Everyone’s smiling as the Holliston Pantry Shelf receives a donation of $1,465 from the GHSMGA. 

During the 2023 summer tour this local group played a total of 445 rounds of golf at golf courses in “greater Holliston” area.  Twenty members regularly participated with one coming all the way from South Carolina – really testing the “greater Holliston” geography limits.

As is often the case in the gentlemen’s game of golf, minor wagers may be placed for scores and particularly good shots.  During the GHSMGA’s “COVID tour” of 2020 when there was concern that passing cash could be a viral transmission vector, it became the custom to track the weekly pluses and minuses electronically for tally at the end of the season.

Out of this “sanitary” measure came the origin of the group’s annual donation.  Each year the amount donated (which has no direct correlation to the final annual tally) has grown, from $532 in 2020 to this year’s donation that is almost triple that amount.  Lest the skeptical readers think that the scoring has sunk (intended putting pun) – it is the generosity that has soared.  It’s a lot more rewarding to donate (even if you come out on the plus side of the annual tally) to such a worthwhile charity than to the other guys in the group who will likely buy refreshments at the 19^th hole.

Dave O’Neil, the Pantry Shelf’s treasurer, provided a tour of the current facility on Charles Street and pointed out that 83 cents from every dollar donated goes to acquiring the provisions available to the over 200 Holliston families shop at the pantry during each month.

The GHSMGA was first organized about two decades ago by Wally, Peter, and Hollistonian Bob Keeley.  As winter arrives each year, some hardy members brave the cold and play at any course that’s open in the GHSMGA area while others choose to move south for the winter or find an indoor simulated golf center.

It won’t be long before the 2024 GHSMGA summer tour begins and the donations begin to accrue.