Golfing for future nurses

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The 8th annual Nickolas Foss Memorial Golf Scramble will take place at the Woodland Golf Course at 2 p.m. May 19. This event raises money to fund $500 nursing scholarships that four area high school students will receive this spring. Thirty-seven scholarships have been given out in previous years, according to organizer Chuck Foss.

“This event was organized two years after Nick was killed,” said Foss, Nick’s father and a Mechanicsburg Village Council member. “We had initially, when he was killed, instead of flowers we asked for donations to a scholarship fund. I was the principal of Kenton Ridge High School at the time, and Nick graduated from Northeastern High School. The funds were donated directly to the school district and we started offering a nursing scholarship directly to Kenton Ridge and Northeastern in his name every year. My wife and I decided that we would like to do a little bit more, so we organized a memorial golf scramble that we do annually, and with the proceeds from that we offer a nursing scholarship every year in Mechanicsburg High School and Urbana High School.”

Nickolas Foss died from brain injuries on April 8, 2008, having hit his head a few days before that. At the time of his death he was an STNA working in the trauma unit at Grant Medical Center in Columbus and was attending Chamberlain College of Nursing to become a Registered Nurse. According to Chuck Foss, Nick’s goal was to become an anesthesiology nurse.

“We believe that his goal was, as he was already working in a trauma unit, that he wanted to continue on into health care and be a nurse,” said Foss. “We thought that to carry on his legacy we would try to help young people who wanted to get into nursing get a start, as many as we could.

“It’s really been kind of neat to watch the kids that we’ve given scholarships to,” he continued. “For instance, my mother is in an assisted living facility in Urbana, and one of the kids that we gave a scholarship is actually caring for her. It’s kind of come full circle that way, but it’s just one more way that we can keep his legacy alive.”

Foss said the golf scramble typically gets about 30 teams with four players per team. The cost is $200 per team to register. The family is seeking businesses and individuals to sponsor holes for $50 each; there are already about 40 sponsors from Mechanicsburg and Urbana who will have their names near the holes they sponsor.

The first place team will receive a $400 award, second place gets $300 and third place gets $200. There are also $25 awards for the player who hits closest to the pin on par threes on the front nine holes and back nine holes, for men and women, and a similar award for longest drive. In addition, many sponsors donate items that are raffled off and Foss said almost everyone walks away with a door prize.

Dinner is served afterward, which typically includes sandwiches and vegetables prepared by the Foss family. Foss said it is a favorite part of the evening for many guests.

“The people at Woodland are super to work with,” he said. “They always have the course in great shape. It’s a great place to have a good round of golf and it also has a nice facility for the dinner and a nice kitchen for us to work in to cook it. What’s really encouraging about it is when we have the tournament every year, we probably have 20 or more repeat teams. We have several people who have played in all seven. It’s sort of like a gathering of family and friends for us.”

For more information about registering a team or sponsoring, call or text Foss at 614-230-7659.

Members of the Foss family celebrate the opening of the Nickolas Foss Memorial Golf Scramble last year.
https://www.urbanacitizen.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/36/2018/04/web1_NickFoss0243.jpgMembers of the Foss family celebrate the opening of the Nickolas Foss Memorial Golf Scramble last year. Photo courtesy of Chuck Foss
Nickolas Foss Memorial Scramble assists local students

By Christopher Selmek

[email protected]

Christopher Selmek can be reached at 937-508-2304

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