Como Boys Mick Detbiler, Tim Daulton and Bob Campbell. Photo by Kristal Leebrick
A quick lunch with a boyhood friend at House of Wong on Larpenteur Avenue three years ago turned into an aha moment for Tim Daulton.
Daulton was telling Mick Detbiler about Kids for Kyla, a nonprofit that grants money to couples going through adoption or infertility treatments. Kids for Kyla has a special place in Daulton’s heart: It was started by his daughter and son-in-law, Kim and Ryan Mayeda of Greeley, Colo., six years ago after the couple experienced their own financial and emotional struggles with infertility and adoption.
“It was a lightning moment,” Daulton said. “I thought, ‘I should do something. We should have a golf tournament.’ ”
Several weeks later, on a brisk October day, the first Como Boys Legacy Golf Tournament was held at Island Lake Golf Course in Shoreview.
“It was colder than a well digger’s you-know-what” the day of the tournament, Daulton said, “but we pulled it off. We raised $10,000.”
The tournament is entering its third year in September, and cliché or not, it’s all with the help of a few friends: grade-school buddies Bob Cardinal and Greg Weyandt and the Thursday-morning coffee klatch that’s been meeting at Keys Café in Roseville for nearly 25 years.
The 2017 Como Boys tourney will be held Friday, Sept. 15, at Island Lake. An awards reception, lunch and silent auction will follow at Patrick McGovern’s in downtown St. Paul.
The nearly 30 guys who meet at Keys each week call themselves the Como Boys. Most of them met at the now-closed Holy Childhood Catholic School on Midway Parkway in Como Park. Many went on to Cretin High School but some, like Daulton, attended Murray High School in St. Anthony Park. That’s where Pat and Diane Boehmer, owners of Patrick McGovern’s, come in. “Pat’s a Como guy,” Daulton said, and a Murray grad.
The Boehmers have made “an enormous contribution” to the event through hosting the after-tournament lunch and walking the Boys through event planning, Cardinal said.
Kids for Kyla honors the Mayedas’ first child, Kyla, their “miracle baby”: conceived after two years of fertility treatments and born unable to breathe on her own. The life-threatening complication led to brain swelling and just six days after her birth, Kyla died.
The Mayedas eventually adopted a daughter and two years later Kim gave birth to a healthy boy.
It can cost tens of thousands of dollars to adopt a child, Daulton said. “Young people trying to start families don’t have the savings to support the cost of adoptions. They don’t have the money tucked away. [The Mayedas] looked to see if there was a resource or any foundation to help, and that’s when Kids for Kyla began.”
The foundation began in Greely, where a 5 and 10K race are held each year, along with a wine-and-cheese fundraiser.
The foundation has chosen a Minnesota couple to receive a grant this year, and that presentation will be made at the lunch following the golf tournament.
Interested in joining the tournament? Cost is $75 per golfer and $300 for a foursome. Non-golfers are welcome to join the reception and lunch at McGovern’s. Cost is $30.
The Como Boys welcome sponsors or just heart-felt donations, Daulton said.
“There are a lot of young couples out there who would make wonderful parents; they’re just short a few thousand dollars to put them in that arena,” he said. “We’d like to help them out.”
You can find out more by calling Tim Daulton at 612-269-8248 or email him at tjdaulton@gmail.com. You can also find out more about Kids for Kyla at www.kidsforkyla.com.
Thanks Kristal for your support for The Como Boys (3rd) Annual Legacy Golf Tournament to support Kids For Kyla…
( The organization that financially helps couples who wish to adopt )
Cheers from ALL of the Como Boys !!!