Rockhurst High School senior Conner Vickers created a new school service tradition with the first-ever “Chippin’ for the Garden,” a charity golf tournament. The event was held Oct. 9, 2025 at Oakwood Country Club and featured a 9-hole par-3 format with about 30 participants from the Rockhurst community. It raised about $17,000 for Kansas City nonprofit Pete’s Garden.
“I’ve been volunteering at Pete’s Garden since freshman year. My mom made me go, and I was doing something with it, but it wasn’t enough. I never really knew how beneficial it was until last year,” Vickers said. “I started becoming more involved and I never really realized that these families needed this food so much because of things like SNAP benefits and all this other stuff that does not provide healthy nutritious meals.”
Pete’s Garden repackages food items from organizations like the Kansas City Chiefs, the Kansas City Royals and local catering companies, turning them into high-quality meals. These meals are delivered to places such as the Boys and Girls Club and Redemptorist Social Services.
“Junior year, I figured out that volunteering only does so much,” Vickers said. “It’s such a small charity that they need money to grow… because all their work is off spreadsheets, so they can’t do much in high-demand mass volume.”
With only five full-time employees, the organization relies heavily on volunteers and donations. Understanding this need, Vickers wanted to help.
“I interned at Pete’s Garden over the summer, and then in August, I came up with the idea of starting a charity event with all the proceeds benefiting them, through the Rockhurst golf team,” Vickers said.
After meeting with coaches, players and school administrators, he started planning the logistics.
“I was talking to family and coaches and they were all very supportive and we decided to start by trying to get a venue,” Vickers said. “I went and talked to the Oakwood general manager, and he was all in. He gave me a discounted rate on the par-3 course.”
The country club would allow for up to 60 players to participate, but Vickers aimed for less than that to create even groups that could be easily spread across the course.
“We aimed for about 36 players and ended up with 34, which felt like the perfect number for the year,” Vickers said.
Support for the fundraiser extended beyond the Rockhurst community. Multiple donors contributed prizes for the event. Royals great George Brett provided a signed baseball. Another golfer’s father donated a new Titleist Vokey wedge. Indian Hills Country Club and Kansas City Country Club also contributed golf balls and pro shop items.
The event ultimately brought in more than $17,000, far more than Vickers expected. Pete’s Garden told him the funds could help feed about 1,700 families if spent directly on meals, but the organization plans to use the money for a new customer relationship management system, or CRM.
“The money that was used is going to be able to help them implement a CRM,” Vickers said. “Instead of working off a spreadsheet, they can work off of an AI system, so they can help even more people and help grow the business.”
The CRM will help Pete’s Garden manage donations, track partnerships and distribute food more efficiently. It will also support the organization as it prepares to scale up its work in 2025, with a goal of distributing about 200,000 meals.
“Implementing the CRM allows them to get more money from grants and other stuff. They can spend time elsewhere because it’s a very small organization,” Vickers said.
After the success of the tournament, Vickers worked to make it a legacy event. Next year, juniors Henry Mayor and Hank Homsey will run the event, with support from the rest of the rising seniors on the team. The plan is for each new senior class to take over leadership.
“I’ll help them get started, but then it’s theirs to run,” Vickers said.
The first “Chippin’ for the Garden” proved that a student-led idea, backed by the Rockhurst community, can make a meaningful impact on the greater Kansas City area. Vickers’ leadership has created a legacy that he hopes will continue feeding families across Kansas City for years to come.
“I think it’s important to come together as a whole to help Pete’s Garden,” Vickers said. “It is really cool to see how we can grow the community and grow an organization with this event.”
