Golfers and volunteers filled the course in Fuquay-Varina this weekend for the 18th annual Military Missions in Action Tee Off for the Troops Golf Classic, a two-day fundraiser meant to keep veteran services running even as the nonprofit says it has had to turn people away. Organizers hoped to raise more than $150,000 at the event, which doubles as the group's single largest fundraiser of the year.
Zak Keisler, executive director of Military Missions in Action, said the tournament carries outsized weight for the organization's budget, according to Spectrum News. He said the nonprofit had helped nearly 5,200 veterans and family members so far this year, but that rising costs had forced the group to turn away people it otherwise could not serve because it lacked the funding or vehicles to reach them.
The two-day event honored veterans with a wreath-laying ceremony, a motorcycle ride, bagpipes and remarks from veterans themselves, the outlet reported. Caroline Blair, who wrote the original report, also served as master of ceremonies for the tournament.
Rising Costs Squeeze a Growing Mission
Keisler told the outlet that the vehicle gas bill for two of the organization's core programs, Homes for Healing and Warrior Wagon, had doubled since January. Warrior Wagon operates as a no-cost, handicap-accessible rideshare service for veterans, according to the organization's own description on its website for the program, and is currently available in Wake, Durham, Johnston, Harnett, Moore and Orange counties.
Keisler said the group needs donations and more vehicles to keep transporting veterans to medical appointments, job interviews, grocery stores and other essential errands. He said the organization is being careful with every dollar it raises as costs climb and supporters have less extra money to give, and that the group expects to help even more people next year.
A Nonprofit Built Around a 2008 Need
Military Missions in Action says it was founded in 2008 by a retired Coast Guard warrant officer who, working as a contractor at the time, saw the needs of veterans returning from Iraq and Afghanistan, according to an interview on The Wilmington Standard's podcast. Since then, the organization says it has directly assisted more than 130,000 veterans and their families, per its own account on its website.
The nonprofit, headquartered in Fuquay-Varina with an additional location in the West End area, says it sends 87% of all donations directly to its programming. Those programs include building ramps for veterans and their families, placing furniture in the homes of formerly homeless veterans, providing toiletries and essential items, sending care packages to service members overseas, and collecting Christmas gifts for low-income children of veterans and active-duty service members.
The same podcast interview noted that the organization directly impacted more than 5,800 veterans and families in 2024, an increase of almost 40% over the prior year — a trajectory that helps explain why this weekend's fundraising goal, and the strain described by Keisler, keep climbing alongside demand.
A Long Tradition on the Course
The Tee Off for the Troops tournament has a track record of growth. In 2019, the event drew 288 golfers and more than 100 sponsors over two days of play, raising $130,107.05 and surpassing both its $110,000 goal that year and its 2018 total of $113,994 after expenses, according to the organization's own recap posted on its site. At that point, the tournament at Bentwinds Golf & Country Club in Fuquay-Varina had raised $652,101 over eleven years, with House-Autry serving as title sponsor for the eighth consecutive year with a $20,000 donation.
North Carolina is home to more than 615,000 veterans, according to the state Department of Military and Veterans Affairs, underscoring the scale of need that organizations like Military Missions in Action are trying to meet with rides, ramps and emergency supplies. This year's tournament aimed to add to that long-running total, even as Keisler's comments made clear the math has gotten tighter since the pandemic-era fundraising goals of years past.
