open golf tournament right which is going to be september twenty ninth right at the sandy berger country club and so can you tell us a little bit first of all about the tournament sure like like you said it's a taboo twenty ninth and i actually started this tournament when my family and i moved back here in two thousand and five i got touch with the down syndrome congress in massachusetts and we started the had the first  and we had tremendous success i mean the last couple years it was sold out we raised over eighty thousand dollars for the down syndrome congress which was more than i have a could have imagined and then all of a sudden the down syndrome congress  decided they didn't want to be involved anymore and to this day i don't know why but anyway i knew i wanted to keep the tournament so i got in touch with sue weiner who is the director of the belmont support program and i pitched the idea to her and she went to her committee in the people on her staff and they were all you know they were all into it they all said yes sounds great so we started putting this together last year and now we're two weeks away and the response has been tremendous we've already up to about almost ninety golf is now we've got a great committee the golf course and sandy berger and wayland is tremendous so and it's just it's very humbling to me to see th here how to get in touch with you in a little more information yeah absolutely now as far as the sport program goes to tell me about that just stands far show and you can see on the front of that because i tried to remember it but of course it has with the sport program stands for ok it's the special programs organized for recreation time that's right that's what i was think it but anyway it's a twelve month athletic program for kids and adults with needs going into the fall so all of the stock is going on now and they have a swimming get ready to start up in the winter time them basketball they have skinny and they have they have ice skating they have flaw hockey and it goes all the way right into the summertime it just keeps going all the way through or you get into track and field that all different kinds of outdoor events so it's really it's a tremendous program to see these kids and it's not even so much the kids it is the coaches and the people we're teaching math and that's what's going to ask you who are the instructors well the belmont sport program actually has the most certified special olympics instructed us in the state and these and it's all different people i mean men and women from all different ages and like when eric does the basketball program they practice over at the kind of school in watertown and you go over there will be two or three coaches and probably fifteen kids but then they'll bring in like maybe eight or nine kids from the neighboring schools to work with the kids themselves and help them in their practices and teach them and to show them what it's about and how they can they can help out so it's really it's really impressive to see that a few years ago my daughter did some community service work at one of the sport events here in belmont and i thought it was a great sort of  inclusionary if that's a word for everybody to work together and learning experience on both sides it really is and these and then this program it leads to these kids getting involved in the special olympics like when they just had the big  i think it was the new england special olympics event at harvard university and how that stadium the belmont sports program had the lodges contingency there in the area so that's just goes to show the work that not only like erick is fourteen and he may be on the youngest side and because you know that's your way i can base it on i'm not sure about the really young kids but they go all the way up to the adult age yeah absolutely yeah it's really cool and he's his attention span sometimes which you can say about a lot of teenagers you know isn't quite there but he really enjoys doing the activities that he's involved here and is it weekly it's weekly yes as i don't like to use the word brain when you're talking about me a lot but i can be the judge and yeah exactly i would you know when i was in atlanta they had a big golf tournament for down syndrome congress of atlanta and it was monstrous and we played and that when you know when i moved back to boston i said i want to you know i want to do this so i called the down syndrome congress i got in touch with the president who was charlie gad boys at the time and child was great but at the same time you know the people that i talk to talk to charlie and said here's another one joe you know is another one was to do this all right you do that so let's go through the motions so i met with charlie gave me some paraphernalia and some information on the congress and then he told me this is what you got to do so that like three days later i called charlie back and said i got a golf course i need i need a down payment and he's like what i said i got a golf course i need a down payment and that's when he said ok he serious do this and like i said earlier over the three years that we did it for the dance and in congress we raised over eighty thousand dollars which was you know more than i ever could be on hagee and you have a i mean it's all going to be any in the limit is one hundred forty four golf as well hoping to get close to that but if we can after we pay everything out if we can write a check to the sports program for a few thousand dollars yes i mean it's a good day it's a good day because every dime goes to the sport program and i think i think we're going to be all right the show really excited and some of the funding like you said comes from the belmont and watertown rec department do you know do they have to do other you know you're donating to them t of money sure absolutely absolutely it does and some of the local businesses in the area that just help us out every year are just tremendous and the people in the community in belmont have just really stepped up beyond anything i could have imagined that be really cool well that kind of leads me into i think i'm not saying this is the only reason they've stepped up and a lot of people know your son eric and i especially people who go to the football game i have a son who plays football so i'm we moved back from georgia august of two thousand and five and so i haven't lived around here in twenty years and so i'm just reconnecting with all my old friends and stuff and i was down the high school one day when eric after school watching my friend's daughter's plan a soccer game and right behind us the football team was practicing the fossey and eric kept wandering over towards the practice field with the football team and i kept pulling him back and he'd go over  and this one time i turned away and i looked over and he's now in the middle of practice he's helping players stretch out and stuff so i don't know anybody on the football team the coaches or anything i've been away for so long so i go run it over  and i start running over the coaches stand up i remember who was a head coach kevin gilday and his assistant coach dean sacca they stood up and waving their arms like get out of here get out he's all right and from that day forward eric was adopted by the high