September 19, 2005

The fourth annual Michael J. Berkeley Memorial Golf Tournament was held, once again, at the prestigious Westchester Country Club in Harrison, New York. We were blessed by the heavens with a beautiful, sunny, Indian summer day and the participation of over 25 corporate sponsors and approximately 200 golfers/diners.

Participants enjoyed a scrumptious brunch prepared by the Club, test drove the latest vehicles by Jaguar, Land Rover and Volvo (Tournament Diamond Sponsors for the fourth year in a row), and worked out their golf kinks on the driving range before the shotgun tournament commenced at 12:00 noon. During the cocktail hour, participants bid in the silent art auction for artwork by the talented artists Alonzo Adams, Willie Baez, Alvin Clayton, and by aspiring artists, Eric Berkeley and Jason Berkeley.

The Awards Dinner was a first-class act, as usual, with diners enjoying the delicious salmon or steak dish, tournament winners "strutting their stuff" to receive their recognition and prizes, golfers bidding in the live auction to play Winged Foot, Muirfield Village, Atlantic, Hudson National, and Baltusrol private golf courses, and scholarship recipients honoring us with their poise and grace as they accepted their scholarship awards and expressed their gratitude to the Foundation and sponsors for the monetary funds and for the opportunity to represent the Michael J. Berkeley Foundation.

Words will never suffice to thank Butch Graves of Black Enterprise Magazine and Cyrus Walker of Nemco Brokerage for organizing this successful event for the past four years, the current and previous boards of directors of the Michael J. Berkeley Foundation, the many corporate and individual sponsors of the Tournament, the numerous donors who mailed in monetary or in-kind contributions, the artists who participated in the silent art auction and the June Art Exhibit, and lastly, but certainly not least, the 2005 Michael J. Berkeley Foundation Scholars. Everyone¹s collective support over the past four years enabled the Foundation to increase the amount of the scholarship award from $2,500 to $3,000 per scholar in 2005 and increase the number of scholars to twelve, up from seven in 2004 and four scholars in 2003. As Mike would say, "don't sleep…."