When my son was diagnosed with an inoperable low-grade brain tumor in 2018, my husband and I felt an overwhelming desire to do something meaningful to help advance research for less toxic, more effective treatments for pediatric brain tumors. As a family of golfers — and for me, a lover of golf cart rides on beautiful days — a golf tournament fundraiser felt like a natural fit. Drawing on my experience as a designer, event planner, marketer, and photographer, I organized and executed a series of events that brought our community together around a shared purpose.

Over the course of four tournaments between 2019 and 2023, we raised more than $140,000 for pediatric brain tumor research.

The story has since come full circle. Today, our son — along with many other children living with brain tumors — is thriving on a treatment that this research helped make possible. That treatment received FDA approval on March 16, 2023, exactly five years to the day after his diagnosis.

For this event, I handled:

• Planning and logistics

• All marketing (logo and branding, full website design, e-mail marketing, posters, etc.)

• Creating a sponsorship guide and helping secure sponsors

• Securing beer and food donations or discounts

• T-shirt design and coordinating printing and material selection with vendors

• Designing and coordinating the printing of signage

• Day-of coordination and logistics

• Volunteer recruitment and day-of management

• Day-of photography

• Volunteer and attendee follow up