school football team yes he said practice he's on the sidelines for the games he's in the locker room with them he's had it when we first started i had to get on the sidelines with him just to make sure because they don't want to run out on the field but now it's at the point i can sit in the stands yeah the players and the coaches watch him and he listens to them and then last year for the first game of the year we were at belmont high and eric went right on to the feel say it was really nice and i'll also say to speak of the coaches when my son joined the football team i guess it was last year is his freshman and there's a big mandatory meaning and i think it was coach bill d was talking to the boys man about the expectations of the team and it was one of the first things he said is you will and we will embrace erik and you need to know that now  that know that eric is part of this team and i just i just loved that they said that coach good day was always told me and my wife that they get more out of it than we do which for me is next to impossible  personality but he's a fourteen year old boy and he can be a pain in your time just like anybody else sure but the kids have wound how to deal with them when it gets to be a pain they know how to handle you know what to do with them and that's just really cool yesterday the whole community braces and it's great it's just great learning for for everybody right you know especially not especially football in particular but you know people can get a little crazy about sporting events you know as a noun and and it's humbling to say ok it's not just about you know winning a game it's about the whole community and you know what's funny is is now that has trickled down because my oldest daughter melissa is playing field hockey or senior in high school and silence with that team with the girls and he loves that hanging out with basketball players now and so it's just everybody you know it's just a trickle down effect and started with the football team and everybody has just embraced him so much and it's just so good and had to has he ever brought friends to any of the games oh he meets some friends at the games because a lot of kids are there like i want to just get back a little bit to the golf tournament because it is he does he go to that call he goes he we usually pick him up at school about noon time and bring him out me afternoon and then my buddy drives him around the he usually comes only after noon about noon time and hangs out for the rest of the day with everybody has a ball i bet he does and i think anytime there's a benefit or and honor to somebody it's really nice for the you know the program in that what you've seen as far as well my question is they compete correct not just at the special olympics but compete sure absolutely and so are they competing against other sport program teams or is there sort of a mix or how do they it's all it's all different programs all different programs around the state they have tournaments like they'll have a weekend tournaments up and we're stuck with all the kids go up and they'll play against different teams from around the state so it's really cool they have the games on the weekends a different chip so you've seen the different the different programs and how they've won as compared to the belmont split program and it's really cool to see because the coaches are out there and the coaches are very hands on they have to be hands on with these kids so they're out on the floor with them and then moving them around they don't let them slack off or anything like pushing them down the sidelines and you know off it's really cool to see and i've noticed in eric i mean he's a very social kid to begin with but doing this it's even it's even brought out more of his personality because he's meeting other kids now and he's the type of kid that of his team oozes you know he'll say we lost and he'll the other team you know so it's really he said the bad guys lost the bad guys one day you know so it's really funny like that but it's even brought out more of his personality and i've noticed from year to year that he's gotten more and more involved more active whatever activity it was be at swimming basketball or whatever now he's actually trying to play basketball not know so it's really he's the coaches have been tremendous and the teams coed or did they have separate to cohen there was a comrade up it's really cool i know the basketball team is i shouldn't i should jump the gun but i know the basketball to hunt i'm not sure about the other team which actually is really that's all the way around  finding you who want to be part of the tournament what if someone doesn't have a for some lined up can someone call you oh absolutely when i know you're going to put your email they can get in touch with me and they can go on to the belmont sport you know website which  belmont sport auto walk and all the information is in if you don't have a foursome you just want to be put with someone who can do that if you just want to come out for lunch in the afternoon you can do that if you want to volunteer at will looking for volunteers out also so there's a friend will be there it's tough for the older kids for my oldest daughter because she's involved in the sports and she at practice and after school and everything like that but she has done it in the past but it's just going to be tough for this year but i know my youngest daughter  two tickets to the patriots in green bay packers a sunday night game in the first level which is the go some of the best seats in the house so we have a couple of those tickets that we're going to auction off and stuff and hopefully bring in selection of money yeah that's how i all the chaos is going it was back to school vacations are over so now people looking for a reason to play golf right in our way and so and i've looked the road to a lot of other tournaments and a lot of these tournaments are really really expensive and the light and one hundred twenty five dollars isn't cheap but it's enough that's and i it's more important for me to have my friends and go all that then turn it into this big corporate event and that's what i want my friends involved in her want my friends and family to be able to afford to play and yet so that's it's working out well it sounds it sounds great so i want to make sure everybody knows how to contact you have i know it's up on the screen  encourage everybody to you know find out more about the sport program because i didn't really know about it until my daughter volunteered for service and i think a lot of people in belmont maybe don't know a lot a lot about it they have a child involved or a child who's doing community service but i would hope that after people see this they will look on the website and kind of see if they can volunteer or if their kids can volunteer and even just get out and watch the want to encourage people who are at the football games i don't think i need to you say take check out there if you don't see you here oh yes that's right and i'm i hope he's very excited and you rest your family to please contact joe for the sport program if you have any other questions or comments or want to get involved that would be great if you can if you'd like to be a guest on my show you can contact