal responsibility, working as part of a team, setting and achieving goals, competing hard while respecting opponents, and learning from experience how to be better next time. Through articles in The Olympian, we have given you many examples of how our Foundation helps build character through sports.

And we can do more. And we will, because next year will be even better.

One essential responsibility of a leader is to choose carefully his or her successor, insuring that the organization will continue to prosper. I am very pleased to tell you that Dennis Moriarty will be the new President of the Foundation for 2007. Dennis is of course no stranger to most Olympians. He has served the Club faithfully over many years in many capacities, and served on the OC Board from 1994 to 1996 and as our Club President in 1996. I am certain that Dennis will continue to grow the Foundation creatively while maintaining strong relationships with the Club's members, Board and management. Other Foundation officers helping Dennis will be Mike Delagnes, Vice President, Tevis Martin, Treasurer, and Judith Lucius, Secretary. And I will stay on the Foundation Board for another year to help in the transition.

With Dennis's leadership, and with our active Foundation Board, but most importantly with your continued faith and support, we will continue to help young athletes live not just the length of their lives, but the width of them as well.

John

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FOUNDATION CONCLUDES BANNER YEAR
by Dennis F. Moriarty

Your Foundation has been hard at work this year under the adroit leadership of our President, John Trauth. We continue to grow and flourish with the indispensable help of the Club membership.

Our annual campaign from the membership yielded $105,229, an increase of 28% over last year. We had 396 donors, an increase of 26% over last year. We encourage all of our members to take part in the charitable work of the Foundation. No contribution is too small.

Our 20th and 21st Classic Golf Tournaments this year netted $375,595. Kudos to Foundation Board Member Dave Davidson, who tirelessly shepherds these tournaments from start to successful conclusion.

Our Ultimate Wine Dinner and Auction (inaugural event) in August was a great success, netting $104,016. The event, a brainchild of Board Member Marguerita Perry, had the professional touch of Fred Dame, Foundation Board Member and Master Sommelier. This signature event will return on September 30, 2006.

Now a brief overview of this year's beneficiaries of the Foundation's efforts.

Bay Area Outreach Program (BORP):
Funds provide youth sports programs for physically disabled Bay Area youth, including wheelchair basketball, power soccer, track, field and hand cycling. Last year BORP athletes competed in Athens at the Paralympics.

Good Tidings Foundation:
Our grant will support the renovation of the athletic field at Milton Meyer Field in the Hunter's Point neighborhood. The field is used for youth baseball, Junior Giants, PAL and the Boys and Girls Club.

First Tee Program:
This program promotes character development through golf. Our grant was coordinated and presented by Board Member John Abendroth in memory of Jim Lucius, one of the leading lights in the formation of the Olympic Club Foundation.

Pop Warner Football:
Our grant supports Pop Warner Little Scholars, Inc. (PWLS), reputedly the only national youth sports program that requires participants to perform adequately in the classroom before permitting them to play.

San Francisco Unified School District:
The School Sports Fund supplements the program to support twenty sports at 31 middle and high schools in San Francisco. The Foundation seeded the capital campaign for the renovation of the Phillip and Sala Burton Fields at Burton High School.

St. Charles Elementary School:
Our grant will install lighting in the gymnasium and purchase equipment for sports programs at this inner-city school that serves at-risk youth.

San Francisco Little League:
Our grant will support the development of new baseball/softball fields in the San Francisco Presidio and on Treasure Island for 1,000 participants in softball, baseball, and the Challenger Program for the physically challenged.

St. Mary's College High School:
This recent grant, made following our October Classic Golf Tournament, will be used to upgrade the athletic facilities at St. Mary's, including the track, baseball and football complex.

The grants made in 2005 brings our cumulative grant outlay since inception to $1,604.112! Thank you everyone!

Enjoy the December display at the entry of our Downtown facility, which highlights the beneficiaries of 2005.

Finally, we want to thank Club President, Al Clifford, and his Board for their steadfast support of the Foundation's endeavors this past year.

For more information about the Olympic Club Foundation, visit our website (also accessible through Olyclub.com) or call Executive Director Isabella Lanza at 415/345-5230.

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OHLEYER AWARD WINNER HONERED
Tyrone McGraw, 2005 Ohleyer Award Recipient
by Tevis P. Martin

The 2005 Ohleyer Award was granted to Tyrone McGraw, a senior at Archbishop Riordan High School in San Francisco. Tyrone was presented his award at the Commissioner's Dinner in November.

The Brian Ohleyer Award is a prestigious award established in memory of the outstanding young Olympian Brian Ohleyer who lost his life in a traffic accident in 1996. This is the 5th year the Olympic Club Foundation has awarded the Ohleyer Award to an outstanding Bay Area high school student who best demonstrates the ideals exemplified by Brian's life, an individual whose superior athletic and academic skills were matched by personal qualities of leadership and community service. Past Ohleyer Award Recipients are Jeffrey Deal, Galileo HS, Tony Dinh, Sacred Heart Cathedral HS, Natalie Joffe, Marin Catholic HS, and Sam Walsh, Serra HS.

