August 2026 - Nuggets - It Rained On Our Parade

“The rains descended, and the floods came.” That statement applied to Noah, the Ark and the great flood, but it’s also a pretty accurate description of the weather we have been experiencing here in St. Catharines/Niagara the past few days. July is traditionally the month we hold our Hackers Golf Tournament. It’s just a fun day outing for RE/MAX Garden City Realty agent and their guests. As the name suggests, it’s not to be taken too seriously. A scramble format designed to accommodate everyone from scratch golfers to people who have never held a golf club in their life. And with the scramble format, you don’t have to worry about facing a second shot when your ball slices into the woods or plops into the water. As long as someone in your foursome gets a decent shot off, you take your second shot from there. The Hackers was really the brainchild of Mike Cox, a former agent and the first couple of years it was held at the Municipal Course in Merritton. It’s undergone a lot of changes over the 30-some years it’s been a part of our history. And we’ve played all over the Peninsula, from St. Davids to historic Niagara-on-the-Lake, Fonthill, Thorold and most recently Beechwood. As is the case with all of our RE/MAX Garden City Realty outdoor events, rain is always a factor. Whether it be Administrators Day, Broker B.B.Q. or Hackers Golf, we pick a date and then watch the weather reports. Rain is often a factor. I remember when we had Phyllis’ Retirement Party, it started raining at the start of the event and rained right through till the end. Fortunately, we had a tent and umbrellas for those trips back and forth to the pool cabin/bar. We’ve been rained on a few times while out golfing at Hackers but never like this year. The event was scheduled for Tuesday, July 21st and according to the forecast, that was the day the rain was scheduled. And boy were they correct. In fact, the rain descended in such torrents that the City of St. Catharines experienced some of the worst flooding in its history. Property after property ended up with inches to feet of water in their basements, and Hackers was postponed. Actually, that wasn’t the end of the impact of rain on our RE/MAX summer events calendar. Rib Fest, a fabulous event held in Montebello Park each summer, was scheduled for Civic Holiday Weekend. We are not the organizers of the event, but we elected this year to be one of the sponsors and get involved. Well, Sunday, August 2nd, the sky once again opened up, and the rains descended with even more of a vengeance than it did on Hacker’s Day. Basements that got inches of flooding the first time contended with feet of water during the second downpour. There weren’t a lot of ribs consumed that day, although Monday the sun came up, the grounds dried, and the event ended on a high. But back to Hackers. When we were forced to cancel our original date of July 21st, the golf club checked for availability and offered us Tuesday, August 4th. Turned out that didn’t work for us either for three reasons. Being on the tail end of the holiday weekend, a lot of our golfers were going to be away and unavailable. You guessed it, it rained that day. And if that wasn’t bad enough, the golf course was largely underwater from the weekend storms and was forced to close. So, for the first time in our 30-plus years of the event, we were forced to shut it down for 2026. It just wasn’t meant to be.