BERNARDSTON — The 40th Annual Big Brothers and Big Sisters Charity Pro-Am at the Crumpin-Fox Club was a smashing success.

An impressive 141 players took to the course on Monday, helping raise over $70,000 for Big Brothers and Big Sisters of Franklin County along the way.

“To the Sandri Company, this event means everything for us in terms of fundraising,” Sandri CEO Tim Van Epps said. “This is what we put our heart and soul into. Our employees gather around, they support, they participate and volunteer their time.”

The event was started by Bill Sandri, the longtime owner of the Crumpin-Fox Club. The early days of the event saw just 20 participants, but on Monday former pros like Bobby Gage, Chris Tallman and Bob Mucha were present at what has become one of the premier benefit events in Western Mass. 

Following the 36th tournament, it surpassed raising one million dollars for Big Brothers and Big Sisters with that number growing exponentially each year. 

“This has been our passion project for 40 years,” said Wendy Van Epps, Tim Van Epps’ wife. “This is how we want to support and give back to our community. If you’re going to help anyone out, it’s so important to support our youth and make sure they feel like they have opportunities and that they can lead happy and fulfilled lives and be inspired by people who aren’t their immediate families. There’s other people out there that will take an interest. It does so much good.” 

Big Brothers and Big Sisters’ mission statement is to “create and support one-to-one mentoring relationships that ignite the power and promise of youth” and its vision for have “all youth achieve their full potential.” 

With it having a great impact on the community, don’t expect the event to go anywhere anytime soon. 

“The bigs get just as much out of the program as the littles,” Wendy said. “This isn’t an event that’s going anywhere anytime soon. The way we fundraise is much more purposeful and we’re having a lot of success with this event.”

The Van Epps enjoy that the charity stays local and has a direct impact on the community. With more money raised, the more work and impact the charity can have. 

“Our employees at Sandri and Crumpin-Fox, they rally around this,” Tim said. “They understand the impact it has on children’s lives in Franklin County. What’s so cool is this stays in Franklin County. Because of this event, we’re able to serve more children this year.” 

The tournament was held last year, but didn’t have as many participants due to the pandemic. The strong showing at Monday’s tournament showed that the event is continuing to grow, with Tim Van Epps thanking the corporate sponsors who helped make it such a success. 

“Our corporate sponsors really stepped up,” he said. “Sandri has corporate sponsors whether it be Sunoco, Coca Cola, Pepsi, J Polep, Heirloom, they step up every year. Over the last five years, it keeps increasing.” 

For more information on Big Brothers Big Sisters of Franklin County, visit https://bbbs-fc.org/.