Johnson and the PGA Start Fund for Flood Victims
- July 10, 2008
- Other
- Posted by Runde Auto Group
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There is no doubt that the Flood of 2008 left it’s mark on the Midwest, but the cost of reconstruction is billions more than the smaller townships can cover.
You may remember Zach Johnson, who hails from Cedar Rapids and won the PGA’s green jacket in 2007. Zach’s parents left for this year’s U.S. Open the day before the flood hit. When they returned, they weren’t sure if they would have a house to go home to. Luckily, their house and his dad’s chiropractic clinic were almost untouched. Compared to many other families in the Cedar Rapids area, they had very few problems. Zach’s mom had to work out of home and an area high school due to her downtown office being flooded, but that was a minor detail when one considers the big picture; it’ll take quite awhile before their hometown can be cleaned up and restored to a point of normalcy.
After Zach finished his Friday round of the U.S. Open and missed the cut, he went straight to the PGA and said a fund should be started for the flood victims in the Midwest. What Zach did not know, was Kenny Perry, originally of Wisconsin, had done the same thing after he caddied at the Women’s U.S. Amateur Public Links Championship at Erin Hills. The PGA agreed with both men, and the fund was set up last week. Through the weekend, $12,975 had been gathered to be sent back to the victims in their home states.
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I am relatively new to the Runde Auto Group staff and I was actually working in Cedar Rapids at the time of the flood, and it was like a whole different world.
I was commuting from Manchester and one day when I was trying to drive home, the road was completely under water, and the worst was yet to come. At that point in time, downtown was beginning to get bombarded with water, and tv crews were having to take boats down 1st Ave.
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Runde Auto Group contributed to the flood relief by donating a cube van for the Red Cross to use in Elkader, IA when the waters were bringing devastation to that town and the surrounding area.
