Justin Rose has increased his support for charitable organisations by lending his name, time and fund raising activities to the American based charity ‘Blessings in a Backpack’.
Along with wife Kate, Rose has become actively involved in the charity, whose main focus is to ensure that underprivileged school children are receiving nourishment at weekends.
Through the support of its partners and fund raisers, the charity provides schoolchildren with a backpack filled with easy-to-prepare and ready-to-eat food.
For just $80, they are able to provide one child with a backpack during every weekend of a 38 week school year. Having launched in 2005 with two pilot schools, the charity now serves more than 20,000 elementary school children across 19 states in the US.
For the Roses, effective nourishment is something that they are both very passionate about, which is why they have chosen to support the ‘Blessings in a Backpack’ programme.
Not only are they keen to promote the importance of nutrition for children, but Rose is only too aware of the impact that effective nourishment can have on his own performance on the golf course.
“This program is very close to our hearts because Kate and I know ‘Blessings in a Backpack’ fills a crucial void for children who might otherwise go hungry,” said Justin. He added: “I can't expect to play good golf if I'm not properly nourished so how can we expect kids to go a full weekend without enough to eat and then be able to focus on learning?”
Justin and Kate have now worked closely with the charity since 2009 where their fundraising efforts have helped feed more than 1,000 schoolchildren in Orlando.
They have both visited schools, attended sessions to fill back packs with food to then hand out to the children, and also held a golf day that raised $180,000. The Roses have also personally provided two exciting trips away from school – once taking 80 children to the beach for the afternoon in Orlando, and on another occasion taking 15 children to the Arnold Palmer Invitational golf event at Bay Hill.
Justin has also launched his own initiative to raise money for the charity that will see him donate $80 for every birdie he posts at all golf events worldwide during the entire 2011 season - an initiative that he is calling ‘Birdies for Blessings’.
He has also changed the personal number to be printed on his TaylorMade golf balls to read 80, to symbolise the $80 required to feed one schoolchild for a school year.
And it’s through Justin and Kate’s passion for the programme that has lead to Zurich Financial, another of Justin’s main sponsors, extending their support to the initiative. Zurich are now committed to building upon the relationship Farmers Insurance (owned by Zurich) started with ‘Blessings in a Backpack’ during the 2011 Farmers Insurance Open, where Farmers executives and US PGA TOUR players led by the Roses helped stuff backpacks full of food for 500 children who attend the Doris Miller Elementary School in San Diego.
During the 2011 Zurich Classic in New Orleans, Zurich’s CEO Martin Senn joined both Justin and Kate in a news conference to discuss and help raise awareness of the charity, following their generous offering to provide funding to feed 800 school children for the year in New Orleans. Zurich have also agreed to match Justin’s Birdies for Blessings total at the end of the year which should raise a significant sum for the charity. To date Justin has posted 162 birdies, which already gives a total of $25,920 when matched by Zurich.
