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Shafter family’s golf tournament gives back in the form of scholarships

With family roots in Shafter tracing back to the 1920s, the Lopez family wanted to give back to a community that helped them get their start.

For the last 27 years, they’ve held a golf tournament. The tournament started out as a gathering of family and friends before their annual family reunion, but now it benefits students from Shafter High with scholarships.

The Big Kahuna Lopez Family Golf Tournament will be held Sept. 30 at North Kern Golf Course.

“I think it’s just one of those things where you want to give back and you look back to the roots of where the family started,” said Anthony Padilla, who is one of the family organizers involved with the Lopez Family Community Scholarship Foundation.

Six years ago, the move to do something more really started rolling when one of the main patriarchs of the family, Baltazar Lopez, died. Lopez’s death inspired his nephew, Gilbert Saldana to take the tournament to a new level and fund scholarships in the name of the family.

Three years later, the Lopez Family Community Scholarship Foundation officially became a non-profit organization.

That is when their little family golf tournament got really big.

The tournament has sold out for the past three years, according to the foundation’s secretary, Joe Lopez. In the past three years alone, the foundation has awarded $10,000 in scholarships to graduating seniors of Shafter High School.

“The non-profit status has helped us immensely in getting hole sponsorship and big contributions, which gives us a larger base to offer more scholarships,” Lopez said.

Although the golf tournament takes a great amount of time in advance preparation with some 30 to 40 family members helping, Lopez says they wouldn’t have it any other way. To cut down on costs, everyone who helps out is a volunteer; they even built their own barbecue trailer so they wouldn’t have to rent one every year.

“When you read the scholarship applications, when you hand it out at the assembly, when you get the thank-you letters back from the kids, it just makes it all worth it. It’s just really personally satisfying. It feels like we really did something and it’s motivating us to want to do more,” Lopez said.

The foundation is planning on expanding the scholarship to other schools, especially since the family is now more dispersed throughout the San Joaquin Valley, Lopez said. They are also planning on holding more events in the future.

“A lot of these kids, probably a fair amount would have gone anyway. Our scholarship may not have been a make-it or break-it, but for some of them, it has been. That just makes it especially sweeter when those happen to be the circumstances,” Lopez said.

With three kids of his own in college, Lopez says he knows every little bit helps.

Lopez and Padilla look forward to putting the event on every year.

“It’s a fun time. A lot of the golfers that have been there have been showing up for the last seven years. We’ve just got some regular folks we can always count on to be there,” Lopez said.

Padilla agreed, pointing out that they have “cheat” rules that help even the worst of golfers out.

“It’s the kind of deal where we’re more focused on the fun than the competition. Guys that don’t play much, this is one of the few tournaments they play in a year,” Padilla said.

Following the tournament, they finish things off with an awards ceremony, barbecue and raffle. Raffle prizes this year are worth more than $3,000 in total.

Lopez Family Community Scholarship Foundation Annual Golf Tournament
•North Kern Golf Course
•Saturday, Sept. 30
• 6 a.m. check-in
•Barbecue, awards and raffle immediately following behind the 18th green.
•To sign up, contact Anthony Padilla 332-3697.

Contributions can be made to:
Lopez Community Scholarship Foundation
Tax ID# 42-1595405
Address: 9118 Jenna Kathryn Drive Bakersfield, CA 93312
Contact: Anthony Padilla 332-3697