GWAFF to host first disc golf tournament at Wayne Park, proceeds to benefit Waverly Aquatic Center | By Sam Crisler – The Waverly News

Published: Aug 10, 2022 Updated May 23, 2023

WAVERLY, Neb (The Waverly News) – Discs will be flying and chains will be clattering on Aug. 20 when Wayne Park holds its first-ever organized disc golf tournament. 

The park’s nine holes will play host to a 45-person “trilogy challenge,” which pairs beginners with experienced players and provides a crash course on disc golf basics. A round sanctioned by the Professional Disc Golf Association will follow in the afternoon.

Event organizer Abbey Pascoe, the president of the Greater Waverly Area Foundation Fund, said all 45 spots have been claimed, which she said is “amazing.” A lunch will be served from 11:45 a.m. to 1 p.m., and raffle tickets will be available for $1 apiece. Prizes include gift cards to local businesses, disc golf discs, a disc golf basket and a volleyball signed by Nebraska volleyball players. Baked goods will also be on sale, and all proceeds from the event will go to the Waverly Aquatic Center.  

“To bring more awareness to our park, that’s really what it’s about,” Pascoe said. “All the proceeds go to the aquatic center, but I want our parks to be utilized. That’s how we get that ROI on parks is when they’re utilized by the community.”

Pascoe said she’s watched as disc golf courses in Nebraska have seen upticks in players since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, including at the Wayne Park course. 

“If you walk by the park, there are people playing all the time. In 100-degree weather and in 40-degree weather,” Pascoe said. 

So it made sense for GWAFF to put together a fundraiser making use of the park’s disc golf course. 

“Nobody’s ever done a disc golf (fundraiser in Waverly),” she said. “I think that, hopefully, will set us apart and bring us a new demographic and bring awareness to GWAFF and what we’re trying to do.”

GWAFF’s efforts to bring the Waverly Aquatic Center to fruition took a hit in late July when the Waverly City Council voted to reject a bid that would have completed the project by July 2023. After the council crunched the numbers, funding was $400,000 short.

“It stinks a little bit when things like that happen and we think we’re going forward and we have to take a couple steps back,” Pascoe said. “But we’re ever-more convicted to get this done and come up with new ideas, come up with new ways to get the funds that we need to get this project moving forward. So we will not be slowing down anytime soon.”           

She hopes the Waverly community will come check out the disc golf tournament and be immersed in the amenities available at Wayne Park.

“We just want anybody to come out and at least have lunch with us, walk around the park and maybe take in a couple rounds of disc golf,” Pascoe said.

GWAFF to host first disc golf tournament at Wayne Park, proceeds to benefit Waverly Aquatic Center