Routt County SOAR Golf Tournament Doubles to Fund Senior Services

The SOAR golf tournament doubled participation to fund critical senior services. Proceeds support Meals on Wheels, transportation, and Helping Hands visits across Routt County.

Steamboat Springs —The biggest golf tournament in Routt County is not a test of skill. It is a test of survival.

Make no mistake: the SOAR golf tournament is the lifeblood of senior services in the valley. And this year, the pulse is racing.

Participants have doubled. Teams have jumped from nine to 18. Registration filled up before the deadline even hit. That is not growth. That is a surge.

Why does it matter? Because the check writes itself.

The money goes straight to the core. Meals on Wheels. Transportation. Helping Hands. These are not luxuries. They are the difference between staying home and moving to a facility.

Jean Levine, a SOAR board member and past president, put it plainly. Transportation is "very big." They pick people up. They take them to doctors. They bring them to the community center for lunch, yoga, bridge, and bingo.

It sounds simple. It is not.

In 2025, SOAR delivered 11,773 meals through Meals on Wheels. They served 8,098 meals at Eat & Greet lunches. They provided 2,722 rides. They made 805 Helping Hands visits.

Read that again.

Halfway through the current year, they have already served more than 8,600 meals. They have provided over 1,600 rides. They have logged nearly 3,000 volunteer hours.

Park Myers, the development director, noted that the growth in the tournament "corresponds with the needs of the organization."

That is the key phrase. The demand is rising. The supply is holding steady. The gap is closing.

SOAR, which stands for Serving Older Adults in Routt, changed its name in January. It was formerly the Routt County Council on Aging. The rebranding signals a shift. Less bureaucracy. More service.

The tournament is set for Monday, Sept. 14. The silent auction opened earlier this week.

Locals should watch the numbers. Not the scores. The meal counts. The ride logs. The volunteer hours.

If the tournament continues to double in size, the budget will follow. If it stalls, the services will shrink.

There is no middle ground.

The gondola rides at Steamboat Resort and the trips to Mountain Valley Horse Rescue near Toponas are nice. They keep seniors engaged. They keep them out of the house.

But the heavy lifting happens in the van. The daily grind happens in the kitchen. The quiet support happens in the living room.

The golf course is just the fundraising machine.

The seniors are the product.

And the product is getting older.