The 2021 Summer Sizzler was a major success.

The golf tournament held Monday, Aug. 16, generated more than $135,000 to improve Warren General and its services to the community, according to Director of Marketing and Business Development George Lilja.

The event started in the morning with 76 golfers. When the afternoon round kicked off, there were 128 golfers, for a total of 204 — the highest number ever for a Warren General golf tournament.

Along the way there were life-size cutouts of hospital personnel — maybe it was too hot to make them stand out there all day in person.

Photo submitted to Times Observer A Life Flight helicopter lands at Conewango Valley Country Club in support of the Warren General Hospital Summer Sizzler golf tournament.

“We take pictures of our WGH employees and we enlarge the pictures to fit on an 8-foot board,” Lilja said. “We place a different employee picture on every hole for golfers to see.”

The cut-out of Ward Schell of Hospital Information Services — who races in his spare time — featured him kneeling next to a race car.

Not all of the hospital personnel at the event were made of wood and cardboard.

“It is a hospital golf tournament and we wanted it to feel like one,” Lilja said. “We introduced some of our staff to the golfers from the community that are playing in the event.”

Life Flight supported the event by landing one of its helicopters on the first fairway to wrap up the morning group to kick of the afternoon.

Photo submitted to Times Observer Cutouts of Zach Roberts and Kelly Roudybush of the Warren General Hospital outpatient laboratory greet golfers at the WGH Summer Sizzler at Conewango Valley Country Club. The outpatient lab will receive over $135,000 toward renovations thanks to the event.

But golf was only a small part of the story.

There were 72 corporate and company sponsors and 53 gift baskets donated by local companies to be raffled.

All proceeds — from players, from sponsors, from donations, and from raffles — will be used in the renovation of the hospital’s outpatient laboratory. “The Warren General Hospital laboratory provides service to approximately 136,700 patients a year, which includes outpatients, inpatients, emergency room patients, and Cancer Care Center patients,” Lilja said. “The laboratory performs 345,000 tests a year to help our physicians care for you.”

“Recently, through the COVID pandemic, the laboratory moved rapidly to offer outpatient (COVID) testing,” he said. “Through all of the challenges that a pandemic economy presented, the laboratory met the need of our inpatients and ultimately our outpatient populations.”

Photo submitted to Times Observer Dozens of golf carts are ready to take participants in the Warren General Hospital Summer Sizzler golf tournament to their starting points at Conewango Valley Country Club.