Each year the Newbury Park Adventist Academy (NPAA) golf committee contacts local businesses asking for their fundraising support, and each year more local businesses give gift certificates and goods to be raffled at the annual Roy Brasher RE/MAX Fall Golf Classic.

Held at Sunset Hills Country Club in Thousand Oaks, Calif., the tournament raises money to enable students with financial needs to attend NPAA. This year the tournament raised more than $31,000, bringing the total raised in the past 11 years to more than a quarter of a million dollars.

Roy Brasher of RE/MAX Gold Coast underwrites the event, and every dollar donated by the sponsors and golfers goes directly to the Worthy Student Fund. This year, the money will assist 60 students.

"Roy Brasher enables students to come to the school who could otherwise not afford the tuition," said Dr. Harold Crook, principal. "It is this dedication to giving a quality Christian education to interested students that is helping to fuel the increase in enrollment NPAA has experienced over the past five school years."

At the beginning of the 2000-2001 school year, 96 students enrolled; enrollment for the current year began at more than 180. About 30 percent of these students are not Seventh-day Adventists, giving ample opportunity for the staff to introduce Jesus to each student.

According to Crook, 85 percent of NPAA graduates go on to college. Tracking these students over a four-year period, the staff has discovered that 72 percent achieve either two- or four-year degrees within five years of graduation.

"We want to be an educational institution that is known for loving and caring for its students but, most importantly, for going the extra mile to share Jesus with every student that we have the opportunity to teach," said Crook.