The LaGrange Lions Club put on their annual golf tournament to benefit the Georgia Sheriff’s Youth Home at Pineland Thursday at the Highland Country Club. Club member and Troup county Sheriff Woodruff said that this is the third year the club has dedicated and given the funds to a local group.

“Every year the Lions Club does an annual golf tournament, and they pick someone to benefit from it,” Woodruff said.

Previously, the club dedicated their funds from the event to Troup Cares Incorporated and the Salvation Army.

The club hosted 16 teams of four people sponsored by their local companies. Calumet Bank won first place and CB&T finished second.  The club also sponsored a putting tournament after the game. Chris Wynne won that contest. Club president Ken Young said they have held this tournament for years before making it a fundraiser.

“We’ve been doing the golf tournament for 40 or 50 years,” Young said. “All the money we earn stays within our umbrella of support.”

Woodruff said the county home is not a place for troubled kids.

“A lot of people think about Pineland, and think the kids that we have out there are troublemakers and this is like a youth detention facility. It’s not, it’s just like a foster home,” he said. “These kids cannot live at home right now for whatever reasons and so we take them in and we provide them with an education, a safe loving environment until hopefully they can be reunited with their family.”

The club brought some of the residents of the home to the tournament, which Young said was important.

“We’ve had a lot of the kids out this morning which meant a lot to us. A lot of people got to see first-hand some of the stuff we support, but we do this event every year,” Young said.

It is important to donate to the home since they do not receive any funds, Woodruff said.

“When people donate to Pineland or do special events like this, this helps us because we operate fully on donations and the will of the people, we don’t get any kind of state funds or federal funds to operate our facility.”

Club member and Troup County Tax Commissioner Shane Frailey said they were grateful to benefit the Pineland campus.

“Our club’s motto is ‘we serve,’ and it’s an honor to help them,” Frailey said.

Woodruff said he was honored that the club decided to give funds to Georgia Sherriff’s Youth Home at Pineland.

“It means a lot to me that the Lions Club would step up and choose that as their charity,” he said.

The club is still counting totals from the event.