Recently, nearly 150 golfers teed off during the 37th Redlands Community Hospital Foundation Golf Classic for the Ken Corwin Cup at the Redlands Country Club. When the day was over and all the scores were posted, the hospital was considerably stronger for the experience.
This year, the more than $250,000 raised will be used to support the hospital’s $18 million Emergency Department expansion project. When completed, the project will enable RCH to care for emergency patients better than ever before.
“Redlands Community Hospital understands there is no good time to be sick or injured, and that waiting to see an Emergency Room physician can be unbearable,” said James R. Holmes, hospital President and CEO. “To accommodate an increasing number of patients seen in the Emergency Room and to reduce wait times, we are in the midst of nearly doubling the size of our Emergency Department.”
A record number of golfers participated this year. Helping to make the day special were the co-chairs, Redlanders Paul and Susan Shimoff. Paul, an attorney, is a California State Bar certified specialist in taxation and a former president of the San Bernardino County Bar Association, while Susan is a retired professor of early childhood education at San Bernardino Valley College.
“This tournament is important,” Shimoff said. “It is important to physicians and nurses who need the resources provided by the proceeds of this tournament, and it is important to patients who enter the doors of the RCH Emergency Department each day. This tournament and the impact it has on the emergency room expansion are testaments to the power of community, the power to create a health delivery system that is far greater than any one donor or caregiver.”
For nearly 40 years the Golf Classic has served as Redlands Community Hospital’s most important community fundraiser. This year some 100 volunteers from the Redlands Community Hospital Auxiliary, hospital staff and Redlands Country Club joined hands to ensure that the event was the success it always is.
The fun-packed day included a post-tournament awards dinner. Featured were silent and live auctions for various prizes, including a Disney-themed watch from Queens Jewelers in Redlands and tickets for box seats behind home plate at a California Angels game from the Rochford Foundation.
In all, more than 120 sponsors supported the event, including the Shimoffs, Redlands Community Hospital Medical Staff, Coast Environmental, Lockton, Hamilton Construction, Beaver Medical Clinic, SEI, Brookside Healthcare, L. Curti Trucking, Pacific Premier Bank, PASS Physical Therapy, US Bank,West Coast University, Intelisyn, the Paul Ware Family Foundation, and Premier Medical Transportation & Equipment.
“When we come together with a sense of pride and a clear understanding that we are part of a greater whole, great things happen,” Holmes said. Indeed, the 2019 Golf Classic was a “great thing” for the communities served by Redlands Community Hospital.