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S/PA is a nonprofit 501 ( c ) (3) charity unique among scholarship organizations in Northern New Jersey providing both scholarship and mentoring support. This combination is key to S/PA’s 100% high school graduation rate and 100% enrollment rate in college, post-secondary school, or the armed services, over the past ten academic years. Mentors motivate students to succeed not only in academics, but also personally by encouraging them to reach for higher goals and achieve their potential.
S/PA currently provides support for 185 students at private Catholic high schools in Essex, Union and Hudson counties; Hudson Catholic High School in Jersey City, St. Dominic’s Academy in Jersey City, Roselle Catholic in Roselle, St. Benedict’s Prep in Newark and St. Vincent Academy in Newark.
90% of S/PA students come from homes with family incomes of less than $45,000 annually and 70% come from single-parent homes. Accepted S/PA students are paired with a partner or sponsor and mentor who commit to providing that student with tuition and mentoring support for four years. A partner provides both tuition assistance and mentorship while a mentor provides only mentoring support; and a sponsor provides only financial support. Corporations and foundations often serve as sponsors for one or more students. Partners and sponsors contribute $3,000 annually for four years towards a student’s tuition. S/PA organizes specific opportunities for students, partners, and mentors to meet throughout the year, encouraging the development of a student/partner mentoring relationship. Events include in-person breakfasts and lunches at our affiliated schools, an annual Mentor Training program, along with various virtual events.
Learn more about the organization.
After retirement, our nephew encouraged us to consider organizing a golf event to raise additional funds for S/PA. He was working for Bain Consulting at the time and put together a 12 page power point presentation to convince us. It worked! We enlisted several friends to help us organize the first event.
Bunk’s Golf debuted at Meadows Golf Club, Lincoln Park, in June, 2007 with 27 golfers, hole sponsors recognized on 8”x11” paper in plastic covers stapled to a tomato stake, a set of golf clubs for the raffle prize and a car from Meadowlands Ford for a hole-in-one contest! 27 golfers was not enough for a shot gun start, so it took a long time to finish but everyone had a great time. More importantly, it raised $5,200 for S/PA! Tom Cash, Founder and President of S/PA, called the next day to extend an invitation to join the S/PA Board.
The number of golfers grew over the next 4 years, but not enough for a shot gun start. We realized that a new venue was needed to grow the event significantly. Union County was building a new clubhouse at Galloping Hill Golf Course so we approached them about becoming our new venue. They agreed, but clubhouse construction was delayed, so Bunk’s Golf V was held at their sister course, Ash Brook, Scotch Plains. With the new venue, we were able to attract over 60 golfers which was enough for a shot gun start and raised over $16,000 for S/PA!
In 2012, the new clubhouse was completed and we moved to Galloping Hill Golf Club and have been there ever since. There have been a couple hiccups - rainouts in 2014 and 2016 which caused a fall rescheduled date and a virtual event due to COVID in 2020. But Bunk’s Golf continued to grow. In 2025, it raised $70,000 thanks to the generosity of 109 golfers, 39 hole and 40 event sponsors.
Since that first event in 2007, Bunk’s Golf has raised over $630,000 for S/PA scholarships. We look forward to continuing to grow and raise additional funds in the future!
