Local man’s golf game raises $100,000 for children’s agency
By Cathy Kozlowicz
Correspondent
Not many people would consider playing golf in eight hours of pouring rain or in gusty winds of 50 miles per hour. These are a few of the memories Al Van Dyke has as he played golf – rain or shine – at the annual Swing Fore the Kids golf tournament benefitting Bethany Christian Services for the past 19 years.
He raised just over $100,000 in this 100-hole golf tournament after completing in the last golf tournament in Lomira on Sept. 13.
The money raised supports Bethany Christian Services, an organization which provides critical social services to children and families throughout South Eastern Wisconsin, with offices in Waukesha, Milwaukee, Fond du Lac, and service areas from Sheboygan through Green Bay.
Though perhaps best known for adoption (international, domestic, state special needs, relative and step parent), Bethany also works with governmental entities to provide foster care, and provides expectant parent advocacy support and services. Bethany Christian Services provides support, education, and outreach to our community through adoption, foster care, and counseling programs.
“He (Van Dyke) has a huge heart; he loves to golf, and to help Bethany serve children and families in our community and around the world. Bethany Christian Services knows every child needs a loving family who will care for and love them unconditionally. This event is an opportunity to make a profound difference for children,” Eleta Milbauer, development associate for Bethany Christian Services in Waukesha, said.
For Van Dyke, who participated in this golf tournament since its inception, it was simple, “I believe in the cause, and I love to golf,” he said. Van Dyke, each year, would send out donation letters to families, people from his church and friends to solicit this cause.
“It is wonderful what he is doing,” Annette Drefs, who made a donation to Van Dyke each of the 19 years he golfed. Drefs adopted her daughter, Elena, when she was 2. She had a foster child in her home growing up and her grandmother, Boukje Jeninga, hid Jewish children in her home to protect them during World War II. Adopting Elena was just “wonderful,” Drefs said.
“This is a need, and I think it is great,” she added.
Van Dyke also has a personal tie to Bethany Christian Services as he not only was a foster parent, his daughter, Susan Knudtson, was also a foster parent for a total of 15 infants. She would care for each infant for about four to six weeks until they were ready for their permanent home.
“It was hard not to get attached to them,” Knudtson said. “I admired the biological parents as they were giving their child a better home.”
Knudtson’s work made an impact. If a biological parent chose adoption, then she cared for the infant for 4-6 weeks until the court date to finalize the adoption. Sometimes, the biological parent may decide to raise the baby. This provided valuable time for them to make a decision. “I felt this helped everyone. The biological mother or father and the adoptive parent,” Knudtson said.
And for some of the babies, she still keeps in touch. “I look forward to getting Christmas cards and seeing how the children look like and what they are doing,” Knudtson said.
Having eight children of her own and expecting her first grandchild, Knudtson said her entire family and her husband of 31 years, Curt, were involved in the process. Knudtson recalled her children taking shifts to attend to the babies throughout the night. It was a family effort.
While being a foster parent has sizeable emotional and physical responsibilities, there other ways to help Bethany Christian Services either by being a foster parent, making a donation and donating goods. Knudtson, while not a foster parent now, has her knitting group making blankets for babies. “There are a lot of expenses in adoption,” she said.
“I loved doing this. I always loved being a mom. I felt God blessed me with eight wonderful kids,” Knudtson said. “It was a way of giving back.”
