We celebrate the 50th^th To celebrate its 50th anniversary, the Rotary Club of Steamboat Springs served over 300 fresh lobsters at the Steamboat Springs Airport on Saturday, keeping with the tradition while supporting Northwest Colorado Health’s home health and hospice services.

Northwest Colorado Health is the only provider of home health and hospice care in the Yampa Valley. The program fills an important gap in the community by giving people the opportunity to age in the comfort of their own home.

“On average, we care for more than 250 patients and support their family members each year,” said Steph Einfeld, CEO of Northwest Colorado Health, via email. “Home health helps homebound patients recover and resume the life they had before their illness or injury. Hospice services help people experience the end of life with dignity and comfort.”

She explained that while the health care provider receives some payments from Medicare and private insurance, providing these services in rural areas remains a challenge because, “simply put, it costs more to provide these services than we are reimbursed.”

Einfeld said Northwest Colorado Health provides these services despite incurring about $400,000 in unreimbursed medical costs each year, which is why community support through events like LobsterFest is so important.

One of the reasons they need the community’s support, Einfeld said, is because Northwest Colorado Health covers an area of ​​over 7,000 square miles, and its staff drives an average of 50,000 miles per year to see patients. That’s enough miles to circle the Earth twice at the equator. A nurse could treat a patient in Toponas and then drive over an hour to Clark to see another patient – all in the same day.

“We want these services to stay in the valley, and to do that we need community support from people and organizations like Rotary,” Einfeld said.

On Saturday, hundreds of visitors enjoyed plates of buttery seafood from Steamboat Meat and Seafood Co., while many donned temporary tattoos and wore their most festive lobster costumes. Rotarians flew in 310 lobsters from Maine on Thursday night for the event, which sells out each year, and a silent and live auction complemented table sales and sponsorships.

According to the Rotary Club, this year’s LobsterFest raised over $100,000 for Northwest Colorado Health’s program and $15,000 for other Rotary charities. According to Gillian Morris, Rotary member and co-chair of the LobsterFest committee, it’s heartwarming to see the event continue to grow after the first LobsterFest five years ago.

“LobsterFest has always been unique in that it has been strongly supported by the community and we have had really interesting beneficiaries in the five years since it was founded,” Morris said, adding that it has been easier to mobilize support because the beneficiaries have been “so diverse, influential and important to our community.”

For Einfeld, the money raised Saturday night will go a long way toward supporting the people of Yampa Valley.

“We hear from patients’ families how grateful they are for the love and care they receive,” she said. “Recently, a family member from hospice told us how her mother’s face lit up when our hospice staff visited her. She considered them family and enjoyed the company and time to share their stories.”

Einfeld went on to say that the woman’s daughter greatly appreciated the support, which allowed her to enjoy her mother’s final years – rather than just being a caregiver – by engaging in shared activities such as reading, singing, dancing, crafts and writing stories.

“We are honored to be part of this important time in the lives of so many of our neighbors,” Einfeld said.

As the Rotary Club of Steamboat Springs celebrates five decades of support in the community and around the world, this year’s LobsterFest was an especially poignant event as the Yampa Valley Community Foundation announced Friday that it had brokered an agreement for Northwest Colorado Health to purchase the Casey’s Pond senior living community.

Casey’s Pond, which is more than $68 million in debt, was placed into receivership this summer and its residents received notices saying they would have to move out in the fall. But Friday’s announcement could nullify those eviction notices because officials with the community foundation and Northwest Colorado Health say the deal, once finalized, would allow Casey’s Pond to continue operating as a senior living facility.

At LobsterFest, Einfeld received loud applause from the audience when she mentioned the importance of preserving Casey’s Pond.

“It was incredible,” Morris said of the turnout at LobsterFest on Saturday. “We sold out weeks before the event. A lot of people are coming back and the atmosphere has gotten better. … From a visitor’s perspective, every year it gets a little more exciting and more fun.”

While the Rotary Club is celebrating its golden anniversary, Northwest Colorado Health has been in the Yampa Valley since 1964 and is also enjoying a beautiful milestone with its 60th anniversary.^th anniversary this year.

“Your support means a lot to us and it is amazing to see the amount of time and effort volunteers put into this event,” said Einfeld. “The Rotary Club of Steamboat Springs dedicates so much of its heart to this community and we are extremely grateful.”