Nine years ago, Larry Gold, the owner and proprietor of Gold Coast Cleaners on Kennedy Boulevard in North Bergen, and his business partner, Mario Marghella, were hitting golf balls at a local driving range together.
The two were practicing their shots and passing the time, talking about what they would like to do if they could to help children.
“Mario said, ‘We go to a lot of golf outings, so why can’t we run one ourselves?’ ” Gold said. “We have the smarts to do it and we have the ability to do it. Now, all we needed was a cause. And once we thought of the cause being children, then we had the greatest cause of all.”
So Gold and Marghella approached the town and received approval to hold the North Bergen Open, with all the proceeds going to help pay for the township’s annual Christmas Party to benefit underprivileged children in the town.
The first year, the North Bergen Open raised $4,000. In 2002, the total jumped to $21,000. Last year, the Open raised a new record $25,000.
So Gold had high hopes to raise even more in 2004, when the ninth annual North Bergen Open was held at the Great Gorge Country Club in Vernon last Tuesday.
“We had 180 golfers register to participate,” Gold said. “We were supposed to have even more, but there was a threat of rain.”
Still, the ninth annual golf outing was the biggest and the best. A new record total of $30,000 was raised.
“It was tremendous,” Gold said. “We keep working at it and it gets easier every year. Now, more and more people look forward to the outing. People keep coming back because the prizes are great. They keep coming back because it’s a great charity for kids and the whole event is all for the kids.”
When Gold started the event in 1995, he hoped that it would eventually become an event that would raise $10,000, maybe $15,000. But the event has taken off to almost epic proportions, becoming perhaps the most efficient fund-raising event this side of Mayor Nicholas Sacco’s annual ball.
“I had hopes and dreams,” Gold said. “But it really has taken off.”
Gold said that the event has received tons of support over the years. For example, the Parks and Recreation Department, headed by Commissioner Allen Pascual, has thrown its full support to the day.
“Allen’s department has been a huge help,” Gold said. “Frank DiPaolo [one of the parks and recreation supervisors] goes all out and seeks a lot of help from the local businessmen.”
Gold and the committee, headed by Pascual, Hudson County Freeholder Tom Liggio and Committeeman Jimmy Nahira, went out and corralled more than 125 sponsors this year.
One sponsor, Ciboa Travel of New York, donated a trip for two to Santo Domingo in the Dominican Republic.
The reason? Good business.
“Miguel Rodriguez (the owner of Ciboa Travel) is a customer at the cleaners,” Gold said. “We started talking about business and about golf and the next thing I know, he’s telling me he would be more than happy to contribute.”
A representative from American Airlines participated in the tournament and donated two round-trip tickets to anywhere the airline flies in the continental United States. Someone else donated a trip for two to Las Vegas.
“We had over 100 prizes,” Gold said. “It took us about two hours to give all the prizes away. It was a tremendous night.”
After the golf tournament was over, all participants were then welcomed back to the North Bergen Nutritional Center for a dinner and raffle, where the prizes were raffled off. The township of North Bergen supplied the use of the Nutritional Center, as well as purchasing a free lunch for the golfers during the course of the day. Mayor Sacco was there to welcome the golfers to the dinner after the outing and help distribute the gifts.
United Water, courtesy of former Board of Education member Ulises Diaz, paid the freight for the beefsteak dinner.
Gold said that the outing is the culmination of a lot of hard work, but it’s all worth it.
“Everyone loves to golf,” Gold said. “So they don’t mind playing golf and contributing, as long as it is going to a worthy cause. When Christmas comes, you see the light in the kids’ eyes, when they have a raffle ticket in their hands and they go up to the stage to receive a bike that they never would have received. That’s what I love to see.
Gold added, “For me, the fun comes then, when I see the kids’ faces. It makes all the hard work worthwhile. I love it. It’s well worth the wait to see their faces.”