What started out as an effort to help a few local children’s charities in 1996 has blossomed into a full-fledged annual fundraising event that has been gaining momentum in each of the last 20 years. Since that first golf outing in 1996, when the Bank made a small donation to the Licking County 4H Horse Council to last year when six local charities selected by the Bank collected a total of $30,000, Heartland has made benevolent donations of almost $449,000. Former recipients of funds from the Charity Golf Classic include Big Brother & Sisters of Central Ohio, Ronald McDonald House, March of Dimes, the Buckeye Ranch Foundation and Junior Achievement, among many others.