5th Annual

Crawford Charity

Golf Tournament

Six months after Covid protocols prevented us from hosting our annual Spring Training kickoff tournament in Arizona, we were excited to bring the Crawford Charity Golf Tournament to the Bay Area for the first time. A full field of 144 golfers and many additional dinner guests participated in the event at TPC Harding Park in San Francisco (site of the 2020 PGA Championship), on Thursday, August 19, 2021.  We were proud to include the San Francisco Giants, Oakland A's, San Francisco 49ers and Golden State Warriors among our tournament sponsors.

Covid restrictions pushed the post-golf activities outdoors to the clubhouse patio.  Nevertheless, the event was a big success despite a couple setbacks like a propane fire shutting down the Bay Bridge the morning of the tournament, and finishing our auction in the dark due to the delayed event start and no patio lights. The post-golf banquet featured a hosted cocktail hour, tri-tip and salmon buffet dinner, awards, esteemed speakers from the ALS community, and live auction fundraiser.

2021 Tournament Contest Winners

Low Gross Team: Tom Tolbert, Craig Bergman, Raymond Townsend, Ian Williams

Low Net Team: George Chammas, Josh Difiguerdo, Marc Miguel, Michael Dooher

Long Drive- Hole #9: Rene Casali

Long Drive- Hole #12: Ray Dami

Putting: Dave Warda, Chris Silvernale (Tie)

GIVE EM HELLER! KEVIN, LESLEY AND LAUREN HELLER

Our 2021 event honored the contributions Kevin Heller made to the ALS community, as an incredibly inspirational advocate for awareness, an amazing fundraiser for ALS research and for care/support for those living with the disease, and for his contributions which helped make Major League Baseball's annual, league-wide Lou Gehrig Day a reality. Learn more about Lou Gehrig Day here.

We were fortunate to have Kevin and his family, from Menlo Park, California, as honored guests at our February 2020 event in Phoenix.  He had been diagnosed less than 8 months earlier, and although able to participate as a golfer, Kevin had lost the ability to speak well before the tournament (rapid loss of speech is common with the bulbar onset form of ALS that he had).  Nevertheless, he embraced the challenge to be a guest speaker at our post-golf banquet. Anyone who attended that evening will tell you Kevin's voice was loud and clear, and he delivered a very powerful, inspirational speech (with the assistance of Google's brand new 'Project Euphonia' AI technology that enabled his speech to be recorded in his own voice rather than the robotic voice that most are familiar with).

At the conclusion of Kevin's pre-recorded speech, he went off script to advocate for an MLB league-wide Lou Gehrig Day.  (Kevin's speech can be seen/heard in the video at the bottom of the site Homepage, along with an introduction by former SF Giant, Jeremy Affeldt, and another inspiring speech by John Frates, father of Ice Bucket Challenge co-founder and ALS Warrior Pete Frates, who passed away in December 2019.)

Kevin was an early member of the Lou Gehrig Day Committee, a grass roots group made up of pALS (patients diagnosed with ALS), cALS (caregivers of someone with ALS), family members and advocates. The group rallied support, and lobbied MLB for over a year to initiate a day to recognize Gehrig's legendary accomplishments and character, and to raise awareness for the disease that bears his name.

Unfortunately we lost Kevin on January 5, 2021, only about a year and a half after he was diagnosed. However, prior to his passing, Kevin and his wife, Lesley, were part of a call with MLB officials, who shared the news the league was going to adopt the Lou Gehrig Day Committee's proposal for an annual league-wide day honoring Gehrig, and enhancing ALS awareness events held in prior years by some teams.  Lou Gehrig Day will forever be a part of Kevin Heller's legacy.

Lesley and Lauren Heller, Kevin's wife and daughter, delivered very motivating and courageous speeches at the 2021 post-golf banquet.

JOHN HOWELL, MDA BOARD OF DIRECTORS

We were honored to have John Howell as a tournament guest and speaker at the 2021 event. John, was named to the Board of Directors for the Muscular Dystrophy Association (MDA) in December 2020. Before his appointment to the Board of Directors, he served for over a decade as a key advisor to MDA’s Venture Philanthropy group, which is exclusively focused on funding the discovery and clinical application of treatments and cures for neuromuscular diseases.

Donald S. Wood, PhD, President and CEO of MDA, issued the following statement upon John's appointment to the MDA Board:

“In the past five years alone, MDA’s efforts have led in part to 11 new FDA approved treatments for people with neuromuscular diseases, so it is an incredibly exciting time for John to join MDA’s Board of Directors as his expertise and deep commitment to MDA’s mission provides invaluable support as we continue to make progress. John brings an invigorated spirit fueled by the hope and faith our MDA families have in this organization to strategically invest in funding research that continues to yield scientific breakthroughs, the best care at the nation’s top medical institutions, advocacy for equal access for the disability community and essential educational community programming.”

John is also Co-Founder and President of ComSovereign Holding Corporation (Symbol: COMS), the U.S.-based provider of 4G LTE Advanced and 5G-NR (New Radio Systems) communications and technology systems. He is a proud veteran of the U.S. Army (Airborne and Ranger qualified), a Fulbright Scholar and alumnus of Davidson College in Davidson, NC.

John is not the first in his family to play a leadership role in support of the MDA and its mission. His Grandfather was Caldwell Esselstyn, MD, the close personal friend and physician of Henry ‘Lou’ Gehrig, the late New York Yankee and Member of the Baseball Hall of Fame. After Lou’s death to ALS (the disease that often bears his name), Lou’s widow, Eleanor, became one of MDA’s first National Goodwill Ambassadors.

John is also the son of Dr. Rodney ‘Rod’ Howell, the renowned geneticist who served for many years as Chairman of the MDA Board of Directors. Due to his successful advocacy efforts, many consider Rod Howell to be ‘the Father’ of current efforts to screen every newborn child for genetic conditions. In 2013, Rod was identified and honored as a ‘Rare Disease Hero’ by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA).