NWP Hosts Golf Tournament For The Lighthouse of Houston

Tournament to help Houston’s blind and visually impaired.

At age five, most children are learning their letters, numbers and shapes. Like these children, Arya Malik is grasping her developmental milestones, but she’s also doing so while blind. At only three months old, the young Houston resident was diagnosed with Microphthalmia (pronounced mi·croph·thal·mia), an eye disorder where one or both eyes are abnormally small. In Arya’s case, there is no treatment available that will restore her vision.

This unfortunate news left Arya’s father, Omer Malik, with a strong yearning to help his daughter and other individuals with visual impairments. He contacted The Lighthouse of Houston and worked with his employer, Northwest Petroleum (NWP), to host a golf tournament that raised more than $100,000 for the organization in 2016. Due to the event’s great success, NWP and The Lighthouse of Houston are partnering to host their second tournament Oct. 6 at BlackHorse Golf Club in Cypress, Texas.

“Being woven into the fabric of the community is part of our business model at NWP. There are thousands of Houstonians whose entire lives are impacted by a vision issue. We partnered with The Lighthouse Houston because the organization is focused on improving the quality of life for a segment of our city’s most vulnerable population,” said Malik, who also serves as NWP’s chief financial officer.

Established in 1939, The Lighthouse of Houston is a private, non-profit education and service center dedicated to assisting blind and visually impaired people to live independently. In the Southwest, it is one of the largest private organizations of its kind known nationwide for innovative educational programming, vocational services, state-of-the-art adaptive technology, community outreach and recreational services for children.

“Having NWP as a partner for our organization has been a huge help in our quest to help blind and visually impaired individuals in our community. The generous proceeds from their golf tournament allow us to continue our mission and provide advances in technology and training,” said Gibson DuTerroil, president, The Lighthouse of Houston.

This year, NWP’s tournament is expecting to host nearly 150 golfers and raise more than $120,000 with sponsors such as Motiva, Phillips 66, Iberia Bank, Mark VII, Sign Resource, Chicago Title, Dr. Pepper Snapple Group and Core Mark for The Lighthouse of Houston. Since 1991, NWP has operated multiple gasoline retail, quick service restaurants, and convenience stores throughout Houston, Austin, San Antonio and Oklahoma. As a West Houston-based organization, NWP is renovating several stores into a new convenience store concept called QMart, which features made-to-order food offerings, specialty coffees, supreme customer service and modern architectural aesthetics.