At their recent charity day, the CWGA raised more than $6,500 for victims of the July 2025 devastating floods in Texas Hill Country. Concerned for those impacted by the tragic loss of lives caused by the July flooding event in Texas, CWGA dedicated their annual charity tournament and donation drive to this relief effort, bringing together golfers, residents, and visitors in a shared effort.

Debbie Perry, a member of the CWGA who has been a chairperson for the annual charity day for the past four years, said this year the organization was potentially not going to hold the event as they were without a chairperson. On July 4, around the same time that the floods happened, Perry said she went to the president and told them they still needed to hold the event.

“I said I don’t care who we go with, we just need to have one,” Perry said. “We’ll shorten it down, we’ll get it organized and we’ll run with it. That same day, another member of our organization that was from that area said ‘I really think we need to do something for the Texas area that has had this devastating flood'”.

CWGA member from the Texas area, Rainy Evans, had a granddaughter that was at Camp Mystic during the flood that destroyed the camp. Her granddaughter was rescued, but lost a close friend in the flood. Both Perry and Evans went to the group president and committee, and the group pulled together to get the charity event going for the year, donating to the Community Foundation of the Texas Hill Country, as that was noted to probably be the most reputable and able to get the money to the groups that needed it the most and quickest.

AP Photo A Camp Mystic sign is seen near the entrance to the establishment along the banks of the Guadalupe River in Hunt, Texas, Saturday, July 5, after a flash flood swept through the area.

“I was so impressed that they had agreed to send some relief to Texas because it was so far away, you know 17 or 18,000 miles away, and that was pretty awesome,” Evans said.

Perry said she thought God had had his hand all over this, because normally with the organization’s charity day there would have already been a chairperson and a local charity would have already been chosen for the event. The event went for a week, concluding on July 22, involving a game that Perry said was called “The Circle of Love” to get golfers throughout the week to raise funds. Golfers had to pay five dollars to participate and were given a ticket into a 50/50 drawing if they got it on the green. With the participants from that along with the money raised from the bake sale the group also did, Perry said they raised way more money than they ever thought possible, just through donation only. CWGA members inside and outside the organization also wrote checks to the Community Foundation.

“In two weeks we pulled it all together and raised the most money that we’ve ever raised for an organization in the past,” Perry said. “We were just totally overwhelmed and emotional, again because we had members of our organization and it was a part of their home communities, and it was their families and their friends.”

Funds raised went specifically to the Kerr County Flood Relief Fund, as that is the county where Camp Mystic and the areas affected by the flood were. This annual fundraiser and the specific cause for the Texas flood victims, is one that Perry said is important to them.

“For me personally, and I think I can speak for the whole group, giving back to our community is a huge part of what we stand for,” Perry said. “And because this year too, Camp Mystic was a girls camp and we’re a women’s golf association, that really spoke to our hearts as well. It’s so important to give back to your communities.”

Evans said it was a very emotional time for her, as she did not know until the end of the day on the Fourth of July that her granddaughter was rescued. She reemphasized again how amazing she thought it was for the golfers to come together and support people so far away.

“It wasn’t just Camp Mystic, it was that entire county that just suffered,” Evans said. “There were other deaths, there were 27 from Camp Mystic alone who died. Because it wasn’t super local, it just shows the big hearts of these women and those who donated from Chautauqua, New York. That’s the most important thing, to me, it should be noted that the generosity of so many went to a cause of so many people suffering and having such great loss. It’s the distance thing that I think is so amazing, and in the summer time I’m part of this community too, so I’m proud of them.”

Perry agreed with Evans, saying it spoke to the hearts of the group to donate to something like this and that it could have been any one of them that had to deal with this type of loss and devastation. She cited a tornado in the local area a few years ago, saying they know what it is like to build back on a smaller scale.

“I think it just speaks that we are a giving community and we are giving people,” Perry said. “Regardless of where you are, I think overall people are givers. They have hearts that want to help people in need.”

Perry said it is the team that made all of this come together and that the CWGA is a great group. The amount raised, she said, speaks to their spirit and hearts, and Evans agreed that it was an amazing thing the group did.

“When you give you get way more back than what you gave because you know you are helping others,” Perry said.