GD Mission Systems Hosts Soldier On Golf Tournament

The Soldier On Golf Tournament (SOGT) has been an annual General Dynamics Mission Systems tradition for 12 years now.

Since being hosted by GD Mission Systems, this event has raised over $600K and brought together more than 300 players and volunteers each year to support our veterans. The tournament offers a day full of activities between the five hours of golf per flight (two flights), Closer Tee, Putting Competition, 50/50 Raffle, Chance Raffle, Silent Auction, lunch hosted by Soldier On, dinner banquet, and Best Dressed Competition.

Soldier On is a non-profit organization dedicated to ending homelessness among veterans. Since 1994, Soldier On has been providing veterans with transitional and emergency housing with services delivered to them where they live. Soldier On has a mobile door-to-door outreach campaign, Supportive Services for Veteran Families (SSVF) assisting veterans and their families who are homeless or at-risk of becoming homeless throughout the states of New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and Massachusetts. The program provides in-home case management, referral services, and temporary financial assistance for housing to veterans facing homelessness.

This years' event raised over $63,000!

It was a record year, even though the tournament was rained out at Wyndhurst Golf & Club in Lenox, Massachusetts. The effort has always been a rain or shine event; many driving or flying in from out of town, the player gifts are size customized jackets, it takes 40+ volunteers to setup and run the day’s events.

The committee searched for a best path forward as the forecasts were inconsistent between a light drizzle and lightning storms. As a backup plan, the committee invited players and volunteers in town to come and pickup their swag and vouchers, check out the raffles and auctions, and come back that evening for the banquet. It was a hard choice to cancel, but after seeing the rain, the players were very gracious about the outcome.

The SOGT committee is run by GD Mission Systems volunteers that start eight months out from the event. One of our very own SCM teammates, Jessica Schell , has been involved with the event for seven years and leading it for five years. With her husband’s help, Erik Benscoter, SOGT Tech Chair, the event has gone from being email and Excel based with demanding manual inputs, to all online, including but not limited to player and sponsor registration, team/information management, purchases for other items such as swag, tee signs, raffle tickets, etc., and finance management. They have also used agile and lean practices over the years to identify other ways to reduce muda that has made running the event easier for them and their committee members.

“We have an amazing team, with the majority of our members returning year after year to support this event; this is no small feat, and it definitely takes a village. So special thank you to Christine DiLorenzo-Smith (Donations Chair), Jessica Voight (Volunteer Chair), Meghan Hendricks (Sponsor & Registration Chair), Erik Benscoter (Tech Chair), Nick Bourdon (Activities Chair), Caroline Holler (Sign Chair), Andrew Harmon (Food Vendor Chair), and Natale Monroe (Swag Chair), you guys rock!” said Schell.