This Gift Will Never Be Returned--Guaranteed

Thom wasn’t much of a golfer. The guitar was more his thing. You rarely saw him without it. Walking toward me in an airport lounge, a hotel lobby, poolside, seafront, in 100 bars in a dozen cities…the picture I carry with me in memory of Thom invariably includes his old guitar slung over his shoulder.

Thom Hickling was a writer of these dispatches…a musician…our friend…and one of the best travelers we’ll ever hope to know. Within 24 hours of arriving in a new place, Thom knew everyone worth knowing…and they all knew him, by name…and by his music.

We lost Thom a year ago this month, in a car accident in Africa, where he had gone to visit his oldest daughter for Christmas. We’re thinking of him often these days…and we’re making a plan for keeping his memory alive among the International Living readership. We’re calling it the Thom Hickling Charity Golf Tournament, which we’re scheduling for Saturday, March 24, at the Coronado Golf and Beach Resort outside Panama City, Panama.

I’m no more of a golfer than Thom was, but many among our International Living staff are. They’ve devised this tournament as a way to raise money for our favorite charity in Panama…while having a lot of fun in the sun and raising our clubs…and then, later, our voices in song and our glasses in toast…to Thom.

We’re making a day of it, starting with breakfast, followed by 18 holes, lunch, prize raffles, and a cocktail party with…you guessed it…live music.

We have capacity for 108 players only, organized into teams of three. Don’t worry if you don’t play. We’ll have room for spectators, too.

As I said, all proceeds will go to the Fatima Parish. This is a group I was introduced to this past summer. For more than 50 years, the small staff at the Fatima Parish has been helping kids in the Casco Viejo area. They run an orphanage…offer before- and after-school care…daycare…vocational training workshops…a library…a computer lab... They’re helping kids who, without a little help, are likely to get mixed up with the local gangs, drop out of school, or worse.

The operating expenses for the Fatima Parish are about $20,000 a month. The state subsidizes them to the tune of about $2,000 a month. They make up the difference with donations. We’d like to help.

Casco Viejo, as you know, is our address in Panama City. You’ll find our in-country staff and our Panama office on the corner of Plaza Catedral, across the street from the Panama Canal Museum. We’re at home here, and we’d like to do what we can to help our neighbors.

Thom would have appreciated the work the Fatima Parish is doing…especially its music center.

If you like to golf, we’d love to see you in Panama in March. Even if you don’t golf, come on down. We’ll have a lot of fun for a good cause. Please, join us if you can.

For more details and to reserve a place among either the golfers or the spectators, e-mail event coordinator Eric Stapp: estapp@internationalliving.com.

On behalf of the entire far-flung staff of International Living, please accept my warm and heartfelt wishes for joy and peace this special day…wherever you and your family are choosing to spend it.

Merry Christmas,

Kathleen Peddicord
Publisher, International Living