KMT organised its first “Drive for Education” Charity Golf Challenge fundraiser on the beautiful morning of April 11, 2010. This 18-hole event featured 9 competing teams from the corporate and private sector. Each team comprised of four players, though a couple were allowed to enter five. The scores of the best three players of each team counted towards the team score. The weather, though a bit warm towards the end of play, was overall pleasant, and the day was almost perfect for golf. The tournament went as smoothly as could have been hoped for, and all players had an enjoyable day of competition that was somehow different from the tournaments that they had competed in previously. This was the feedback that we received from many of the participants at the end of play, and maybe it was the charitable nature of the event and the positive attitude of all the competitors that led to this perception. Whatever the reasons, the tournament was most certainly a big success.

Team Telenor emerged as the biggest winner on the day, taking home the main Champion Team Trophy with a net score of 200, and also bagging two other major awards in individual classification. The Runner Up position in the team classification went to Team Mindworks Media with a net score of 208. Aijaz Mustafa Siddiqi of Team Telenor won the Best Individual Player trophy with a net score of 62, and Lars Iuel, also of Team Telenor, took the individual Runner Up prize with a net score of 64. Additional prizes were awarded for “Longest Drive”, won by Dr. Hassan Rana of Team Mindworks Media with a drive of 328 yards, and “Closest to Pin”, won by Mrs. Gertrude Schoeffmann of Team OMV with a distance of 4 feet from the pin. Mr. Zahid Arbab, Captain of the Islamabad Gold Club, was the chief guest at the awards ceremony.

KMT would like to thank all the companies and organisations that made this event such a success by registering and sponsoring their respective teams. These were Mindworks Media and Millennium Securities both of whom sponsored two teams each; and Telenor, Pak Datacom Ltd., Malaysian High Commission and OMV, which sponsored one team each. Another corporate organisation also sponsored a KMT team on the condition that their contribution would remain anonymous. They know who they are and we are grateful to them as well for their generosity and support. We would also like to thank Mindworks Media and its Chairman, Dr. Hasan Rana, for generously sponsoring the trophies for the event and also the giveaways that included souvenir golf shirts, caps and golf gloves. Mint Restaurant of Islamabad deserves special mention for serving a delicious breakfast and lunch to the event participants and spectators. The lunch was especially appreciated by all, and KMT is obliged to the restaurant and its owner, Mr. Ahsan Bhatty (who is also the managing partner of Millennium Securities), for catering both meals at cost only. And finally, and with the utmost gratitude, we are indebted to Mr. Zahid Arbab and the Islamabad Golf Club for their enthusiasm for our cause and for their kind and generous support in making the Golf Club available for this tournament. Mr. Arbab and a long standing friend of KMT, Mr. Mansoor Khan, also helped us considerably with organising and managing the tournament. Thank you all!!!

Because of all of the contributions received from the supporters mentioned above, KMT managed to raise approximately Rs. 350,000/- in profit (after expenses) from the tournament. This is supplemented by two child sponsorships (totaling Rs. 85,000) that one participant and one guest also pledged after watching the KMT Introductory video that was played at the start of the awards ceremony. All in all, therefore, the day delivered around Rs. 435,000/- for KMT , which is an excellent return considering that KMT spent less than Rs. 100,000/- on organisational costs. As with all other KMT fundraisers, all proceeds from this event are applied directly towards the ongoing construction and operations of the Kaghan Memorial School.