Celebrating its 50^th anniversary, the Rotary Club of Steamboat Springs served up more than 300 fresh lobsters Saturday at the Steamboat Springs Airport as Rotarians held to tradition while supporting Northwest Colorado Health’s Home Health and Hospice Services.

Northwest Colorado Health is the only provider of Home Health and Hospice in the Yampa Valley, and the program fills a vital gap in the community by allowing people to age in place in the comfort of their own home.

“In an average year, we care for more than 250 patients and provide support to their family members,” said Steph Einfeld, CEO of Northwest Colorado Health, via email. “Home Health helps homebound patients recover and get back to the life they led before illness or injury. Hospice helps people approach the end of life with dignity and comfort.”

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She explained the health care provider does receive some payments from Medicare and private insurance, but providing these services in a rural area remains a challenge because, “in simple terms, it costs more to provide these services than we get reimbursed for.”

According to Einfeld, Northwest Colorado Health offers these services despite seeing approximately $400,000 of unreimbursed care every year — and that’s where community support from events like the LobsterFest becomes so critical.

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Einfeld said one of the reasons they need community support is because Northwest Colorado Health covers over 7,000 square miles, and its staff drive an average of 50,000 miles per year to visit patients, which is enough miles to circle the Earth at its equator twice. One nurse might see a patient in Toponas and then drive over an hour to Clark to see another patient all in the same day.

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

On Saturday, hundreds of attendees enjoyed plates of buttery seafood from the Steamboat Meat and Seafood Co. while many put on temporary tattoos and dressed in their most festive lobster attire. The Rotarians had 310 lobsters flown in Thursday evening from Maine for the event that sells out every year, and a silent and live auction augmented table sales and sponsorships.

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

“LobsterFest has always been really unique in that it’s been greatly supported by the community and we’ve had really interesting beneficiaries for the five years,” Morris said, adding that it’s been easier to drum up support because the beneficiaries have been “so diverse, impactful and important in our community.”

For Einfeld, the money raised Saturday night will go a long way to help folks in the Yampa Valley.

“We hear from patients’ families how grateful they are for the love and care they receive,” she said. “Recently, a Hospice family member shared how her mother’s face would light up when our Hospice staff would visit. She considered them family, and she loved the company and time to share her stories.”

Einfeld continued by saying the woman’s daughter appreciated the support that allowed the daughter to enjoy her mother’s last years of life — instead of just being a caregiver — by doing activities together like reading, singing, dancing, doing crafts and writing stories.

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

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

Owing more than $68 million in debt, Casey’s Pond was thrust into receivership this summer, and its residents had received notices they would have to move out this fall. However, Friday’s announcement could negate those eviction notices, as officials with the community foundation and Northwest Colorado Health say the deal, once finalized, would allow Casey’s Pond to continue to operate 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 amazing,” Morris said of Saturday’s attendance at LobsterFest. “We were sold out weeks before the event. We have a lot of people who are repeat attendees, and there’s been an uptick in the spirit of it. … Every year it just gets a little more exciting and a little more fun from an attendee’s point of view.”

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 nice milestone with its 60^th anniversary this year.

“Their support means so much to us and it is amazing to see how much volunteer time and effort has gone into this event,” Einfeld said. “The Rotary Club of Steamboat Springs gives so much of their heart to this community, and we are extremely grateful for that.”