Pasadena, Md. — Hospice of the Chesapeake’s annual golf tournament drew hundreds of participants and generated more than $210,000 on Sept. 25, 2025, at Queenstown Harbor Golf Course in Queenstown, bolstering the nonprofit’s efforts to deliver end-of-life and supportive care across Anne Arundel, Calvert, Charles and Prince George’s counties. Sponsors, volunteers and golfers converged for a day of competition and community support, channeling proceeds into services that help families navigate serious illness with dignity and focus on meaningful moments.
The event unfolded with registration at 9 a.m. and a shotgun start at 10 a.m., accommodating over 200 players on the course’s two championship layouts — the River Course, a windswept 7,099-yard par-72 design hugging the Chester River, and the Lakes Course, a 6,757-yard par-72 known for its accuracy demands and scenic bunkers. Queenstown Harbor, a public facility on Maryland’s Eastern Shore just 45 minutes from Annapolis, has hosted the tournament for years, offering pristine conditions maintained year-round and drawing praise for its environmental integration amid waterfront views. Players enjoyed range time, golf carts and a $50 credit at a mobile TaylorMade pop-up shop, alongside giveaways that enhanced the outing’s appeal.
Hospitality anchored the schedule, starting with a made-to-order omelet bar breakfast from Main & Market, an Annapolis-area caterer specializing in fresh, local ingredients. Lunch at the turn featured grilled fare from Buddy’s Grill, a regional staple for casual dining, while the evening awards banquet brought gourmet selections from Two Rivers Steak & Fish House, including oysters and shrimp for a Chesapeake-inspired touch. Beverage carts, stocked with craft beer from Flooring Partners and bourbon from WesBanco, rolled throughout, with a Sysco-sponsored hole-in-one contest on the River Course adding excitement.
Sponsors played a pivotal role, with Safford Brown Auto Group — a dealership group with outlets in Waldorf and Annapolis serving Southern Maryland drivers — anchoring as the Masters-level backer. Greenberg Gibbons, a Baltimore-based real estate firm, supported at the U.S. Open tier. Augusta-level contributions came from First National Bank, a community lender with branches in La Plata and Prince Frederick, and the Michael Stanley Foundation, honoring the late musician’s legacy through philanthropy. Heritage sponsors included Coastal Management Associates, a Southern Maryland environmental consultant; Crescent Cities Charities, focused on regional aid; Flooring Partners, a Waldorf supplier; the George W. Stone Family Foundation; Heinsohn Contracting, a Pasadena builder; SMART, a construction firm; and Waterfront Engineering Design and Construction, experts in coastal projects.
Underwriters elevated specifics: The Davies Family Foundation covered breakfast, University of Maryland Baltimore Washington Medical Center handled lunch, and University of Maryland Charles Regional Medical Center — La Plata’s key hospital — joined National HME for carts. These partnerships reflect the tournament’s deep ties to local healthcare and business networks, essential in counties where Calvert and Charles residents often travel for specialized services.
The Hospice of the Chesapeake Golf Committee deserved special mention for orchestrating the seamless day, a volunteer group that has elevated the event into one of the region’s premier charity outings. Their efforts ensure not just enjoyment but tangible impact, as funds sustain programs like home-based palliative care, grief counseling and integrative arts therapy. Last year’s tournament raised nearly $225,000, building on a trajectory that has seen proceeds climb steadily since the event’s inception around 2003, marking its 20th anniversary in 2022 with a record $240,000 haul.
Hospice of the Chesapeake traces its roots to 1979, when founders established Arundel Hospice in Anne Arundel County to address a then-nascent need for compassionate end-of-life support, inspired by pioneers like Elisabeth Kübler-Ross. By 1992, it rebranded as Hospice of the Chesapeake, expanding to encompass Calvert, Charles and Prince George’s counties through mergers, including Hospice of Charles County in 2020. Today, as Maryland’s largest independent nonprofit hospice, it serves thousands annually via Medicare-certified programs in homes, nursing facilities and two inpatient centers — the Ridgely Center in Pasadena and the Burnett Center for Hope & Healing in Prince Frederick. Accredited by The Joint Commission, the organization emphasizes a holistic approach: physical symptom management, psycho-social counseling, spiritual guidance and bereavement services for all ages, regardless of ability to pay.
In Southern Maryland’s Calvert and Charles counties, where populations skew toward families balancing work at Naval Air Station Patuxent River with caregiving demands, these resources fill critical gaps. Recent initiatives include a February 2025 Advanced Cardiac Care Program, which equips heart patients with home management tools to curb readmissions, and partnerships like the one with OnSite Medical House Calls for expanded palliative visits. The Calvert team earned a 2023 Hospice CAHPS Honors Elite Award, the state’s only such recognition that year, for superior patient experiences. Grief programs, such as monthly support groups at North Beach Senior Center, address loss from any cause, while children’s initiatives and SoulCollage workshops foster healing through creative expression.
The tournament’s success underscores a community commitment to sustaining these services amid rising needs — the organization reports serving over 1,200 patients yearly, with grief support reaching thousands more. As a 501(c)(3), Hospice of the Chesapeake relies on events like this to fund uncompensated care, ensuring no family faces illness alone. Organizers already eye 2026, inviting early sponsorships via Lauren Thurston at 443-837-1531 or lauren.thurston@hospicechesapeake.org. For service details, call 877-462-1103. In a region where Chesapeake Bay tides shape daily life, such gatherings remind residents that collective swings can steady the hardest journeys.
