Golf and Charity: Ernie & Liezl Els Build the Els Center for Excellence

Golf and charity are a perfect fit for Ernie & Liezl Els, who have raised $30 million dollars to build the Els Center of Excellence in West Palm Beach, a model facility for autistic children and their families.

You have to hand it to Ernie and Liezl Els. Sometimes to get things done, you just need to roll up your sleeves and figure out how to do it.

Together and with the help of sponsors and people who were at one time strangers, they have raised $30 million for a new and special facility and school for austistic children. That $30 million is just about half of Els entire career earnings of $66.3 million since 1989.

The Els Foundation raised it in just seven years, which is pretty heavy lifting. And they did a lot of it with golf and with their reputation as people.

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The Els family had incentive, you see, because their youngest child, Ben, is autistic. They clearly wanted him to be the best he could be, and so they decided to create something that would give him and children like him a better chance.

Last August, the Els family celebrated the enrollment of the first 150 students in The Els Center of Excellence in West Palm Beach, Fl. Congratulations came from fellow golfers Louis Oosthuizen, Charl Schwartzel and Robert Allenby who attended the ribbon cutting ceremony.

Several local politicians were also on hand.

“I am so proud to have a facility like this in my community. This is a transformative event both for the autism community and for the neighborhood – the local community of Limestone Creek,” said Palm Beach County Commissioner, Hal Valeche. Mayor Karen Golonka was also in attendance.

“This dream has been in the pipeline since 2009,” Ernie Els said at the opening. “We have only reached this point thanks to the collective support of a huge number of individuals and organizations. Whether people have donated $1 or $1million everyone who has supported us has literally been a building block for this center.”

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Ernie and Liezl Els would be the first ones to say they did not get the facility built by themselves. They had support from large companies as well as thousands of people who helped raise the funds with golf events all over the US, in Canada and in South Africa. Facilities are going to be built in those locations in the future.

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The result of all this effort to date is a 150-student capacity school for children ages 3-14, and an auditorium building, both completed in March of 2014, on a 26-acre campus that will eventually include buildings for an additional 150 students ages 14-22. There will also be sports and outdoor recreational facilities with gymnasium, swimming pool, golf practice facility and athletic field. In addition, there are plans for medical and professional services buildings and, in the future, they plan an adult autism facility.

Statistically, autism affects 1 in 68 children and 1 in 42 boys according to the Autism Speaks organization. So far, now one really knows why it occurs and there is no cure for it. There are some methods that seem to help some people on what is called the Autistic Spectrum which ranges from mild autism to severe or profound autism.

While two pages of grants ranging in size from $15,000 to nearly $3 million were earmarked to study autism in 2014, few organizations are available to actually help parents with the day-to-day issues facing the autistic child and the child’s family. But that’s what makes the Els Center of Excellence different.

Everything about the buildings and their design is created to help the autistic child learn as much as possible and learn to function in the non-autistic world. It also helps the families of autistic children by providing the help and nurturing that specialists can provide.

According to the Els Foundation, the campus was designed to create a learning environment for the autistic child. That means special LED lighting which helps mitigate behavioral issues compared to fluorescent lighting. It means having what is called “a sensory integration room” to improve sensory and motor development. It means having specially designed rooms to help autistic children learn life-kills and vocational skills.

It also encourages scholars and researchers to visit and discuss issues and practical approaches that autistic people face.

Next on the horizon is the completion of the buildings for youth ages 14-22 as well as expanding what works at the Els Center of Excellence to other cities and countries.

“We’re really looking forward to rolling out our global programs,” Liezl Els said. “On the construction side, our work is not finished. We’ve made great progress opening these two buildings but we are now focused on raising the capital to build the Upper School and remaining elements of our vision.”

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For information about how you can be involved: www.elsforautism.com