FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
August 8, 2002— MDA

10th Annual Ryan Young Golf Classic Raises $12,000 For MDA

SOUTHFIELD, MI — The City of Southfield, in conjunction with Local Union #329, raised $12,000 to benefit the Muscular Dystrophy Association at the 10th Annual Ryan Young Golf Classic this past Saturday. Young, a former Southfield resident and MDA spokesperson, passed away in 1992 as a result of muscular dystrophy.

Seventy-two people, including city employees and family and friends of the Young family, participated in the golf classic. Golfers paid a donation of $75 for the 18-hole, four-person scramble. The total amount raised included over $3,000 from a raffle of donated items. The main sponsors of the event include Lanzo Construction, G&M Enterprises/LTD Sweeping Contractors, Papa Romano’s of Oak Park, Saturn of Southfield, Avis Ford, M&M Tree Service, the Southfield Firefighters Association Local 1029 and Southfield Police Officers Association.

Dave Beck, director of the golf classic committee and employee of the Department of Public Works who has coordinated the event from the beginning, said the amount raised sets the record for the event in all 10 years. Last year they raised $11,750 at the event.

“It was just a perfect day — perfect weather, perfect attendance, and the camaraderie was just amazing,” Beck said. “I think the golf outing has been so successful because everyone believes in it and wants to find a cure. We’re going to do it until there’s a cure for muscular dystrophy.”

Beck’s partnership with the MDA began 19 years ago when the city held an employee picnic to benefit muscular dystrophy. Since then, he has worked on several other fund-raisers, such as swim-a-thons, bowling events and the Jerry Lewis Labor Day Telethon, all the while forming a strong bond with Young and his family. “Feed the Dream” was the theme of this year’s golf outing, which has raised over $51,000 for the MDA since its inception.

“Ryan had eyes that sparkled like the stars, a smile that would melt your heart and a personality that would light up the darkest room,” Beck said. “His dream was to beat muscular dystrophy, and that’s what this event was all about, we’re feeding the dream.”

Don Young, Ryan Young’s father who is also a city employee, plays a role every year in making the golf classic successful by recruiting family and friends to play. He said the fund-raiser is instrumental in helping to keep his son’s name alive, as well as in bringing hope to the hundreds of families in the Metro Detroit area affected by neuromuscular disease.

“The golf classic grows every year even though there’s a finite group of people participating in it — everyone has so much fun that it just keeps getting bigger,” Don Young, said. “I’m sure my son definitely approves of the fund-raiser from wherever he is up above.”

Founded in 1950, the Muscular Dystrophy Association is a voluntary health organization dedicated to finding a cure for more than 40 neuromuscular diseases. MDA funds research worldwide and currently funds projects in Michigan at the University of Michigan and Wayne State University. MDA operates 230 hospital-affiliated clinics across the country. Local clinics are located at Children’s Hospital in Detroit and the Michigan Institute of Neuromuscular Disorders in Farmington Hills. Services include physical, occupational and respiratory therapy, genetic counseling and testing, social services consultations and year-round patient care.

From summer camps and neuromuscular research worldwide, to health clinics and public education forums for patients and their families, MDA and its volunteers constantly strive for the best patient care. These remarkable individuals will be recognized on the 37th Jerry Lewis MDA Telethon held Labor Day weekend, September 1-2, 2002, on Telethon station WB20 in Detroit.

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