Mary Kate's Legacy Hosting 7th Annual Golf Outing

Mary Kate’s Legacy Foundation, a nonprofit organization that helps families of special needs children, will host its Seventh Annual Golf Outing on Monday, May 14 at the Philmont Country Club. The fundraiser begins at 10:30 a.m. with a brunch and a noon shotgun start. A cocktail hour and dinner featuring Joe Conklin as well as a silent auction will follow.

Holland residents Tom and Eileen Marlow started the foundation in honor of their daughter, Mary Kate, who passed away in 2005 at the age of 11 after battling Infantile Neuro-axonal Dystrophy, a rare progressive disease.

Each year, the foundation holds a 5K race at the as well as its golf outing to raise money.

Tom Marlow told Patch last year that after Mary Kate was diagnosed as a toddler, the family realized they needed an array of equipment to allow their daughter to be transported and live comfortably.

“Of course we needed to purchase a van with a wheelchair lift. We had to make accommodations to our home to facilitate a wheelchair, widen doorways and add ramps,” explained Eileen Marlow on the foundation’s website, www.marykateslegacy.com.

“We purchased a special tricycle, shower bed, hot tub, swing and eventually even installed a motorized lift to help Mary Kate in and out of bed to her wheelchair and shower. The list of out-of-pocket expenses goes on. All of these items are cost exorbitant and none are covered by insurance, as they are deemed not medically necessary. Tom and I have been blessed by the generosity of family and friends who raised money to assist us with some of these expenses,” she added.

“We would like to help other families with special needs children free themselves of some of those barriers and improve their quality of life. Our van lift enabled Mary Kate to visit family and friends, go to church or to the mall, go to a park or museum and even on family vacations. These are things we all take for granted,” Eileen Marlow says on the website. 

The foundation’s 11-member board reviews requests from families and selects recipients eligible for support. 

For more information about the golf outing, contact Tom Marlow at 215-421-7677 or visit www.marykateslegacy.com. Click here to register online.