Mary Jo Bellner Swartzberg
My friend Laura Benson kept saying to me, “You have to interview Jo Helms for an article!” After several months, I finally was able to call Jo to set up an interview. And what an interview it was!
Jo Helms is the volunteer coordinator (17 years and running) for the MountainView Collegiate Women’s Golf Tournament, which will take place March 15 through 17 at The Preserve Golf Club at SaddleBrooke. What would prepare a person to take on this remarkable task? The answer might be … you would never believe it!
Jo was raised in Iowa and received a two-year degree in accounting, and then a four-year degree in marketing. During her 25-year career at Principal Financial Group in Des Moines, she met her future husband Dick.
She “picked up” the game of golf at age 30 and found out that she liked the sport. Meanwhile, while raising three sons, she found the time (how, for heaven’s sake?) to volunteer as follows:
• Preschool board at their church, plus other church activities, such as Communion steward, usher, weekly donations processor, and various committee member
• Served on the company credit union board
• Served on the Country Club Court Homeowners Association board
And her volunteering activities still hold especially true today. Since moving to SaddleBrooke, Jo has found time for being on:
• The Golf Committee of SaddleBrooke TWO
• The board of the MountainView/Preserve Women’s Golf Association
In addition, she:
• Serves as the City Women’s Golf Association Tournament Director
• Is president of the Southern District Women’s Golf Association
Then there is her current major volunteer passion of being the volunteer coordinator of the Collegiate Women’s Golf Tournament, which takes about six months of extensive preparation, including having these items in place:
• Contacting about 250 volunteers to work over the three-day tournament
• Determining the volunteer schedules for all of the volunteers over the three days
• With her committee members, coordinating volunteer assignments every day, assisting with the online scoring app with the scoring volunteers, preparing the instructions for the various volunteer roles, preparing the on-the-course snacks for the players and the volunteers, lanyards for the volunteers, and printing the pairings for visitors and volunteers. All these critical items must be in place by the start of the tournament and every day thereafter.
The 54-hole tournament will be hosted by the University of Missouri and Kansas State University, while the other states represented will be Arkansas, Texas, Iowa, Minnesota, Oklahoma, Florida, Mississippi, Tennessee, and Nevada.
Each college team decides which golfers are to be sent to the tournament. There will be 15 teams of five players for the tournament. There is online scoring—the volunteers who ride with the golfers input the scores on their private phones!
Admittedly computer literate, Jo meticulously establishes spreadsheets for all of the volunteer details and nuances of the tournament, which include myriad moving parts.
Of course, it takes a village of sorts to make sure that the tournament is planned down to the minutest detail. This year’s MV Collegiate Tournament Committee includes:
Jo Helms: Volunteers
Matt Hudson and Mike Karpe: SaddleBrooke TWO PGA Professionals
Phil Gray: Rules
Laura Benson: Welcome Bags
Lori Hill: Housing
Also, Deb Bunker, Raye Cobb, Sandy Strack, and Donna Vargas
In her spare time, Jo likes to visit her six grandchildren and read.
Jo Helms—oh where, oh where does she find the time?
For more information about the MV Collegiate Tournament, go to mvcollegiate.wordpress.com.