{"id":832605,"date":"2026-09-01T03:40:09","date_gmt":"2026-09-01T03:40:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/832605\/"},"modified":"2026-09-01T03:40:09","modified_gmt":"2026-09-01T03:40:09","slug":"asheville-golf-tournament-raises-money-for-domestic-violence-survivors","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/832605\/","title":{"rendered":"Asheville golf tournament raises money for domestic violence survivors"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>ASHEVILLE, N.C. (WLOS) \u2014 More than 75 golfers hit the course in Asheville on Monday to raise money for domestic violence survivors as <a href=\"https:\/\/helpmateonline.org\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Helpmate <\/a>works to fill a funding gap its volunteers said is being caused by declining government grants.<\/p>\n<p><p>WLOS<\/p>\n<\/p>\n<p>The nonprofit held its first \u201cSwing for a Cause\u201d charity golf tournament at the Country Club of Asheville.<\/p>\n<p>Helpmate serves 3,000 domestic violence survivors each year, according to volunteer Rita Marks, who organized the tournament.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/wlos.com\/news\/local\/helpmate-asheville-nonprofit-organizaion-build-new-domestic-violence-shelter-community-funding-needed-joys-house-emergency-urgent-bed-need-local-secu-donations\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">HELPMATE TO BUILD NEW DOMESTIC VIOLENCE SHELTER; COMMUNITY FUNDING NEEDED<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Marks answers Helpmate&#8217;s crisis hotline and serves on a committee responsible for raising money for the nonprofit. She said the committee works with community partners and donors to help make up for declining government grants.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThis first annual golf tournament is another way we&#8217;re going to help fill that gap,\u201d Marks said.<\/p>\n<p>Marks said Helpmate has already cut two staff positions because of the funding decline. She hopes money raised through the tournament will help the organization and said organizers plan to build on the event next year.<\/p>\n<p>Marks began organizing the tournament at the end of January.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI&#8217;m a golfer, so I have been to charity tournaments before, and being so deeply passionate about what Helpmate does and the people there that do it, I wanted to do this for them,\u201d Marks said.<\/p>\n<p>Marks said her work answering Helpmate&#8217;s crisis hotline gives her a firsthand look at why the nonprofit&#8217;s services are needed.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI have talked to countless, mostly women, not always, countless women who are experiencing the darkest thing they can ever experience,\u201d Marks said. \u201cAnd I know what the need is. I know how Helpmate fills that need.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Marks said another goal of the tournament is making more people aware that Helpmate exists.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/wlos.com\/news\/local\/harrison-others-share-testimonies-at-domestic-violence-awareness-vigil-makayla-harrison-darren-lamont-clayton-first-degree-murder-indicted-buncombe-county-victims-abuser-abusive-relationship-asheville\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">VICTIMS SHARE EMOTIONAL TESTIMONIES AT DOMESTIC VIOLENCE AWARENESS VIGIL<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u201cI was just astounded at how many buildings I walked into,  CEOs, presidents, vice presidents, company owners,  they had never heard of Helpmate. &#8230; Helpmate is Buncombe County&#8217;s nonprofit agency serving thousands of survivors of domestic abuse each year,\u201d Marks said.<\/p>\n<p>Organizers were expected to announce the final amount raised after the tournament wrapped up Monday.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"ASHEVILLE, N.C. (WLOS) \u2014 More than 75 golfers hit the course in Asheville on Monday to raise money&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":832606,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[71],"tags":[427,99],"class_list":["post-832605","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-golf","tag-golf","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/832605","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=832605"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/832605\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/832606"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=832605"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=832605"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=832605"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}