After a two-year hiatus, one of the county’s most celebrated charity events will rejoin the force later this week.

The Cass County Sheriff’s Office will host its 19th annual Community Scholarship Golf Outing at 8 a.m. Friday at Hampshire Country Club, 29592 Pokagon Highway, Dowagiac. Thirty-six teams will participate in the 18-hole outing, which will also include a silent and live auction, raffles and prize giveaways.

Proceeds from the event will go toward $1,000 scholarships for eight to 10 Cass County high school students, who will be awarded the dollars in two $500 increments: one when they first enter college and the other their sophomore year, assuming they continue their education.

Any additional dollars will be donated to the Cass County Community Policing Endowment Fund, a scholarship fund that awards dollars to students who plan to study at Southwestern Michigan College.

The golf outing was established in 1997 by then Sheriff Joseph Underwood as community-centric program that would make a positive impact on local students. The annual event became a hit with local golfers and sponsors, who helped sheriff’s office raise between $5,000 to $6,000 for scholarships every year, said current Sheriff Richard Behnke.

“It was something people marked on their calendar every year as a way to help the community, and have fun while doing so,” Behnke said.

Since its inception, the outing has generated more than $90,000 worth of scholarship dollars, which the sheriff’s office has awarded to 180 students. The endowment, meanwhile, has more than $126,000 currently in its coffers.

In spite of the success of the outing, organizers with the outing put the event on hiatus for the last several years. However, that did not stop many people from asking the department to bring the event back, Behnke said.

Seeing the strong desire to bring back the event, the sheriff decided to resurrect the outing earlier this year, in the same style and format that made it such a success in the first place.

“Why reinvent the wheel?” Behnke said. “The event is successful, it helps the community and there is a lot of demand for it.”

The sheriff mailed out notices for the new outing to past participants beginning in April, and received an overwhelming response in return, he said. In a little less than two months, all 36 available spots for teams were filled.

Around 30 volunteers will be lending a hand during the outing, many of whom work for the sheriff’s office, Behnke said. On top of helping run the outing, volunteers will help prepare and serve breakfast, lunch and dinner to participants.

Many different items will be raffled or auctioned off during the event as well, including golf clubs, sporting equipment and tickets, and gift certificates to various businesses.

Later in the year, the sheriff’s office will select recipients for the scholarships. The students will be chosen not merely based off their academic performance but also by how active they are in the community, Behnke said.

“It goes well with the mission of community policing: being active stewards of the community in order to make it a better place,” he said.

People wishing to sponsor or make a donation for this or future outings may do so by contacting the Cass County Sheriff’s Office at (269) 445-1201, or by mailing checks to 321 N. M-62, Cassopolis, MI 49031.