Welcome to the Fourth Annual Desert Open benefiting the PTSD Foundation of America. Our goal is to raise enough funds to support the veteran soldiers suffering from PTSD (Post Traumatic Stress Disorder) through a division of the PTSD Foundation of America and Greystar sponsored charity called Camp Hope.
Your sponsorship is not only a great way to gain visibility for your company, reward your hardworking team, or have a great day with friends; it's a great way to personally make a difference for our combat veterans suffering from PTSD and other injuries. One hundred percent of your donations will go to helping establish a local Camp Hope chapter right here in Phoenix, Arizona.
Please note: Your donation will be directly helping Veterans in our local Arizona Camp Hope Chapter working to overcome PTSD.As a courtesy to the PTSD Foundation of America, Greystar, The Volunteers and The Players, we will not except any cancelations or issue any refunds after August 31, 2021. Thank you.
Individual Entry – $165
Foursome Entry – $650
Your entry fee includes 18 holes of golf at The Legacy Golf Resort, motorized golf cart, range balls, one entry to the Longest Drive Contest, one entry to the Closest to the Pin Contest, buffet lunch, swag bag and drink tickets.
6:30am: Registration
8:00am: Tee-Off (Shotgun)
1:00pm: Lunch
2:00pm: Awards Ceremony
This will be a 4 team, 18-hole scramble. Each team's players hit from the tee box, then the team members choose the best of the four shots for the next shot. All team members then play the second shot from that location, and again choose the best shot. Play continues in this manner until the hole is completed.
Please book your own hotel reservations at The Legacy Golf Resort
The Legacy Golf Resort
6808 S. 32nd Street
Phoenix, AZ 85042
For Registration Information, contact Samantha Grizzell at 602.522.1287 or sgrizzell@greystar.com
Your tax deductible sponsorship is not only a great way to gain visibility for your company, reward your staff, or have a great day with friends; it's a great way of personally helping make a difference for our local combat veterans suffering from PTSD and other injuries.
** Additional lunch tickets can be purchased for $20 at the event.
For sponsorship information, contact Samantha Grizzell at 602.522.1287 or sgrizzell@greystar.com
Meet a Veteran working to establish Camp Hope Phoenix
Meet Adam Bigelow—Director of Arizona Outreach for the PTSD Foundation of America. Adam is currently working toward establishing a Camp Hope Chapter in Phoenix with a commitment to supporting his fellow Veterans and raising awareness.
Adam suffers from Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder, or PTSD. Upon his return home from his service in the U.S. Army, he found himself struggling with depression, as well as drug and alcohol abuse. In the midst of extraordinary despair, he discovered Camp Hope and was able to find purpose again through brotherhood and a renewed sense of hope.
In 2007, Adam joined the military at 26 years old. He was inspired to make a difference in our country and spent the first few years of his military career bouncing between training camps at Fort Benning in Georgia and Fort Sam Houston in San Antonio. Later, he was deployed to Baghdad and Kirkuk as a combat medic. After returning from his second deployment, he reenlisted as a flight medic in Afghanistan and went on to serve a total of nine years.
As a medic, Adam witnessed firsthand the unimaginable horror of war: injured and dying soldiers, civilian casualties, and mass destruction. Yet through it all, he never lost sight of the rewarding impact and difference he was able to make in the lives of his brothers in arms and the innocent men, women and children he saved. Adam recalls moments local women and children would run to hug him because the mere presence of U.S. soldiers meant they were safe enough to go to school and the markets to buy food.
Later in his career, Adam began showing severe signs of PTSD. In the military, once this is suspected, swift action is taken. Adam was immediately grounded from flying, his soldiers reassigned, and was unable to continue on as a flight medic. He was medically discharged shortly after. He returned home to Phoenix a changed man. Like more than 20% of returning veterans, Adam struggled to cope with his PTSD and adapt to everyday life, continuously trying to find meaning and purpose as an ordinary civilian. He went from leading his fellow soldiers in and out of life threatening situations to being depressed and unemployed. Within a matter of weeks, Adam had gone from a lifesaving combat flight medic to being powerless, not only in helping others, but unable to help himself.
To cope with his PTSD, Adam began to self-medicate through the use of drugs and alcohol. He understood the impact of the decisions he was making but didn’t know where to turn for help. Family and friends didn’t recognize who had returned home from war in place of the man they’d always known. Every day, twenty-two veterans living with PTSD take their own lives. Adam was nearly one of those statistics but miraculously, was saved by a family member who called moments before he committed suicide.
