Humboldt County Search and Rescue hosts first golf fundraiser in Eureka

Humboldt County Search and Rescue turned Eureka Municipal Golf Course into a fundraiser site Friday, asking golfers and donors to help keep volunteer rescuers ready for the county’s backroads, rivers and forests. The team’s first golf tournament paired a day of competition with a larger push to support search-and-rescue work that often becomes the difference between a difficult outing and a life-threatening emergency.

The tournament was set for 9 a.m. at the 18-hole course on Fairway Drive at the south end of F Street. Entry was listed at $400 per team or $100 per player, giving residents a direct way to support the Humboldt County Sheriff’s Office Search and Rescue Posse even if they did not plan to play.

The fundraiser package stretched beyond golf. Organizers added a ladder truck ball drop with a $1,000 grand prize, along with silent and live auctions, a raffle and Search and Rescue merchandise sales. That mix turned the event into a full community fundraiser, with multiple points of entry for people who want to help underwrite volunteer rescue operations in a county where rugged terrain can quickly make a minor mishap into an urgent callout.

County materials describe the Search and Rescue Posse as an all-volunteer, nonprofit organization that supports the sheriff’s legal function to protect life and property in Humboldt County. Its duties include evacuating ill or injured people from places that conventional responders cannot reach and removing deceased people from those same areas. Humboldt County’s Office of Emergency Services serves as the primary local coordination agency for emergencies and disasters affecting residents, public infrastructure and government operations, underscoring how much the county depends on volunteer capacity when incidents happen far from town.

The work is not symbolic. The Humboldt County Sheriff’s Office 2024 Annual Report lists 20 search-and-rescue operations last year, and the same report notes more than 8,760 volunteer hours across sheriff’s office volunteer functions. County materials also say the Search and Rescue Posse is still seeking new volunteers, a reminder that the fundraiser was about more than a day on the course. It was also about keeping a hard-to-replace public-safety network visible, funded and ready the next time someone goes missing in Humboldt County’s rough country.