It rained golf balls in Sugarcreek on May 15

  • By Jamie Lynn Neal
  • May 25, 2010
  • 464
                        
More than 480 white, numbered golf balls took a ride in a hot air balloon and were dropped from high above the green at Cabin Creek Golf in Sugarcreek on Saturday, May 15. At the Off the Wall Ministry’s first Raining Golf Balls fundraiser each ball was purchased for $25 and the owner of the ball that landed closest to the designated hole won $1,500 cash. Off the Wall Ministry raised around $12,000 with this unusual event. Raining Golf Balls was an idea found “…online. A place did it out in Colorado and I was struck by the idea. People in this area love golf and I knew it would go over well for us,” said Kellie Nelson, administrative assistant for Off the Wall Ministry Discipleship 24/7. Raining Golf Balls was a two-day event filled with food, prizes, tournaments and Christian music spread out across the lush green hills of Cabin Creek Golf. Families, teens, young adults, locals and visitors alike gathered together to enjoy the first days of summer and to help raise money for a new ministry program based in New Philadelphia. Don Stubbs, founder of Off the Wall Ministry Discipleship 24/7, started out in inner city Chicago where he lived and worked for 17 years. He moved his ministry program to Tuscarawas County to “get away from the city. There are too many distractions.” Travis Troyer, originally from the Tuscarawas area, worked with Stubbs in Chicago and suggested moving their discipleship to Ohio. The Raining Golf Balls weekend fundraiser started Friday, May 14, with barbecued chicken sandwiches, mini golf, batting cages, and an outdoor concert by Polen on the vast driving range lawn overlooking the sunset that illuminated the family-friendly recreation area below. A hundred people of all ages clustered together on the lawn enjoying the music and shouting out requests, even sharing in a prayer before several fan-requested encores concluded the evening. Saturday started bright and early with volleyball tournaments and cornhole and ended with the main event late in the afternoon. The hot air balloon, the Flying Dolphin, arrived at 4 p.m. to set up and prepare to drop the golf balls from the sky. The McClure family owns and rents out two hot air balloons, a love affair “started 30 years ago with a class my stepfather took with his first wife,” said Jeanine McClure. Kellie Nelson and Lincoln Troyer took the golf balls up in the balloon, ready to drop them back down, but not before they were toppled over in the basket as it started to catch in the wind. Quickly springing to action, all available men helped to right the toppled basket and return the spilled golf balls before the balloon rose into the air. Hundreds of balls then fell to the earth where they plopped, bounced and rolled to their final spot. As Nelson and Troyer floated over to a neighboring field, and the McClure family chased after them, Stubbs and several of the onlookers, which included children, rushed over to see that two balls had landed right into the chosen hole. It was a successful weekend to raise operating funds for the local ministry, and the $1,500 prize will be split between two lucky winners.


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