Sherman County is located in northwest Kansas and is at the crossroads of Interstate 70 and U.S. Highway 27. Bordering Colorado on the west approximately 32 miles from Nebraska on the north and bordering the Central time zone on the east. Sherman County comprises of 1,055 square miles. The population of Goodland according to the 2000 Census is 4,984 and Sherman County 6,780. A dry climate, Sherman County averages 19.76” of moisture per year with 32.7” of snow fall. Average temperatures range from high of 39 degrees to a low of 15.8 degrees in January to a high of 89.9 degrees to a low of 61.1 degrees in July.

So I guess you may ask why have the Denver Broncos Alumni and the Kansas City Chiefs Alumni met in Goodland for three days in June for the past five years? We call it the Border War…Since the 1960s the Chiefs and the Broncos have been competing on the field but for this event we come together to support Rural Health Care. “The Slice of Life” Benefit Auction and golf tournament.

The event is sponsored by the Northwest Kansas Area Medical Foundation whose mission is to financially aid Goodland Regional Medical Center. Goodland Regional Medical Center is a rural healthcare facility providing services to residents of the Kansas, Nebraska and Colorado rural areas. The proceeds from the “Slice of Life” benefit the medical center in terms of equipment and scholarship needs.

To quote Jay Jolly, CEO of Goodland Regional Medical Center, “Access is a fundamental part of the mission of Goodland Regional Medical Center. It is why we operate an ambulance service and emergency room, recruit trained health care staff, participate as a contracting provider with various health insurance plans, run a primary care clinic, and bring specialists in to provide regular outreach clinics. It is why we partner with other healthcare providers like Eagle Med, who provides this community and the entire region with rapid response for critical care air transports to specialized care in Denver and other cities.”

The weekend schedule goes something like this: Friday June 22 we arrive and sit around the campfire and brag about the Broncos’ past victories over the Chiefs. Saturday morning June 23 we tour Goodland Regional Medical Center and play a practice round of golf. Saturday night is the auction when each player is bidded on by a team and dinner is had by all.  Sunday is the actual tournament, and it is strictly for bragging rights for next year.

This year’s Broncos players in attendance were Larry Brunson, Dave Preston, Fran Lynch, Leroy Mitchell, Jack Gehrke, Charlie Johnson, Billy Thompson and Wade Manning. Along with the Kansas City alumni we raised $150,000. This is truly a community effort and that’s why we come and contribute whatever help we can to make this a wonderful and sucessful event.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, July 10th, 2007 at 2:30 pm and is filed under Community Development. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.