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Phil Niekro, 44 teams celebrate 20 years of golf tournament
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Atlanta Braves Hall of Fame pitcher Phil Niekro hands out a prize to Alex Laidlaw and other winners of the Phil Niekro Golf Classic at the Chateau Elan Golf Club in Braselton. Niekro started the tournament in 1996 along with Edmondson Telford Center for Children staff and supporters. - photo by Erin O. Smith
In the early days of the Edmondson-Telford Center for Children, attorney Lydia Sartain recalled a young boy coming in to the Gainesville nonprofit. No older than 5, the boy pulled out a toothbrush from a packet and asked the center’s current director, Heather Hayes, if it was for him. “He said, ‘I’ve always wanted my very own toothbrush,” Sartain said, adding that the moment showed the center was doing the “right thing here.”