Georgia Sheriff’s Youth Homes golf tournament getting bigger and better

It’s all for the children. That could be a big reason Houston County Sheriff Cullen Talton has the connections he has … to bring about great conditions for a day of golf.

On a clear and beautiful Monday morning and afternoon, Houston Lake Country Club provided the setting for the annual Steve Byrd Memorial golf outing, which is a benefit for the Georgia Sheriff’s Youth Homes. The tournament, according to Youth Homes development officer Mike Leathers, is the largest fundraiser for this organization all year. The success, he said, is all credited to Talton’s work.

“It could not have gone better,” said Leathers. “The weather was made to order. We had a great time. Everyone showed up.”

The “everyone” was 44 four-person teams, 16 for morning tee times and 28 more in the afternoon.

“We raised a lot of money for the children,” said Leathers. These funds, he said, does everything from feeding and dressing the children served by the Youth Homes to paying tuition for their education. That includes college, where Leathers said there are numerous success stories including one becoming a doctor, others becoming lawyers and/or law enforcement officers, and others becoming pharmacists.

“The children are treated as if they are our child,” he said. These are youth, he said, who were once abandoned, abused or neglected but are then raised in a structured environment.

“(Sheriff Talton) always finds a way to make (the Steve Byrd Memorial) bigger and better,” said Leathers. “And it raises awareness.”

Leathers said the Youth Homes personnel will not do telephone solicitations, instead focusing on special events and letter-writing, with permission from the sheriff, asking for donations.

In a special addition to this year’s tournament, Sherriff Talton presented Bud Cody with a Lifetime Achievement Award. Leathers said Cody was with the Youth Homes from the beginning and that it would not exist at the level it does today without him. Cody established the first Youth Home in Georgia, and then retired last year.

Presently, the Georgia Sheriff’s Youth Homes has five campuses in towns like LaGrange, Valdosta, Chatsworth and Dalton. The Youth Homes stage summer camps to provide an outdoors experience and promote a strong work ethic, personal responsibility and spiritual awareness to disadvantaged youth.

Steve Byrd was one of the primary people responsible working with Sheriff Talton in setting up the benefit. It began in the 1990s, but then Byrd died in 2001.

Last year’s tournament raised around $40,000, according to Jerry Gordon, a member of the tournament committee.

A good number of the teams involved, 20 in fact, posted scores of 60 or better.

HHJ News