PALM SPRINGS, Calif., Jan. 24, 2013—The National Auto Body Council (NABC) announced Thursday that its annual golf fundraiser raised roughly $55,000.
The tournament, held Wednesday in Palm Springs, Calif., a day before the start of the Collision Industry Conference’s annual planning meeting, took in between $25,000–30,000 of gross profit, said NABC executive director Chuck Sulkala when he addressed the room at CIC Thursday.
Sulkala told FenderBender that the golf event, which generates roughly 10 percent of the annual NABC budget, has two purposes: raise money, and bring people in the industry together.
“Repairers, insurers, everyone—we see each other on the battlefield every day, and this is a chance for us to come together and have a good time,” he said. “It’s a way for everyone to show their appreciation.”
The golf outing also helped to shine a spotlight on Operation Comfort, a program designed to assist military veterans in beginning careers in the collision repair industry.
“[Operation Comfort] is not an NABC program,” Sulkala told those in attendance. “This is coordinating on behalf of the industry. This is your program.”
Operation Comfort has raised $300,000 in pledges thus far, one-fifth of the way to its overall goal of $1.5 million to purchase, renovate and equip a repair facility in San Antonio, Texas, with the purpose of training and educating military veterans on skills that will prepare them for jobs in the collision industry.
Correction: In an earlier version of this story, it was inaccurately stated that the proceeds from the NABC golf tournament went to Operation Comfort.