Tyrone was chosen from an elite group of students recommended by their school administration from over 125 public and private high schools in the Bay Area. The pool of candidates all had excellent academic records, played a sport at an elite level and found time to contribute in some meaningful way to his or her community.

Tyrone is regularly featured in the Chronicle High School sports section for his accomplishments as one of the best running backs in the State and leader of the relay team that won the 2005 CCS championship. This past summer he qualified for the USA Track and Field Junior Olympics. He has been invited to the elite Nike Football Training Camp and this season he scored nine touchdowns in a three game stretch. A natural leader, Tyrone is the captain of the football and track teams.

It is clear from the faculty that he is universally loved and respected at Riordan. His school counselor says that "Tyrone is a person who has an immediate positive impact in everything he gets involved with." Tyrone challenges himself in every aspect of life. He has earned a 3.9 GPA with a curriculum full of advanced placement courses and he was selected in a competitive application process to participate in two summer internships at UCSF.

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THE OLYMPIC CLUB FOUNDATION TURKEY SHOOT - HELD NOVEMBER 18th - 20th, 2005 AT THE PACIFIC ROD AND GUN CLUB
by Dennis Shea

The shoot was an outstanding success. We received more donations than the first two years combined. The participation of board and foundation members was fantastic and all had a positive view of the fundraiser, earning $1,010.

The overall individual winner, for the second time, is our own junior Winston Parsons. The team event did not come up to the expectations with participations from the different sport sections in the Club. However, the teams that participated had fun and all had bragging rights.

In the team category the team Gaels lead by Mark Murray won first place and the second place Team Dutchess led by Jo Labagh had the most members participating. They also had the most exciting finish for the 4th spot on their team, with a three way tie.

I would like to thank all the volunteers, members and non-members, that helped make this a successful OC Foundation Turkey Shoot. We surpassed our last two years combined.

I would also like to thank team Dutchess (2nd place) for their spirit and the exciting tiebreaker for the fourth place person on their team between Joan Smith, Paul Cesari, and Greg Labagh.

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OC FOUNDATION 21st GOLF CLASSIC and GRAND AUCTION, OCTOBER 17th SETS NEW RECORD!
by Dick Bechelli

Dave Davidson, Tournament Chair, reports a record number of 288 golfers filled the Lake and Ocean Courses under cloudless skies along with warm temperatures, slight breezes and beautifully maintained fairways and greens, resulting in perfect playing conditions. A reception, silent/live auction and fabulous dinner immediately followed with over 300 guests in attendance.

Davidson reports that approximately $325,000 was raised from sponsors, golfers, donations and the auctions. John Trauth, President of the OC Foundation along with Davidson presented checks to the major beneficiaries of this event in the amounts of $45,000 to The Emerald Bowl in support of Pop Warner Youth Football and $65,000 to Saint Mary's College High School of Berkeley, money which will assist in its efforts to renovate and update its outdoor athletic complex. The balance of the money raised will go to support other worthwhile athletic programs in the Bay Area.

The Foundation wishes to express deep thanks for the many sponsors, players, donors, staff and volunteers who helped make this event so successful. Special thanks to our presenting sponsors, American Airlines and RBS Greenwich Capital.

To find out more about the Foundation and how you can help, please see our website, www.olyclubfdn.org, or contact Isabella Lanza at 415-325-5230. Thanks for Giving Wings to Youth!

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OC FOUNDATION 20th GOLF CLASSIC and GRAND AUCTION
by Barbara Bechell

The Olympic Club Foundation's 20th Golf Classic and Auction was well attended by 264 golfers who filled the Lake and Ocean Courses on Monday, May 16th. It took nerves of steel and a deep trust that all the weather reports would be wrong and the golf gods did listen. The day was classically 'Lakeside Perfect'.

The pace of play was steady and all the players filed into the Garden Court to begin the festivities of libations, silent auction, collecting their side bets and waiting for all scores to be posted and awards to be made. The dinner guests enjoyed a sensational beef filet dinner, prepared and presented as only Chef Klaus Selb and his staff can. John Trauth, President of the OC Foundation and Dave Davidson, Tournament Chair, presented checks to the major beneficiaries of this event in the amount of $25,000 to the Giants Community Fund (to be able to add 200 kids to the Junior Giants Program) and $50,000 to the San Francisco Little League (to build a new Little League playing field on Treasure Island). After dinner, a live auction MC'd by Jim Myers topped off the evening.

Davidson reports that approximately $325,000 was raised from sponsors, golfers, donations, silent and live auction items.

The Foundation wishes to express deep thanks for the many sponsors, players, donors, staff and volunteers who helped make this event successful. Special thanks goes to our Presenting Sponsors: RBS Greenwich Capital, Pacific Growth Equities, American Airlines, and William & Elizabeth Shea. Thanks to Mercedes Benz of San Francisco (hole-in-one), and Dream Quest Golf (unbelievable destinations!).

Next events: Ultimate Wine Dinner & Auction, August 20, 21st Golf Classic and Grand Auction, October 17. For more information please contact Isabella Lanza at 415.325.5230. Thanks to all for Giving Wings to Youth!