Chautauqua Guest Home residents enjoy a day on the links at Cedar Ridge

By James Grob, jgrob@charlescitypress.com

By noon, it was getting a little hot, but the golfers didn’t seem to mind.

Friday morning marked the fourth annual golf outing for Chautauqua Guest Home residents at Cedar Ridge Golf Course.

A total of 28 Chautauqua residents hit the links for some time in the sun. Chautauqua Administrator Sue Ayers said that it’s a great event for the residents, as many of them aren’t able to enjoy the outdoors too often.

“The residents love this,” she said. “Actually, it’s a tournament, so there are winners.”

The residents put in a few holes on the course, then gather for a lunch. Ayers said that Cedar Ridge members donate their time — and their golf carts — for the event.

“We appreciate Cedar Ridge for all they’ve done,” she said. “We have a lot of members out at the club here who volunteer. They’re basically spending their time ‘driving Miss Daisy’ from hole to hole.”

Charles City transit helps to get all the residents out to the course, and Chautauqua had staff members at every green.

“They help the residents out of the carts and assist them with putting,” Ayers said.

One of those Chautauqua employees helping was Tayler Schmidt, who recently became a certified nursing assistant while still attending high school through the Iowa Big North program. Schmidt said she was enjoying the break in the typical workday routine.

“We’re taking some of the residents golfing, and I get to walk them up, help them golf, and it’s been a lot of fun, actually,” Schmidt said.

Schmidt is working as many hours at Chautauqua as she can this summer, while also playing for Charles City’s top-ranked high school softball team. She said she is appreciative of the opportunity the Iowa Big North program offered her.

“It was really good to be able to take the course through school, to save me some time and save me some money,” she said. “It was really time-manageable, taking it through school.”