Fundraiser for the Toby Keith Foundation's OK Kids Korral raises millions to help families
NORMAN — Shelley Covel Rowland gave the crowd of about 800 people who gathered at Riverwind Casino on Friday night fair warning.
"I might cry, so bear with me. Tonight marks 20 years of this event," she said, clutching a red Solo cup as she shared the stage with her sister, Krystal Keith Sandubrae, and brother, Stelen Covel.
"Good job, Daddy."
Although he couldn't be present in person, the memory of Oklahoma country music superstar Toby Keith loomed large as his foundation carried on with his hometown cancer charity event.
The Toby Keith & Friends Golf Classic returned for its 20th edition May 31-June 1 in Norman, with the two-day event continuing as the largest annual fundraiser for the Toby Keith Foundation's OK Kids Korral, a cost-free home-away-from-home for children with cancer seeking treatment in Oklahoma City.
"It's a night of mixed emotions. I almost broke down when I saw the guitar with the painting of Toby on it," said Armando Rosell, a member of the foundation's executive advisory council who wore one of his 40 Keith T-shirts to Friday night's dinner, auction and concert at Riverwind.
"But he created something for all of us to rally around. It brings us together ... and its not just this event. It's the OK Kids Korral, the house. We all have a purpose to honor Toby. He'd be real happy that we're all here."
Live auction raises $1.9 million for Toby Keith Foundation's OK Kids Korral
Keith, who died Feb. 5 at age 62 after a multiyear battle with stomach cancer, told The Oklahoman in 2019 that he considered the OK Kids Korral "probably my greatest accomplishment," a sentiment his friends and family echoed during Friday night's gala.
"Toby felt, other than his beautiful family, this was his greatest gift to the world ... and that's pretty special," said Keith's longtime friend Bob Stoops.
In Keith's absence, the former University of Oklahoma football head coach and Jim West, business executive and founder of NCAA golf’s Jim West Challenge, took over as emcees for the gala, which annually takes place the night before the shotgun start golf tournament at Norman's Belmar Golf Club, which Keith co-owned.
Before they launched the gala's live auction, Rowland joined Stoops and West onstage for a red Solo cup toast to her father.
"This is actually Dad's, but I'm gonna take his drink for him, because he's not here physically tonight. He's here in spirit — and y'all don't forget he's watching," she said.
The live auction alone raised an estimated $1.9 million, and with the silent auction, the event is expected to raise more than $2 million for the Toby Keith Foundation.
Prior to this year, the Toby Keith & Friends Golf Classic had raised a total of nearly $18 million for the Oklahoma City-based foundation, with the 2023 installment having raised a record $1.8 million.
"We've been humbled by how many people have said, 'Hey, we know this year is gonna be different for you guys. So, what can we do?' What can we do to help?' ... It's been very heartwarming," said Juliet Nees-Bright, executive director of the Toby Keith Foundation.
"After Toby passed, people we've never heard of from across the country were donating in Toby's honor. I still get them daily. ... Because they know he cared about it, they care about it. The weight was so much on Toby's shoulders for so long, and I know now that this weight is being spread out between thousands and thousands of people."
Endowment to help secure the future Toby Keith envisioned for OK Kids Korral
Long before he was diagnosed with cancer himself, Keith made helping Oklahoma pediatric cancer patients one of his top priorities. In 2004, he helped found Ally's House, a nonprofit that aids Oklahoma children with cancer and their families. The charity is named for Allison Webb, the 2-year-old daughter of Scott Webb, one of the country star's original bandmates, and his wife, Linda Webb. Allison died Aug. 6, 2003, a month before her third birthday, of Wilms' tumors, a type of kidney cancer.
In 2006, he established the Toby Keith Foundation on a mission to build no-cost housing for pediatric cancer patients and their families. In late 2013, Keith, his family and supporters celebrated in OKC the grand opening of the $9 million OK Kids Korral, which houses Oklahoma children seeking cancer care at OU Medical Center.
Representing all the families the OK Kids Korral has helped in the past decade, a long line of parents, teenagers and youngsters filed onto the Riverwind stage Friday night as the crowd rose in a standing ovation. With her daughter Arianna's arms wrapped tightly around her, Sheila Corrie fought back tears in describing how the OK Kids Korral has supported her family since the girl was diagnosed with retinoblastoma at just 2 months old.
"Her first surgery was at 4 months old. It was supposed to be outpatient surgery, and the surgery didn't go too well. We had to stay a few days, and I barely had enough money for gas to get up there to the appointment. So, me and my mother and my children were scattering around trying to find a place to stay and wondering what we were gonna eat the next couple of days. The nurse gave us a phone number to Toby Keith Foundation ... where we met our second family," Corrie said.
"We spent the next five years in and out of the Kids Korral ... So, I will be forever thankful."
For the first time, Nees-Bright said the foundation has turned its attention to raising funds for an endowment to ensure the future of the OK Kids Korral.
"Obviously, if we had our rathers, Toby would be right here. But when that was not our reality, we realized we have to kind of switch gears a little bit," she said. "So, we're going to be asking people to give to a fund that we're not going to touch. It's just going to be invested and making money and continuing to grow."
The foundation's goal for the endowment is $10 million to $15 million, Rosell said.
If the foundation's goals seem lofty, Keith's wife, Tricia Covel, said that was the way her husband always did it.
"Toby set a high bar for us and a solid foundation for us to build on," she said from the stage while struggling to hold back tears. "A lot of you've come every year, and it's amazing and I appreciate it. And these families, they need it. ... Me and my kids, this is a goal that we promised Toby to take care of for him — and it's gonna take all of us. So, I appreciate you being here. Thank you very much, and get your wallets out."
This article originally appeared on Oklahoman: Friends, family honor Toby Keith's 'greatest accomplishment'
