As you all know by now the purpose of this golf tournament was to raise funds to give directly to a family that had lost a loved one in the September 11 attack to the World Trade Center in New York. After hearing so much about the enormous sums raised by the different funds established after September 11 and the difficulties these were having in allocating the funds to the families, we wanted to do things a bit different. We felt that by identifying one family victimized by the attack that we would be making an immediate difference and circumvent some of the problems faced by the designated funds. We further thought that identifying a family would be the easy part but we soon learned otherwise. While Mike was busy recruiting golfers and sponsors for the tournament, securing the location, organizing the dinner and begging for donations for prizes, the task of finding a family was assigned to our sister, Margarita, who lives in New York City and who has been directly involved with all that's happened in that city since 9/11.

Margarita immediately set out to try and identify a family. She is a teacher at a school in Manhattan and began her search with her colleagues. While some of her coworkers had family members that were victims, none had left orphan children or widows. We thought it was important to identify a family with children, as these were more likely to be suffering a bigger loss. Margarita then tried to find a family through her church and was told there were two families in the congregation directly affected by the attack. After various phone calls, however, the pastor was reluctant to release their names as he felt it would be more appropriate if the money were given to the church for distribution. But this is not what we had in mind. Margarita then visited a family center that has been set up by the city of New York where many agencies gather to assist the victims. Again she was unable to have anyone identify a particular family. Issues of privacy and fairness prohibit many of these agencies and institutions from divulging the names of individual families. Next, Margarita volunteered her services on Thanksgiving Day at a Salvation Army location near Ground Zero that had invited families of the victims to come on that day. She made some contacts there but again was unsuccessful. Frustrated in her efforts and pressed for time as the date of the tournament drew closer, Margarita identified a special fund set up for the families of the restaurant workers, particularly the kitchen workers, in the WTC that had died in the attack. Many of these families are Hispanic and their situation has become very bleak both emotionally and financially since losing their loved one on September 11. By this time the thinking was that if no family could be identified, this fund would be the recipient of our fundraiser.

While the search in New York was going on and countless phone calls and e-mails were exchanged between Mike, Margarita, and myself, a possibility for a family occurred in a most coincidental fashion. While attending a seminar for my work, I saw an old friend and colleague from when I worked in the Social Security Office in Van Nuys, CA. We started talking and the conversation like much these days turned to the events of September 11. My friend's family is from New York and she proceeded to tell me about her cousin, Cheryl, who had lost her husband in the attack and was now left with two small children ages two and four. Cheryl and her husband had just purchased their first home and were looking forward to a happy life together with their children. I told my friend about the golf tournament, our search for a family, and asked whether she thought her cousin would be willing to accept our donation. She talked to her cousin and put her in touch with Mike. Mike called and asked Cheryl whether she would be willing to be the recipient of the money we raised and she agreed saying she would be honored.