Norman golf classic raises money for cancer
Toby Keith & Friends annual event supports Ally’s House

Brandy McDonnell, Entertainment Writer Comments 3
Published: July 2, 2009

NORMAN — Despite the recession, country music star Toby Keith has helped get Oklahoma cancer charity Ally’s House more than half a million dollars closer to its goals.

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"Those kids are just tireless. They take fundraising to a whole new level in terms of creative ideas."
Linda Webb
Ally’s House executive director

Ally’s House
For more information on Ally’s House, call 733-ALLY (2559) or go to www.allyshouse.net.

The sixth-annual Toby Keith & Friends Golf Classic June 12-13 in Norman raised $550,000, his publicist announced Wednesday. This year’s take brings the event’s overall total to nearly $3 million.

Ally’s House is a Norman-based nonprofit that helps Oklahoma children with cancer and their families. It is named for Allison Webb, the 2-year-old daughter of Scott Webb, one of Keith’s original bandmates, and his wife, Linda Webb. Ally died in 2003 of kidney cancer; the Webbs and Keith founded the charity.

"So many charity events have struggled in this economy,” said Linda Webb, Ally’s House executive director. "We are very pleased, and it’s really going to help us with all the exciting things that we have planned.”

The charity has secured land on the OU Health Sciences Center campus and is looking at designs for an actual Ally’s House, which would lodge pediatric cancer patients being treated at Children’s Hospital.

This year’s Golf Classic reached its second-highest total; the 2008 event raised $709,000.

Among those in attendance were comic Rodney Carrington, University of Oklahoma football coach Bob Stoops, gymnast Bart Conner.

Ally’s House recently received an almost $131,000 donation from Edmond Santa Fe High School, money raised during the annual fundraiser Double Wolf Dare Week.

"Those kids were just tireless,” Webb said. "They take fundraising to a whole new level. ...”