Home of Hope and Rogers County Training Center Hosts 36th Annual Golf Classic

Home of Hope CEO, Ralph Richardson, Ph.D.

All people hope for the best in their lives and tend to be more successful when someone believes in them. For decades, Home of Hope has worked to provide opportunities for people with disabilities, enabling them to create their own pathways toward a more enriched life. A part of the Home of Hope family, the Rogers County Training Center (RCTC) was founded in 1963 by a group of friends and family who wanted their children with special needs to work as independently as possible.

On May 7, 2021, RCTC will host their 36th annual Golf Classic and 19th Hole Silent Auction. The tournament will take place at the Heritage Hills Golf Course, with proceeds directly supporting people with developmental and other disabilities at RCTC, and job sites in the surrounding area. The Classic is a 4-man scramble with designated tee times and flights. A Hole-in-One prize of a new car will be sponsored by Kissee Ford. Home-cooked hamburgers and hotdogs, as well as lots of exciting golf games, will make for a fun day on a beautiful course. The silent auction portion of the event utilizes technology to allow golfers to bid on auction items from their phones during play. An early preview of auction items will be available online one week before the event. There will be a grand array of interesting, elegant, and unusual items up for grabs!  Sponsorship opportunities are available in multiple levels. This year’s event is even more crucial than ever for support, as operations around Home of Hope and the Training Center were deeply impacted by the crisis of the past year.

“One of the enormous things about RCTC is we provide hope for people with intellectual disabilities, including many who grew up with the world surrounding them making them feel that there are things they can never have, like a home of their own, friends or most prominently, a job,” said Home of Hope CEO, Ralph Richardson, Ph.D.  “When people have a job, they can be proud of it. It’s been really hard on them this past year to have that taken away.” For safety reasons, most of the functions of the center were required to halt for a few months, as many of the people they serve have comorbidities and are medically fragile. About half of the workers have been able to come back to work since that time. As vaccines are becoming more available to clients and staff, more people will be able to get back to work. “It’s just very much now about hope for the future and for helping people to have a job and do things vocationally again,” said Mr. Richardson. “That’s really the theme of this year’s story.” The Center managed to still provide paychecks to decrease the financial impact to those they serve, but now more than ever, raising of funds is essential to the continued support of The Center and the people they employ. “It’s been a long road for some folks, so getting back to work and moving forward is what people have been hanging onto for a long time,” Mr. Richardson said.

For more information on the Golf Classic and sponsorship opportunities, email eat1@eau1eav1eaw1 or visit their website at www.homeofhope.com.

The Rogers County Training Center was created to help those with special needs work as independently as possible.

The 36th annual Golf Classic and 19th Hole Silent Auction will be held at Heritage Hills Golf Course.