The FedEx St. Jude Classic, the PGA Tour's annual stop in Memphis, has created a new fundraising initiative that will enable the tournament’s 1,850 volunteers to solicit donations based on how many hours they work. The program is being called Hours of St. Jude and is sponsored by BlueCross BlueShield of Tennessee. Donations generated from the initiative will go to the St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital. “We are using the BlueCross investment to create a broader-based fundraising effort with the volunteers,” said Tournament Dir Phil Cannon. “We have no doubt that ... we will increase our yearly St. Jude donation.” Volunteers can go to the tournament’s website, StJudeClassic.com, and register. Guests then go to the volunteer portion of the site, find their volunteer by name, and donate in the name of the them. “Volunteers will use the site to encourage their friends, neighbors, church members and people in their influence to donate in their name,” Cannon said. The tournament has generated more than $26M for the hospital since their association began in '70. As of Thursday, the volunteer site had raised more than $10,000 and it has been active for just a few weeks.
