Celebration Vision and Growth: Portland’s Children’s Course Poised For Big Year With New Facilities, Even More Robust Programs - Sport Oregon Voices
Sport Oregon Voices:
With triple the amount of indoor space thanks to a recently finished building project, the Children’s Course focuses on increasing its impact while celebrating its 25th anniversary
In 1996, the Children’s Course founder Duncan Campbell and his wife, Cindy, had a vision to create a golf course dedicated to children, providing a space for them to learn and play the game. But more than that, Campbell’s vision was to provide a place where golf would be used to teach important life skills and provide positive youth development.
Fast forward to 2021, and the Children’s Course continues carrying out Campbell’s mission, but now with even more developed resources at its disposal. This year, the Children’s Course is celebrating its 25th anniversary, looking forward to a rebrand to commemorate more than two-and-a-half decades of improving the lives of kids in the area, and embracing its expanded capabilities now available, thanks to its new Learning Center facility opened this past October.
The new building tripled the size of the existing indoor space at the course, located between the Clackamas and Willamette Rivers in Gladstone, Ore. Ultimately, the building will enable the Children’s Course to serve more than 1,500 kids from the Portland area each year.
It’s, no doubt, hard for those involved from the start to believe it’s already been 25 years, but things have come a long way in that time. Take it from Marti Loeb, who returned to the Children’s Course a little over two years ago, after originally helping lay the foundations in its infancy. Now the course’s executive director, Loeb is thrilled with how the new facility, in particular, allows the non-profit organization to expand its programs and allow for greater participation, and impact.
“It’s a big deal for us, so I’m super excited about it,” Loeb said. “Without this building, we wouldn’t be able to grow here at the Children’s Course.”
The new facility now allows Loeb and the staff to conduct year-round programs, providing an indoor space for two golf simulators, a classroom for educational and drop-in mentorship programs, and a conference room and office space for more efficient and centralized operations. There also is an area offset from the rest of the building that can be rented by the community at large for meetings, special events and parties, essentially giving Gladstone the convenience of a new community center in the process. The project also included a remodel of the existing pro shop.
Building on its early commitment to help improve the lives of area kids and their development, the Children’s Course eventually partnered with the national organization First Tee. Through its partnership with First Tee – Greater Portland, a series of educational programs are provided that introduces kids to nine core values – including honesty, integrity, sportsmanship, respect, confidence, responsibility, perseverance, courtesy and judgment – and other life skills that are a seamlessly intertwined with the game of golf.
“The kids move up to different levels of the program until they are 18, then they can still get involved as volunteers or in an advisory-board basis afterwards,” Loeb said.
In addition to the First Tee program, the Children’s Course offers college scholarship opportunities and is introducing a caddy program this year to get its participants involved with private clubs in the area and to help develop job skills. It also offers a Girls Golf program, an Adaptive Program for children with disabilities, and a THRIVE Mentor Program that provides life skills and educational curriculum for primarily Hispanic children in a neighborhood near the Children’s Course.
But the Gladstone course is just the home base for the overall offerings, as the Children’s Course spreads out and conducts programs at eight different sites throughout the Portland metropolitan area and Eugene, Ore.
All these various programs ring true – and then some – to the original vision that Duncan Campbell had for the golf course, and its ability to serve as a platform for education and life development among youth. The vision, though, was that it was always going to be more than just about the game itself.
“He figured out along the way [while growing up] that he had mentors who really helped him, and mentorship became really important to Duncan,” Loeb said. “He became successful and made several trips to Scotland to play golf, and saw children’s courses there, and thought, ‘someday, I’m going to have a golf course for kids.’”
Loeb was part of a small group acquainted with Campbell through their local golf club who helped to identify and facilitate Duncan’s purchase, in the mid-90s, of the Gladstone course, which was originally opened as an 18-hole, par-3 course in 1961. It’s now a nine-hole, par-three course that is open to the public – in addition to serving as the hub for the Children’s Course’s First Tee program – and offers exceptionally affordable rates, even further reducing participation barriers for those wanting to play.
Today, the organization is well-positioned to have an even greater impact on the lives of children, thanks in large part to the many contributors to the recent building project. So now, Loeb and her team will continue learning with their spacious new confines, and look forward to a momentous year of expanded program capabilities, a 25th anniversary celebration in June, and a fresh rebrand.
“It’s been really fun to be able to utilize the new facilities, and it will do so much for kids and do so much for our community,” said Loeb. “We are excited to really celebrate what can offer for kids in the community.”
If You’re Going
19825 River Road
Gladstone, OR 97027
To Get Involved
There are many ways to get involved with the Children’s Course and First Tee – Greater Portland, from taking part in the upcoming annual Wine & Golf Ball fundraiser, to volunteer programs, to legacy paver and sponsorship opportunities.