Golf tournament helps raise money for addiction rehab

Aaron Adair Memorial Foundation is hosting the tournament on Sept. 9 at Lake Wilderness Golf Course.

In 2015, the game of golf was played by 23.8 million people among the United States, according to the website Golfworld. With that number in mind, what better way to raise money for a good cause than to have a golf tournament?

This is the idea David Adair, Covington resident, came up with to raise money for people to stay on track who have gone through rehab for their drug addictions. The money will also go to Vine Maple Place, a program that on its website states, “Vine Maple Place assists families in crisis by helping single parents and their children build lives of hope, stability and greater economic self-sufficiency.”

He has scheduled a golf tournament at Lake Wilderness Golf Course on Saturday, Sept. 9.

Adair’s oldest son died while working as an welder. He fell 50 feet to his death, and Adair thought it would be a good idea to use his son’s name, Aaron Adair, for their foundation.

“We decided to see what good we could do in his name with the money we had,” he said.

Aaron was set to marry his fiancée at the time.

When his oldest son died, his youngest son was in rehab for opioid abuse. This is the main reason why he and his family decided the proceeds will go to helping those with drug addictions, they know firsthand what it is like to have that kind of struggle in their life.

He said his son lost a lot of friends within the last few years to drug addiction. Once they got out of rehab, the fell back into old habits and eventually died from this.

According to Adair, more than 500 people showed up to his son’s memorial service and donated quite a bit of money. Adair wanted the money to go towards something good, so he decided why not raise more money to help a good cause.

Adair and his wife recently moved to Covington from Woodinville. They wanted a fresh start on life.

“This year, once we got moved and settled, I decided to grow the fund and do something,” Adair said.

To start the Aaron Adair Memorial Foundation, the Adair family is working with the Renton Community Foundation, a tax deductible charity, which helps other foundations receive money. They do events that allow people to get to know each foundation they help, which is about 52 foundations.

“Maybe some of these funds touch their hearts a little bit and they want to donate maybe $20 or $200, everything helps,” he said.

Adair said he could not do this alone, so he asked his family for some help and they really stepped up.

“I looked at different ways to make money and kind of had a lot of meetings with the family members and thought it would be fun, get everyone involved,” he said. “We have a lot of family members that have really stepped up and helped out.”

His family has really been there supporting Adair and his wife through this time and have even donated money themselves.

He said that a lot of the community members have also been helping out with donations and with the tournament.

So far, there are 108 people signed up for the tournament, with 52 signed up to play golf. The rest will be attending for the dinner.

Adair said to set this tournament up was pretty easy for the most part.

“It wasn’t too hard, I just had to figure out how much it would cost, there were (just) a lot of details popping up,” he said.

Adiar would like to continue this fundraiser and tournament again next year. His wife, on the other hand, think it’s a little too time consuming and thinks he should find a different way to raise money for the cause, but Adair is stuck in his ways and wants to do this again next year.

“(The) first year you make a lot of mistakes, you learn, so I think next year will be a lot better,” he said. “I think once you get one year under your belt and get started earlier, and do some more advance planning I think it goes much easier so I plan to do it again.”