By Thomas A. Parmalee
A number of Carriage employees already know what they’ll be doing Oct. 10, from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m.
They’ll be dressed in some spiffy golf clothes, raising money for a good cause at the inaugural Carriage Cares Open at the Woodlands Country Club in The Woodlands, Texas. The event promises to be much more than simply a golf tournament. It will also be a day of camaraderie and competition – as well as a way to give back to the community.
Proceeds from the tournament will benefit the Carriage Cares Foundation as well as the Boys & Girls Clubs of Greater Houston.
A single player can register for the tournament for $300. A foursome can register for $1,000. The deadline to register is Sept. 10. An appreciation dinner for sponsors will be held the evening before the tournament at The Woodlands Country Club – Clubhouse.
The event came about after Alfred White, managing director of marketing at Carriage, sat down with Shane Pudenz (pictured at top, working on his golf game), senior vice president of sales and marketing, and other team members to brainstorm new ways in which they could give back to the community they love so much.
“In Houston but also throughout America, we know a lot of people are going through hardships,” Pudenz said.
Often, those hardships are the result of some type of unexpected natural disaster. In fact, the Carriage Cares Giving Fund was founded in 2017 after Hurricane Harvey devastated Houston, White said.
But even though Carriage has done some great work through its foundation, it wanted to do more.
“We talked about how we could be more involved with the community and how our employees could give back in a time of need,” Pudenz said.
The company also saw that a lot of different companies in different industries have had success with charity golf events – and knowing that a number of people at Carriage and throughout funeral service in general love to golf, a path forward began to emerge.
“People like to golf,” Pudenz said. “It also gives our people a chance to talk and share our story. We decided that this would be a prime opportunity to do a charity event and raise some money to give back to our employees and our community.”
Pudenz and the rest of the Carriage team are excited about the tournament, although he said there is no goal per se as to how much money they want to raise.
“I’m not sure if we want that … sometimes that can water down what the true intention is,” Pudenz said. “We just want people to give what they feel is necessary to support the foundation and be part of this, so we can raise as much as we can. We continue to see different vendors come in and support it – we know we’ll have a good outcome.”
The tournament will offer different levels of sponsorship, and of course, anyone who wants to donate to support the cause is encouraged to do so, Pudenz said. People can also support the cause by having a team play in the tournament.
“We are going to do our best and learn and grow from it,” he said. “We came up with the idea just a few months ago, but we’ve hit the ground running.”
A Great Partner
Teaming up with and having a portion of proceeds benefit the Boys & Girls Clubs of Greater Houston made perfect sense, Pudenz said.
Carriage has supported the organization on a number of occasions already – and employees will be doing an activity day with the Boys and Girls Clubs in a couple of weeks, Pudenz said.
“Last year, we had a snow machine with a slide that the kids got to go down,” he said. “We enjoy helping the workers there and getting in front of boys and girls and mentoring them.
Carriage has also teamed up with the organization on a Carriage Field Day, which included an obstacle course, bounce house, an impromptu freestyle rap competition, arts and crafts and even an intense 2-on-2 basketball game. Also, in 2024, it established the Carriage Cares Ky’Saan Piatti College Scholarship award in partnership with the Boys and Girls Clubs.
“We are a big believer in coaching up and mentoring our youth as they will be our future leaders one day,” Pudenz said.
As for the Carriage Cares Foundation, it has donated money to a variety of causes – and it’s often served as a vehicle to help employees who are struggling, Pudenz said. The foundation is a registered 501(c)(3) charitable foundation.
Since its inception in 2017, the foundation has raised over $191,000 and has distributed approximately $130,000 to Carriage employees in need and local charities.
It has helped over 65 employees during times of need and several community organizations Examples of benefiting causes include:
- The Special Olympics.
- Flossmoor Service League.
- Back to school drives.
- Veterans holiday drives.
- College scholarships.
- Natural disaster recovery assistance.
- Fund raising activities – including a Pie the Leader drive.

“Our internal employees can donate money through their check or just donate money in general during a time of need,” Pudenz said. “It does not have to be a natural disaster – it could be a hardship that an employee is going through. Our employees can submit for help from the company.” Requests for help are vetted by company leaders on a case-by-case basis, he said.
“While a request may be to help for some crippling medical debt, most of what we have seen is home repairs or even helping people keep a steady income if we are closed after a natural disaster,” Pudenz said. Likewise, location managers have sometimes sought assistance from the foundation to help their respective communities recover from such an event, Pudenz said.
“Our managing partners are very involved in their communities, and even though they may not be directly affected by something, they want to help the community as a whole,” Pudenz said.
The bottom line is that Carriage wants to keep what the foundation can lend assistance with flexible, Pudenz said. “We’ve kept it broad intentionally,” he said. “We want people to feel comfortable that if they are having some kind of hardship, they can let us know about it. There may be something we can do through the foundation or maybe something we can do as a whole to support our employees.” He added, “Good employees are hard to find, and once you find them, you want to do whatever you can to keep them.”
Looking forward to the golf tournament, White said he expects strong participation from the company and throughout funeral service. He noted that Carriage employees don’t have to play golf to participate – they can also volunteer to help out at the event or contribute to the charitable cause.
While there may be some participation from outside funeral service, Pudenz expects it to mainly be a funeral service affair.
“We want to shine a light on what we can do as a whole as an industry and support Houston,” Pudenz said, noting there has been nationwide interest in the event. “The minute you throw golf into the mix, it seems like everyone’s schedule opens up,” he chuckled. “Our purpose is not only to have a charity event but to promote a spirit of partnership and relationship building at a national level with all different people – not just Carriage.”
Learn more about the event, register to play, or purchase a sponsorship by visiting the Carriage Cares Open website or email info@carriagecaresopen.com.
Room reservations can be made at The Woodlands Resort, Curio Collection by Hilton for Oct. 9, 2024, through Oct. 10, 2024, by visiting this link.
Follow FuneralVision.com on LinkedIn.