On Saturday May 10, the fourth annual golf tournament to benefit local Area 7 Special Olympics will be at Duncan Park Golf Course.

This tournament will be a four-man scramble with a shotgun start beginning at 8:30 am. Cost is $75 per player, $300 per team and will include greens fees, cart, refreshments and door prizes.

Local law enforcement graciously donates lunch. We will have Concordia Parish Sheriff Randy Maxwell’s special recipe for jambalaya and Adams County Sheriff Ronny Brown is delivering his extra special white beans, cornbread and cookies.

Players will also have a chance to win a 2008 Chevrolet Silverado with a hole in one on hole No. 13 sponsored by Great River Chevrolet Cadillac GMC and other hole in one prizes such as Honda four-wheelers on selected par 3 holes sponsored by Great River Honda.

Hole sponsorships are $100 and sponsors will have a sign posted on the course during the tournament courtesy of Southern Signs of Natchez.

With your help this event will benefit our local Special Olympics athletes by allowing them to attend different sporting events held throughout the year. This tournament is being organized by parents, volunteers, teachers and supporters of our Special Olympics athletes.

This year we will have a special addition to our tournament by having a ball drop event to win a Honda Rancher ES four-wheeler from Great River Honda.

Tickets are available for $20 each and only 300 will be sold. We will have 300 numbered golf balls and they will be dropped from a helicopter on hole No. 2 and the closest one to the hole or in the hole will win the four-wheeler.

You do not have to be present to win and tickets are available from any event volunteer, or at Great River Honda, Great River Chevrolet, Car Quest Auto Parts and Southern Signs.

This will be a very exciting and fun filled tournament with lots of prizes, a silent auction, good food and refreshments all to benefit a very worthy cause.

This is our only annual fundraiser and we need as much community support as possible to allow these special athletes the opportunity to compete in all Special Olympics events.

Proceeds from this tournament will be used for all our sporting events including a trip to the Regional Winter Games in Boone, N.C., every February and on May 16 we will travel to the summer games in Biloxi, at Keesler Air Force Base.

If you would like to sponsor a hole, make a donation or donate door prizes, you can call Ricky Warren 601-442-4301 or 601-597-4724 or make your donations to Mississippi Special Olympics Area 7 and mail to: Ricky Warren, 108 Tanglewood Road, Natchez, MS 39120.

On behalf of our special athletes, their coaches, teachers, parents and families, I would like to thank the entire community for all your support and a special thank you to our corporate sponsors who help make this event possible: Great River Chevrolet Cadillac GMC, Southern Signs, Double S Enterprises Inc, Great River Honda, Taco Bell and Paradise Foods of Natchez, and all the many businesses who continue to support this event every year. The wonderful people and businesses in our community have always been and continue to be the most generous in the nation and Mississippians rank No. 1 in per capita for their generosity. Thank you all and may God bless you. A very special thank you goes to Mrs. Tommie Jones, our area Special Olympics director, who gives her time and love to allow our special athletes the opportunity to compete in Special Olympics events.

Ricky Warren is a Special Olympics athlete’s parent and a volunteer.