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November 10, 2020

Features • November 10, 2020

Veterans gift of camaraderie

By

MCHENRY COUNTY – Through a collaboration of organizations in northern Illinois, dozens of veterans have benefited from a series of golf clinics, a gift before Veterans Day.

Among the veterans you’ll meet that had participated in the recent golf clinics in Lake County were Walter Flores of Oakwood Hills and Lenny Harris of Elgin. Flores and Harris are in the Healthy Minds Healthy Bodies program of Northern Illinois Special Recreation Association(NISRA)through Huntley, Cary, Dundee Township, and Wauconda and now through AllenForce’s Healthy Minds Healthy Bodies program, Flores and Harris enjoyed free golf in five training sessions at the Pine Meadows Golf Course in Mundelein.

NISRA is one of the partners of AllenForce, helping injured veterans, visibly or invisibly through positive health and fitness training and social networking. AllenForce’s Founder and Chief Executive Officer Donna-Allen Sebok is the driving force behind the collaboration that involved not only NISRA, but Revelation Golf, PGA HOPE IL, and the PGA golf clinic run by Mundelein Parks and Recreation. Other sites for the PGA HOPE veteran participants in the 5 week clinic were in Wheaton at the Cantigny location and at Mistwood Golf Club in Romeoville. Sebok, a certified therapeutic recreation specialist (CTRS), worked directly with Christine Lopez, Mundelein Parks and Recreation’s Healthy Minds Healthy Bodies program coordinator and initiator of the PGA HOPE program.
“She’s a golfer and she reached out to me after having volunteered personally at a PGA event,” Sebok said. “She started talking with some of the pros and made the connection with this opportunity for the injured veterans.”
Sebok recognized this was a great opportunity for all the veterans that participate in Healthy Minds Healthy Bodies and once the information was sent out, 20 people registered within 48 hours.

Flores and Harris chipped, putted, received pro tips, and practiced their drives at Pine Meadows. They and other veterans including Clifford Krueger of Dundee, Orland McCarthy of Hampshire, and Shane Larsen of Lakewood improved their golf game and bonded in a very relaxed environment. For Flores though, he hadn’t picked up a golf club since he was a Marine stationed in Fort Sill, Oklahoma back in 2007.
“I swung four times and instead of hitting the ball ahead of me, I hit it to the side and then I put the golf club down, never to do it again. A couple of months ago, I said I might want to try this again, something I may be able to do with my injuries,” Flores said.
Flores used to play soccer from his years in high school to a high level of competition into his mid-20s. But his military injuries to his back kept on resurfacing until he got to the point where he ended up in a wheelchair for a month trying to recover. Flores gave up soccer though he never gave up hope. With AllenForce, Revelation Golf, and the Mundelein Park District, the Healthy Minds Healthy Bodies program and PGA Hope IL trained specialists put together a clinic that was much bigger than Flores had anticipated.
“Life changing to me because in the first class we learned how to swing the club. So fascinating, so much fun and such a great time learning the sport along with other veterans that really changed my hobbies,” Flores said.

Lenny Harris served in the military from 1992 to 2014 and spent time in Iraq. Unlike Flores, a newcomer to golf, Harris has had a lot of experience though he rarely made bunker shots…that was until the PGA trainers provided tips in the fourth week.
“In 25 years, I’ve made a successful bunker shot twice and I was able to do one after another and get it up on the green. It may not have been as close to the hole as I wanted but it wasn’t over the green and into the woods,” Harris said.

Sebok named AllenForce in memory of her father, Don Allen who passed away at the age of 37 from a heart attack. Donna-Allen was only one-year-old, but she never forgot his service for the U.S. Army in the Korean War.

“This has become a huge passion of mine. I’ve been immersed in the veteran culture over the past ten years with an understanding of their character traits, loyalties, and dedication to each other.”
Sebok will evaluate the sessions and meet with the organizations this month, determining whether to hold the five week course again.