Ottawa Police Veterans Association Golf Tournament
Last Thursday the Ottawa Police Veterans Association held their annual golf tournament, which had been put on pause last year due to the pandemic. The event is a fundraiser, this year raising money and awareness for the Ottawa Police Veterans Association Benevolent Fund and Badge of Courage, a local Alcoholics Anonymous group.
“We’re really excited to finally hold the Ottawa Police Veterans Association Golf Tournament; we missed out last year because of COVID,” said Lynne Turnbull, chair of the OPVA. “The association has two main goals: to create a social connection with our veterans as well as to fundraise. We haven’t been able to do either of those in the last year and a half, so we are really thrilled. We are starting smallscale with 90 golfers, working to build those connections again. Right now we are happy to be getting back into the swing of things. Our veterans are in a little bit of a vulnerable population; we’ve had to find things to do that are safe, COVID-wise.”
The OPVA normally donates well over $15,000 per year via various fundraising initiatives. “The Benevolent Fund is for retirees having financial issues. They can apply to the fund for financial assistance,” said Turnbull. “It can be for a million different things: medical reasons, a family crisis, whatever; we are developing a pot of money to support our veterans.
“Badge of Courage is an AA group, a spinoff of normal AA groups,” said Dale Hayes, a sergeant with the Ottawa Police Service who speaks on behalf of the organization. “We deal with police officers, civilians that work with the force, correctional officers,
firefighters, people in the legal community, paramedics, military — they are welcome to our group. Our members
sometimes deal with trauma that most normal citizens can’t
comprehend.”