BellSouth Senior Classic At Opryland Says "Thanks A Million" To Community

NASHVILLE, Tenn., November 9, 1999 - A day after Bruce Fleisher completed his rookie season on the SENIOR PGA TOUR, the BellSouth Senior Classic defending champion today joined officials from BellSouth and the local tournament to present $200,000 to four local charities that benefit at-risk children.

With the contribution of this year's proceeds, the BellSouth Senior Classic at Opryland has now contributed more than $1 million to community endeavors according to Jere Drummond, vice chairman - BellSouth Corporation.

"When all of the fanfare of any professional sporting event is over, the true measure of its value is how it has changed the lives of the people who live here," Drummond said. "The BellSouth Senior Classic at Opryland is proud to contribute another $200,000 to benefit some of the most vulnerable people in our community-at-risk children."

Drummond was joined by Fleisher and Terry E. London, Gaylord Entertainment Company president and ceo and BellSouth Senior Classic at Opryland chairman of the board, to present checks to Vanderbilt Children's Hospital, Girl Scouts, Junior Achievement and First Tee. Children who have benefited from those organizations accepted the checks.

Vanderbilt Children's Hospital each year serves almost 60,000 children from Tennessee, southern Kentucky and north Alabama, as well as from other states and foreign countries. It was founded 27 years ago as a resource to save or improve the lives of children. The hospital is expanding its capabilities by building a new state-of-the-art, freestanding facility adjacent to the current hospital. Officials said the contribution from the golf tournament would help further that expansion effort.

The Girl Scout Council of Cumberland Valley will use the money it receives to fund outdoor education initiatives, several of which serve at-risk girls. Girl Scouts serves more than 20,000 girls in 38 counties of middle Tennessee and southern Kentucky.

Junior Achievement, which benefited from this year's tournament through the Nashville Rotary Foundation, will use funds from the tournament to provide at-risk youth the chance to be better educated, more socially and economically productive citizens. Currently, the organization serves approximately 30,000 middle Tennessee students in more than 1,300 classrooms.

First Tee, an international program of the World Golf Foundation for at-risk children, will use the dollars to launch and implement a local First Tee Chapter at Shelby Park in Nashville. The new local effort seeks to improve golf's availability to children of all races and economic backgrounds with the rationale that golf is a game for life that teaches honesty, integrity, sportsmanship and self-discipline.

In the first six years, the BellSouth Senior Classic at Opryland has raised over a million dollars for more than 20 different local charitable and civic organizations. Tournament organizers estimate that a quarter of a million individuals have benefited from funds raised by the tournament.

The BellSouth Senior Classic at Opryland is one of Nashville's pioneer professional sporting events and is held each year at the Springhouse Golf Club, a Gaylord Entertainment Company property.

BellSouth is a $25 billion communications services company. It provides telecommunications, wireless communications, cable and digital TV, directory advertising and publishing, and Internet and data services to nearly 36 million customers in 19 countries worldwide.

NOTE: For more information about BellSouth Corporation, visit the BellSouth Web page at http://www.bellsouth.com/. BellSouth news releases dating back one year are available by fax at no charge by calling 1-800-758-5804, ext. 095650.

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