Omaha, Neb. – TeamMates, the youth mentoring program founded by Tom and Nancy Osborne, has been selected as the charity partner for The Pinnacle Bank Championship golf tournament.
The organization, which encourages youth to graduate high school and pursue post-secondary education, will receive a check representing net proceeds from ticket sales and event sponsorships. An event to announce the partnership to the community is planned for December 1st at 10 am at the Pinnacle Bank offices at 180th and Dodge.
Support Nebraska, Inc., a 501(c)(3) foundation was developed exclusively to manage and operate the Pinnacle Bank Championship as the tournament host organization. A board of community volunteers chaired by Brad Strittmatter selected TeamMates as the foundation’s charity partner for the tournament’s inaugural year.
“There are so many organizations in Nebraska doing great work,” Strittmatter said. “TeamMates works with youth statewide, encouraging excellence and getting them to dream big. That message fits really well with the goals we have for this first year of the tournament.”
2017 marks the return of the Korn Ferry Tour to Omaha after a three-year absence. Pinnacle Bank struck a five-year agreement with the PGA TOUR earlier this year to bring the Tour stop back to Nebraska.
“Our goal at Pinnacle Bank is to do great things in and for our community,” said Marc Hock, Pinnacle Bank President. “We’re happy to be able to help bring back a signature event for Nebraska and use it to help raise money that will benefit kids all across the state through TeamMates.”
TeamMates currently provides school-based mentoring programs to close to 8,000 youth with a goal of serving more than 12,000 by the year 2020.
“Getting youth excited about academics and their own potential is an investment that pays off,” said Suzanne Hince, Executive Director of TeamMates. “You not only help individual kids, but then they go on to become assets for the whole community. We’re grateful to The Pinnacle Bank Championship for their support and look forward to putting their investment to work for the community.”
The Korn Ferry Tour’s prior events in Omaha were contested from 1996 to 2013 and raised hundreds of thousands of dollars for community charities. The events also featured some of the Korn Ferry Tour’s best community support, from volunteer efforts to fan attendance.
The upcoming tournament will be held from July 17th – 23rd at the Club at Indian Creek and features a purse of $600,000. The Korn Ferry Tour’s prior events in Omaha produced champions such as PGA TOUR winners Bo Van Pelt, Johnson Wagner, Heath Slocum and Jason Gore.
For more information about the Pinnacle Bank Championship, please visit thepinnaclebankchampionship.com.
ABOUT PINNACLE BANK
Family-owned since 1938, Nebraska-based Pinnacle Bancorp, Inc., is a $9.5 billion financial holding company operating 140 community banks in seven states including 61 locations in Nebraska. For more information, visit pinnbank.com.
ABOUT TEAMMATES
TeamMates Mentoring Program began in 1991 with the vision of University of Nebraska Head Football Coach Tom Osborne and his wife Nancy. Coach Osborne felt that the athletes in his program could make an impact on the middle school students, and twenty-two football players began meeting with middle school students in the Lincoln Public Schools. Of the 22 original mentees, 21 went on to graduate from high school while one left school early to pursue a successful Motocross career. Eighteen of the original mentees also obtained some form of post-secondary education.
The TeamMates Mentoring Program was formalized statewide in 1998 with 12 chapters and 441 mentor/mentee matches. Since then, TeamMates has steadily grown to over 140 chapters. In the past school year, TeamMates served 8,000 youth through partnerships with local school districts. TeamMates now has chapters throughout Nebraska and Iowa and recently opened its first chapters in Kansas and Wyoming.
ABOUT THE KORN FERRY TOUR
Founded (1990), owned and operated by the PGA TOUR, the Korn Ferry Tour continues to identify those players who are ready to compete and win on golf’s biggest stage. In 2013, the Korn Ferry Tour became The Path to the PGA TOUR with all 50 available PGA TOUR cards coming through the Korn Ferry Tour and the season culminating at the four-event Korn Ferry Tour Finals. This season marks the 28th year of competition on the Korn Ferry Tour. Three out of four PGA TOUR members are Korn Ferry Tour alumni. Tour alumni have won more than 450 PGA TOUR titles, including 22 majors and six PLAYERS Championships. The PGA TOUR, through the efforts of its Tours and their tournaments, sponsors, players and volunteers, has generated over $2 billion in charitable giving.