Tournament winners with the Nittany Lion are, from left, Jim Milauskas, Ed Keil, Phil Navola and Jack Monick.
DALLAS, Pa. — Penn State Wilkes-Barre Alumni Society’s golf tournament returned to the greens this year, with 100 golfers participating in the event at Blue Ridge Trail Golf Club in Mountain Top. The funds raised from the Penn State Wilkes-Barre Alumni Society 25th Annual Classic Golf Tournament will support the Penn State Wilkes-Barre Alumni Society Scholarship Fund, Alumni Speaker Series, THON, Academic Excellence Awards and other initiatives that benefit the students at Penn State Wilkes-Barre.
The tournament was canceled the past two years due to the pandemic. This year’s winners were Jack Monick, former athletic director at Penn State Wilkes-Barre; Phil Navola; Jim Milauskas and Ed Keil, Penn State Wilkes-Barre golf coach. Each received a cash prize for winning the tournament. Coming in second was the team of Evan Serafin, Jake Yuhas, Frankie Nocito and Jonathan Wilson, student-athletes who were sponsored by Interim Chancellor and Chief Academic Officer Lynda Goldstein to play in the tournament.
Alumni Relations and Stewardship Officer Jacqueline Warnick-Piatt, who coordinated the event, said the golfers and committee were excited to return to play this year, especially as the tournament was canceled the last two years due to the pandemic. She thanked David Hoffman, a 1981 Penn State graduate, and Jonathan Sinclair, a 2003 Penn State graduate, committee chairs, for their assistance and Karen Brace-Hodle, recently retired alumni relations and stewardship officer, for the excellent records she left behind. She also shared her thanks with Penn State Wilkes-Barre Alumni Society executive board members Mary Conti, a 2006 Penn State graduate, president; Tom Conti, a 2006 Penn State graduate, treasurer; and Erin Kovach, a 1999 Penn State graduate, secretary, and the staff and alumni volunteers from Penn State Wilkes-Barre.
“Words cannot express my gratitude for the time and effort our committee members and everyone else put into this tournament. We couldn’t do it without them,” Warnick-Piatt said. “It couldn’t have been a better day. We even had a blue and white sky over the greens.”
Golfers also had the chance to win several hole-in-one prizes while on the course, including a Myrtle Beach vacation, $500 Visa gift card, $500 Callaway gift card and $10,000 cash. Other contests included “closest to the pin,” longest drive for men and women, and the chance for participants to double their money by “holding the green.” For more information on upcoming Alumni Society events, please contact Warnick-Piatt at [email protected].
With the record-breaking success of “A Greater Penn State for 21st Century Excellence,” which raised $2.2 billion from 2016 to 2022, philanthropy is helping to sustain the University’s tradition of education, research and service to communities across the Commonwealth and around the globe. Scholarships enable our institution to open doors and welcome students from every background, support for transformative experiences allows our students and faculty to fulfill their vast potential for leadership, and gifts toward discovery and excellence help us to serve and impact the world we share. To learn more about the impact of giving and the continuing need for support, please visit raise.psu.edu.
