John LaChance Heroes Golf Tournament Honors Namesake and Raises Funds for Wounded Veterans

Cameron Hills tournament to memorialize late local sailor and raise funds

for leading military nonprofit, the Coalition to Salute America’s Heroes

King George, VA – March 28, 2008 – This Saturday, one year after former U.S. Navy Lieutenant John LaChance passed away due to complications following a routine surgery, the LaChance family will honor him with a golf tournament to raise funds and awareness for the Coalition to Salute America’s Heroes (CSAH), the leading nongovernmental provider of emergency financial aid to severely wounded troops and their families from the War on Terror.

Since its inception four years ago, CSAH has helped more than 6,000 severely wounded troops and their families cope and adjust to their new lives by providing assistance to meet mortgage, rent and utility payments as well as to sponsoring conferences for veterans to learn about the counseling, financial and career services available to them.

Thomas Palma, general manager of CSAH, expressed his gratitude that the charity was chosen to receive the funds raised at the tournament.

“Just as John’s many years of service will be honored this weekend, so too will the thousands of severely wounded troops and their families who rely on selfless donations like these to help rebuild their lives and ease the financial burdens they face while recuperating from their injuries,” said Palma. “We thank John and his family for everything they have done to show their support for our men and women in uniform.”  

LaChance had retired with 21 years in the U.S. Navy, and was working at Basic Commerce Industries, a company that supports the U.S. Navy by helping to define and engineer future ship and combat systems. LaChance’s coworkers, including his son-in-law, organized the event. 

LaChance’s wife, Pat, chose to donate the proceeds from the event to CSAH because she wanted to find a charity that her husband would be honored to help.

“John was always so devoted to the safety of the sailors, honoring him through an organization such as CSAH was very important to me because they are an awesome organization that is doing really great things for our military,” Mrs. LaChance said.. “Being a Navy wife for 21 years, the military is our family and I wanted to do our part to let them know that we haven’t forgotten them.”

This weekend’s event will be held at Cameron Hills Golf Links in King George, Virginia on March 29, 2008 at 8:00 AM EST. Playing in the tournament are BJ Jackson and Gary Boggs, both veterans who received assistance from CSAH and now serve as spokespeople, as well as retired Gen. Chip Diehl, who also works for the charity.

For more information about the tournament please contact Danny LaChance at 540-290-4733 or email at dlachance@zekiah.com; or Brian Dean at 540-663-332, ext. 141 or email at brian_dean@teambci.com.

For more information about Cameron Hills Golf Links or for directions please visit www.cameronhills.com.

To learn more about CSAH, visit www.saluteheroes.org.