(From left) Door County Medical Center Chief Clinical Officer Jodi Hibbard, Hospital Sisters Health Systems Chief Medical Officer Dr. Ted Collison and Door County Medical Foundation Coordinator Megan Welch were glad the rains stopped and allowed the local medical center’s 30th-annual golf marathon to take place Aug. 30 at The Orchards of Egg Harbor. Photo by Craig Sterrett.
Midwest farmers sometimes call them million-dollar rains.
Door County had a couple of farmer-friendly rain days that arrived after dry spells in late June and July, and then came some heat energy that spurred growth of corn plants and other crops.
Golf courses, lawns and fields endured an August drought that sent people’s yards dormant, created fuel for wildfires that prompted late-August burning bans and caused golf course crews to focus on greens and tees rather than fairways.
Late-August and early-September rains arrived just in time to relieve stress on golf course fairways and roughs.
Rains arrived at the end of August and beginning of September in time to green up courses for Labor Day weekend, and somehow those rains didn’t spoil some major fundraising events.
The Egg Harbor Men’s Club had its outing on Saturday, Aug. 29 at Idlewild, and a rain event that lasted about 10 hours didn’t start until the Men’s Club outing ended.
The next day, rain at Peninsula State Park Golf Course stopped just an hour before tee time for the Sister Bay Lions Club outing that benefits multiple northern Door County causes.
On Wednesday, Sept. 2, overnight and early-morning storms that rattled windows, filled sand traps with water and softened putting greens ended just before the 30th-annual Door County Medical Foundation Golf Marathon at The Orchards of Egg Harbor.
“We only had a little bit of a delay this morning; it’s been really been beautiful,” Door County Medical Center Chief Clinical Officer Jodi Hibbard said.
Rain or shine, the golf marathon would have brought in plenty of money for the hospital’s behavioral health campaign. Having the event allowed the 50 golfers who spent months soliciting donations and pledges to actually play in the 72-hole ordeal that featured alternate-shot, shamble, best-ball and scramble formats. They were well-fed and hydrated thanks to donated food and water, and they also had opportunities to make additional donations during the day on betting holes.
Hospital supporter Werner Krause also offered to donate $500 each time a golfer’s shot came to rest inside a circle around the cup at one of the par threes.
This was the 30th year for the marathon, which has focused largely on the behavioral-health campaign in recent years, bringing in $4.8 million just for behavioral health. In addition to the golf marathon, annual House and Garden Walks support the behavioral health program, which has grown from two therapists in 2015 to nine therapists, a prescribing nurse practitioner and a psychiatrist.
Door County still could use more therapists, so that “anytime someone wants to access care, we can get them care,” Hibbard said. Door County has one therapist per 710 residents, but the best-performing counties have one per 350 residents, she said.
Door County Medical Center Foundation Executive Director Mike Herlache was glad to play in the event after a 15-minute storm delay in the morning. He appreciates the support the Foundation receives from individuals and businesses.
“It was a little touch and go this morning, with thunderstorms coming through,” Herlache said. “To get 72 holes of golf in, you pretty much have to start on time.”
The event raised $177,000, a new record.
“We’ve doubled the amount of therapists that we’ve had since we started this initiative four years ago,” Herlache said. “We have a full-time psychiatrist in rural Door County, which is unheard of.”
That staffing has come about entirely from proceeds from the golf marathon and direct donations.
The Sister Bay Lions Club similarly relies on donations, as well as food sales at Fall Fest and, in recent years, a golf outing at Peninsula State Park to fund food pantries, college scholarships and countless other causes throughout Northern Door.
The weather threatened to spoil the Lions’ outing at Peninsula State Park Golf Course, but hours of steady rain stopped around 7 am before an 8 am shotgun start.
Though all of the money wasn’t counted at time of writing, Lions Club officer Denise Schramm had high hopes that the event could set a fundraising record. It attracted 133 golfers – three teams only had threesomes. Local businesses and individuals donated 43 silent auction items, and people had donated more than $9,000 directly to the event before play began, Schramm said.
This year’s Lions outing had a United States 250th anniversary theme, complete with flags on pins and blasts of red, white and blue confetti after the national anthem and to signal the shotgun start.