An annual Los Angeles tournament
Building the AIA Charity Golf Tournament into a fixture on the calendar, backed by Craig's network of NFL and CFL alumni, with proceeds going straight to students at Francis Polytechnic and other inner-city schools.
[ Our work ]
Showing up, year after year
Coaching young players and mentoring student athletes. Speaking inside juvenile hall and re-entry programs. Handing out presents at the burn center. And fundraisers that have brought in close to a million dollars.
$1M
Raised, almost, by the CFL Alumni Golf Tournament Craig founded
1998
The year he launched it — still the United Way chapter's biggest fundraiser
21st
Annual tournament held in 2019 at Medicine Hat Golf and Country Club
7&8
The ages of the youth football players he coaches in Los Angeles today
[ 01 ] Coaching & mentoring
The kids come first
Craig coaches seven and eight year olds in a youth football league in Los Angeles, and has mentored a group of athletes in Canada since they were thirteen.
[ 02 ] Speaking
Back where it started
Craig goes back to Los Angeles County Juvenile Hall — the same place he passed through as a teenager — to talk to the kids inside. He also speaks at prison re-entry programs, where one man in the room had served thirty-seven years.
“Alumni in Action is a way to support my childhood community by coming back to where it all began.”
Los Angeles County Juvenile Hall
Prison re-entry programs
[ 03 ] Fundraising
Nearly a million dollars, one tournament at a time
[ CFL Alumni Golf Tournament ]
Founded in 1998, still going
Craig was a founding member of the South Eastern Alberta CFL Alumni Golf Tournament, built to raise money for the United Way. The first one brought in over $25,000 for the local community. It has since raised almost a million dollars and remains the chapter's biggest fundraiser of the year.
He also plays and organises alongside CFL alumni at charity events — this one an autism fundraiser, with Damon Allen, Willard Reaves, James West and Glenn Harper.
[ Alumni In Action ]
Bringing the model home to Los Angeles
Alumni In Action ran its own first annual golf tournament at Encino Golf Club, hosted by Polytechnic High School alumni and calling in players from the East Valley football seasons of 1975, '76 and '77.
It is the same formula that worked in Alberta for two decades, pointed at Los Angeles inner-city students instead.
See upcoming eventsSee upcoming events[ 04 ] Community giving
Off the field entirely
[ 05 ] What's next
Where we are taking this
The plan is to run the Alberta playbook in Los Angeles: a recurring tournament, real scholarships, and programs that reach the household as well as the student.
Scholarships for students in the program
Funding students aged 14 to 17 holding a 2.0 GPA or greater, so the door that opened for Craig through sport is open to them through both sport and school.
Seminars for parents
Bringing parents into their student's college preparation — eligibility, applications, and the timeline that governs both — so families are not working it out alone.
Turkey distribution
Distributing donated turkeys to families of under-privileged students across the Los Angeles area, alongside the holiday work already done at the burn center.
Help us do more of it.
Sponsorship, a foursome at the tournament, or a donation — every one of them turns into time on the field and in the classroom for a student who needs it.