During his downward spiral, Adam had reached out to the military multiple times in search of help. Unfortunately, the behavioral health specialist he was assigned offered more failed medication and was not able to provide the aid he so desperately needed, leaving him feeling even more isolated and alone. As fate would have it, and in his most dire time of need, Adam would go on to find the PTSD Foundation of America. He immediately joined the Warrior Group’s Washington chapter and finally began to feel a sense of relief and direction. Adam attended Warrior Groups for 18 months. Surrounded by fellow veterans that intimately understood the everyday struggles he was facing, Adam was finally able to obtain the support he needed and in turn, discovered a renewed sense of purpose. He was asked to start up the Warrior Groups in Phoenix due to the overwhelming number of Veterans in need of Help. Adam officially joined the Camp Hope team and continues to make a difference to the 65,000 Veterans struggling with PTSD in Arizona every day.
Jason White is an Outreach Coordinator for the PTSD Foundation of America. He was enlisted to assist with the expansion of the Arizona Chapter and aspires to establish a Camp Hope Chapter in his home state of Florida. He too, like Adam Bigelow, was suffering from PTSD when he was medically discharged from the Marines. He is now devoted to helping his fellow veterans come to terms with their PTSD and live happy, successful lives.
Jason’s story is part of greater familial history beginning far before his own military service. He comes from a long line of veterans including his father who served as a Marine and a grandfather, uncle and cousin who all served in the U.S. Air Force. For as long as he can remember, the military was always an inherent part of his ancestry. At seventeen years old, Jason brought the enlistment paperwork home which came as no surprise to his immediate family. He believed the structure the military offered was something he needed. After ten years of service, he was medically discharged at just twenty-eight years old.
Camp Lejeune in North Carolina is where Jason completed his military training. During this time, he was lucky enough to have met about eight or nine soldiers he later deployed with. He credits these close relationships he built with helping to keep his sanity. They became his family during those ten years and like most families, created memories Jason stills reflects back upon fondly. In one shared anecdote, Jason recalls one of their many pranks: While at the Marine Corps Base Quantico, his fellow Marines hoisted the small hybrid rental car he was driving at the time. Turning it on its side, they sandwiched it between two other cars, making it impossible for him to leave.
Jason was deployed to Iraq a number of times as Motor Transport Operator attached to infantry units. In those ten years, he grew in a lot of ways. The military had become his whole life. When he was medically discharged and sent home to Florida, he was greeted with a new reality. While trying to adjust to family life with his wife and children, he began to feel a lack in structure, focus and purpose. The military was so deeply engrained in his identity that without it, he didn’t know who he was.
All the while, Jason continued to work on coming to terms with his “new normal”. Instead of addressing the thoughts and emotions that plagued him, he avoided them, worried about becoming a burden to his loved ones. For the first time in his life, he did not have the constant of his military family surrounding him, and like many retired veterans, felt isolated and alone. In search of direction, Jason got involved with an organization for veterans in Florida. On paper, it seemed he was taking all the right steps but the fulfilment he was looking for still eluded him. His ongoing battle with PTSD continued to torment him and would eventually lead to him leaving the organization and separating from his wife.
Jason recognized the path he was on was one of self-destruction and he knew coping through the abuse of drugs and alcohol was leading him down a dangerous avenue. Thankfully, a member of his community had heard Ben Greene, National Director of Outreach for The PTSD Foundation of America, speak about Camp Hope. This person then shared this resource with one of Jason’s former Marine comrades who reached out and implored him to seek help through the organization. Within 48 hours, he was on a plane to Camp Hope in Houston. Jason spent four and a half months at Camp Hope, working through issues correlating to his battle with PTSD through faith-based treatment and the support of fellow veterans facing similar struggles. After months of this intensive therapy, he finally began to start feeling a sense of peace. Where previous treatments had failed, he discovered healing in the fellowship of his brothers in arms. Jason wholeheartedly credits Camp Hope with saving his life and creating a path to a brighter future.
Upon his completion of treatment, Camp home offered Jason a position with the Phoenix Chapter. Through community support and help from the public, they were able to get this local chapter up and running, providing veterans with an opportunity to find healing and the strength to reclaim their lives.
Many of our warriors come home with visible wounds; countless others come home with invisible scars we cannot see. Those scars can make adjusting to day to day life difficult, if not impossible for returning soldiers. An estimated 30 percent of men and women who have spent time in war zones will experience PTSD (Post Traumatic Stress Disorder Symptoms.) Camp Hope’s dedication to healing our military family has changed thousands of lives. Camp Hope is a charity based out of Houston that provides interim housing, recreational therapy, counseling, mentorship, and awareness of the severity of PTSD. The Camp Hope team is made up of combat veterans and civilian pastoral staff training in working with trauma victims and provide support in a variety of areas to help our troops adjust to day-to-day life. Our Greystar family stands behind our troops, Camp Hope and their efforts. We hope you can stand with us by participating in the Greystar Desert Open.
Need to talk to someone? Call (877) 717-PTSD (7873)
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