The Blue Top Ridge Golf Course doesn’t only serve as a place for recreation and leisure, but for rehabilitation with the GIVE Foundation.

Their 11th Annual Riverside Golf Charity Event will be on July 27. Riverside Casino and Golf Resort Marketing Director Damon John talks about GIVE, “The GIVE Foundation is a partnership between the casino, the V.A. Health Care System, and the Iowa PGA section. Injured veterans who are being seen at the V.A. Hospital in Iowa City, they get referred to the program from their doctors and providers. PGA professionals instruct the veterans referred to the program by the V.A. Health Care system. And all of the instruction takes place, at least locally at this chapter, it takes place at Blue Top Ridge.”

The charity golf tournament will be raising funds for the foundation, and a banquet will be held on July 26th for injured veterans and their families. The banquet is sponsored by a $10,000 grant from the Washington County Riverboat Foundation. John says it helps veterans, “Teaching them the game of golf, it really becomes much more than just that, they develop friendships with each other. So it turns into coffee in the morning, whether it’s at the casino or somewhere closer to where they live. They develop new friendships they share war stories, so it’s viewed as a rehabilitative program.”

Sports rehabilitation is popular among U.S. veterans, in order to build confidence not only in athletic abilities but in their everyday lives and relationships.