Inductees

In early August 1989, a phone call came in to Bonnie Keller’s office on her last day before starting a new job with Ronald McDonald House Charities of the Ozarks, and it was news she couldn’t believe.

The PGA Tour planned to bring an event to Springfield a year later, and the benefitting charity would be Ronald McDonald House. At the formal press conference a few days later, Keller – get this – would be attending on her second day as the paid Executive Director of the charity.

“It was excitement the entire year through,” Keller recalled. “Our entire organization was involved in every way possible, including sponsorships, volunteers, marketing, public relations and more.”

Thirty-three years later, the tournament – now called the PGA Korn Ferry Tour’s Price Cutter Charity Championship presented by Dr Pepper – is still going strong. And because of her numerous volunteer efforts in every tournament since, the Missouri Sports Hall of Fame proudly bestowed its Ace Award on Keller.

The Ace Award honors those who champion a sports-related charity in Missouri.

Keller has served on the PCCC’s Board of Directors more than 15 years and has overseen the House’s role in the tournament’s Media Day every year. For 10 years, she headed up the TLC Properties Charity Sweepstakes program, in which a $25 ticket can win grand prizes of either a Toyota Tundra or $10,000.

That’s been in addition to leading the House’s and McDonald’s 200 volunteers at the concessions for the tournament’s first several years. The House’s volunteers and its own Board chaired several other areas of the tournament, too: clubhouse hospitality, PGA Tour Wives activities, babysitting, a players’ fishing tournament, Vendor Village and more. Keller was the Volunteer Chair for two years.

The tournament has gifted more than $18.3 million to Ozarks children’s charities since 1990, including Ronald McDonald House, which provides a home-away-from-home for families of hospitalized children.

Call it a labor of love.

“It truly is!” Keller said. “My involvement with RMHC has been a great way to live a life. Every day, I work with such passionate, committed people. Witnessing the benefits of all PCCC charities is simply overwhelming.”

Understand, Ronald McDonald House means everything to Keller, who attended Springfield’s Glendale High School and Missouri State University and developed a passion for volunteering while in high school.

In college, she focused on social work and was a community relations specialist for McDonald’s when Ronald McDonald House in 1985 announced it would open in Springfield.

The House has helped more than 14,700 families.

“It connected so strongly to my family, as my oldest sister was quite ill during her short life of 18 months, and the House would have been a godsend,” Keller said. “My passion for the Ronald McDonald House has never wavered since my first volunteer project in 1985.”

Keller rose from volunteer, working primarily with fundraising, public relations and marketing and joined the House’s Board of Directors in 1986. For the next two years, she served as Volunteer Executive Director.

And then that phone call came in from McDonald’s owner/operator Phil Stocker in August 1989, days before Keller was to be the full-time paid Executive Director of the House.

John Q. Hammons, the eventual founder of the Missouri Sports Hall of Fame, was bringing in a PGA Tour event.

After the inaugural tournament, the House’s Board asked Hammons to designate 75 percent of the House’ proceeds to an endowment. That $62,000 was invested through the Community Foundation of the Ozarks, and the quarterly checks still help fund the House’s operations.

Overall, the House has received $1.4 million from the PCCC, allowing the charity to start the Tooth Truck in 2002 and a second facility, at Mercy Kids, in 2012.

Among her mentors was Joe Post, Springfield’s first McDonald’s franchisee and the House’s first Board Chair.

“(In 1989) I learned the most important lesson of surrounding myself with people smarter than me,” Keller said. “I had to learn quickly and was only able to succeed because of the many volunteers, donors and board members who to this day provide their expertise and support.”

Additionally, the support of her husband, Clayton, and their three grown daughters – Crosby, Kennedy and Savannah – have made it a wonderful career.

“Looking back on my years with RMHC, there are always moments when it is crystal-clear divine intervention has been at work to help our organization and, ultimately, bless our children and families,” Keller said. “That day Phil Stocker called me about the initial PCCC press conference in August 1989 was certainly one of those moments.”