Golf tournament raises green for local mental health initiatives

Golfers will be teeing it up again this summer at The Andy Buffone Memorial Tournament, a fundraiser in support of the Canadian Mental Health Association Algoma.

This year's tournament is scheduled for Aug. 24 at the Sault Ste. Marie Golf Club.

Since the tournament was first started in 2021, the event has raised nearly $44,000 in support of mental health and addictions awareness and initiatives, including helping to train experts in suicide intervention.

“These funds have been used to help CMHA Algoma train staff to provide ASIST training across the Algoma District,” says a news release from tournament organizers. “Applied suicide intervention skills training, or ASIST, is an intensive, interactive, and practice-dominated course designed to help individuals recognize the risk of suicide and learn to intervene to prevent the risk of suicidal thoughts becoming suicidal behaviours.”

Money raised from the tournament has also helped train additional facilitators in non-violent crisis intervention (NCI) methods. 

“Non-violent crisis intervention provides individuals with the skills to safely recognize and respond to everyday crisis situations,” the release says. “It includes physical intervention techniques, verbal de-escalation skills, and disengagement safety techniques.”

To register a team of golfers or learn more about sponsorship packages, click here.