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Economy

A New Clubhouse for Highland Springs

The Rock Island Parks and Recreation Department will break ground on Thursday for a new clubhouse at Highland Springs Golf Course.

Assistant Director Todd Winter says the original clubhouse was built in 1968. But it lacks a classroom for First Tee, which the department partnered with in 2013. First Tee is a golf program for kids, teaching them not only golf skills, but also practical life skills and values.

"So the way our First Tee classes go they talk about, 'Today's core value is honesty." so they'll go through their handbook and talk about honesty and how you are honest on the golf course, and then how you can use that honesty at home. And then they'll go out on the golf course and do the golf portion of it."

Instead of tax dollars, funding for the new Highland Springs Clubhouse will come from First Tee, and private donations.
"It's nice to watch these kids grow up through the program, and then come to work for us. Then hopefully when they get older they'll come back and be regular golfers of ours and then bring their kids through the program eventually, too."

The clubhouse is estimated to be completed by next spring.

Economy
Susanna Kemerling is WVIK Quad Cities NPR's 2022 Fellowship Host/Reporter. She graduated from Northern Illinois University for Media Studies in Communication and spent the last year working as a Teaching Assistant through the graduate program at NIU.