CN and Golf Canada announced the continuation of CN’s school adoption program this year in Kamloops as an extension of their dedication to junior golf through the CN Future Links Community Tour.
Close to 50 students from both Sk’elep School of Excellence and Pinantan Lake Elementary celebrated with a CN Future Links Field Trip event on Friday, June 5th at Mount Paul Golf Course in honour of CN’s recent adoption of 15 local schools in the Kamloops region. Students received lessons in safety, putting, driving and chipping from Head Professional, Danny Latten.
As part of CN’s focus towards safety, each of the 15 adopted schools will receive an all-encompassing rail safety demonstration from CN’s partner, Operation Lifesaver, a national organization dedicated to keeping Canadian kids and the public safe around all rail tracks .
“Junior golf is a perfect fit for our focus on health and safety within our physical education curriculum,” said Denise Harper, Chair of the Board of Education for Kamloops District No. 73. “Our school board is very thankful to have the opportunity to introduce the sport and its life-long lessons to our students for many years to come.”
The celebration at Mount Paul marks 135 schools adopted by CN since 2013, reinforcing their vision of helping communities share in the health and safety values associated with junior golf. The Kamloops region was also the first of three communities visited in 2015 by the CN Future Links Community Tour, a nation-wide event that brings the values of junior golf to regions across Canada.
“CN is proud to extend our support of junior golf to Canadian students through the school adoption program,” said Claude Mongeau, CN President and Chief Executive Officer. “Kamloops is an important operations centre on CN’s network and we are very pleased to share the CN Future Links Community Tour experience with the community.”
The first Community Tour event of 2015 touched down the following day (Jun. 6) in the heart of Kamloops at The Bandshell at Riverside Park, engaging community youth and attendees in various golf activities in addition to rail safety tips from CN Police.
“CN continues to move the needle in terms of initiating creative ways to expose golf to Canada’s youth,” said Jeff Thompson, Golf Canada’s Chief Sport Officer. “The Community Tour is a very exciting national initiative for introducing golf in fun, community-based festival environments across the country—an engaging method of taking the sport directly to youth.”
Current CN Future Links programming includes the Learn to Play program as well as mobile clinics, PGA Jr. League, Girls Club, Field Trip and the CN Future Links Championships. As part of its investment in Canadian junior golf, CN is also a proud supporter of Golf in Schools.
In 2014, CN Future Links junior golf activities were conducted at 455 golf facilities with more than 7,000 juniors registered in the Learn to Play program. In addition, 160 golf facilities took part in the Junior Skills Challenge running more than 3,200 juniors through qualifying events. More than 56,000 youngsters participated in more than 1,200 mobile golf clinics across the country. Since 2006, more than 1.2 million children have been introduced to golf through the CN Future Links program.