Manny Freitas still keeps a business card of his late wife, Kelly, in his wallet.
Even though Kelly died of cancer nearly three years ago at the age of 31, the card will always hold special significance. It was the card that Kelly gave to Manny while they ran into each other at the San Benito County Fair many years ago.
Kelly was a real estate agent at the time, and Manny was looking for a house. So it was only appropriate the childhood friends exchanged information. What caught Manny by surprise was the fact that Kelly left extra info on the card, putting an asterisk next to her cell phone number.
This was more than just about business.
“I was thinking, “Oh wow, maybe she likes me like I like her,’” Freitas said.
The two started dating shortly thereafter, eventually getting married a couple of years later.
“Kelly is always going to have a special place in my heart,” said Freitas, who is the director of golf at San Juan Oaks and the event organizer for the 4th annual Kelly Freitas Memorial Golf Tournament, which takes place on July 11. “I feel like she’s always with me.”
Judging by the huge turnout for the tournament in the past three years, Freitas isn’t the only person who feels that way. The Kelly Freitas Memorial Golf Tournament has been a smash hit in every way imaginable.
The tournament initially started as one that would benefit cancer research, but it quickly morphed into something that would honor Kelly and let her be remembered in a different way—as someone who cared about others and was proud of the community she lived in.
To that end, Freitas said all of the proceeds raised from the tournament goes into the Kelly Freitas Memorial Scholarship, which awards a student from San Benito County a four-year scholarship that is designed to help prospective college students not only with tuition fees but with mentoring so they can successfully navigate the university life in and out of the classroom.
“Our goal is to get enough money in the endowment fund so we can help support four kids in college at the same time,” Freitas said. “We didn’t want Kelly to be synonymous with someone who died from cancer; we wanted her to be synonymous with so much more. We wanted this to be about her life, her personality and how we could better the community in a positive way.”
The tournament has done so well that as of June 18, Freitas said the event is “around 80 percent full.” Last year’s event not only sold out—the tournament can hold 40 groups of four for a total of 160 players—but Freitas had to turn away several other teams.
“This has morphed into a huge event now, something that I initially never had an intention of starting because I was grieving,” he said. “But it was like a bigger power took over and said we’re going to make something good of a tragic event.”
The Kelly Freitas Memorial Golf Tournament isn’t just an ordinary golf tournament—it not only pays tribute to a person but it also makes things lively and fun for everyone involved. In addition to music blaring out onto the course for the duration of the tournament, there are a couple of holes that draw laughs and are sure to turn heads.
Hole No. 10, for instance, is the high-heel/long-drive hole, so named because of Kelly’s affinity for high heels. Men have to wear high heels on the tee, and the hole became so popular that it has a sponsor in Golden Eagle Mortgage Group.
The third hole is called the fastest hole, because whichever team gets the ball in the hole in the shortest amount of time wins a prize. Then there’s hole No. 12, the blindfold hole, in which—you guessed it—golfers have to wear blindfolds off the tee.
However, the biggest prize golfers can earn during the tournament is a car courtesy of Tiffany Ford—if they sink a hole-in-one.
“We haven’t had to give away one of those yet,” Freitas said.
The tournament has become a festive party, and at times there’s a long wait for certain holes—not that anyone is complaining.
“We could have four groups waiting to tee off on a hole, and they could be getting drinks as they wait,” Freitas said.
After the golfing is done, there is a dinner and dance party, featuring a wine toss event, prize giveaways and multiple games.
“I try to make it where most of the players leave with something,” Freitas said.
A local band, 420 Hudson Street, will be playing music throughout the dinner party. The significance of that is one of the band’s members, Dave Alvernaz, is Kelly’s brother.
“You’re going to see a lot of people smiling and having fun, and that was Kelly’s personality,” Freitas said. “The turnout has been overwhelming, and it’s a successful testimony to the families and people in this community.”
Despite knowing each other since they were kids—“Our families are both Portuguese, so we attended the same Portuguese events growing up,” Freitas said—and graduating in the same year from San Benito High in 1997, Freitas never had the courage to ask Kelly out on a date even though he had a crush on her.
It was only after they ran into each other at the fair—Freitas was with his sister-in-law, who pointed Freitas toward Kelly—when their romance started to fall into place.
Talk about a bit of serendipity.
“I never got the courage to ask her out to the prom, but as you get older, you get more courage,” Freitas said.
Kelly’s spirit still lives in her loved ones each day. Although it was extremely hard for Kelly’s loved ones to see her die so young, Freitas said he tries to honor his late wife by his everyday thoughts and actions.
“You can take something like this either positively or negatively,” Freitas said. “And if you go down the negative road, things aren’t going to go well. So I had the mindset of where I’m going to take all of Kelly’s best attributes moving forward. That means reaching out to others, being active in the community and just trying to be the best person I can be. I wasn’t going the other way, because Kelly was all about living life each day the best you could.”
A couple of months before she died, Kelly started a blog—it can be seen at kellyandmanny.blogspot.com—to detail her journey through her battle with triple negative stage 3 breast cancer. It proved to be a refuge of sorts, but she also wanted to inspire some people along the way.
Judging by the response to the blog, more than a few people were moved by her words.
“At one time there were 60,000 unique visitors to the site,” Freitas said. “Blogging gave Kelly strength, and it helped get her through a lot of tough days. I had people all over the world calling and emailing me telling me how much her blogging helped them in their own lives. To this day, I still have people who say to me that they were touched in a certain way.”
In death, Kelly’s legacy—along with a golf tournament and scholarship in her name—continues to grow.
Note: The Kelly Freitas Memorial Golf Tournament begins on July 11 with check-in at 10:30 a.m., followed by a shotgun start at noon. A barbecue lunch will be provided to all players. Golf fees are $150 per person and tickets to the dinner are $45 per person. Entry fees can be paid at San Juan Oaks Golf Course.
