Golf tournament for foundation honoring slain Anamosa employees

ANAMOSA — A second annual golf tournament tees off Saturday in honor of a scholarship foundation for an Anamosa prison nurse and correctional officer who were killed by inmates during a failed escape attempt in 2021.

The Lorena Schulte and Robert McFarland Scholarship Foundation will have the golf tournament at Fawn Creek Country Club in Anamosa.

The event will feature a best shot — 9 hole — tournament, live and silent auctions, raffle and dinner. All are invited to attend. Event registration starts at 9 a.m. and tournament starts at 11.

Funds raised by the foundation at the tournament will be used to award scholarships to deserving students, either employees of the Iowa Department of Corrections or their dependents, according to a news release. The funds will allow them to continue their education following in Schulte’s path of studying in the nursing or medical field or following McFarland’s path in corrections or criminal justice.

The foundation’s inaugural event, held in 2022, was successful in that it allowed the foundation to grant 12 scholarships to students, surpassing the goal of two scholarships, organizers said.

Lorena Schulte, 50, was working as a registered nurse at the prison on March 23, 2021, when inmates Thomas Woodward and Michael Dutcher attacked her and a correctional officer, Robert McFarland, 46, of Ely, with hammers they had from the work program.

Thomas Woodard, 34, and Michael Dutcher, 28, were convicted of two counts of first-degree murder and sentenced to life in prison without parole.

The Lorena Schulte and Robert McFarland Scholarship Foundation was established as a nonprofit in April of 2022, by a group of their co-workers as a way to honor their service and sacrifice to the state.

Donations can be sent to LRSF, P.O. Box 214, Anamosa, IA 52205. If you have any other questions about the event, please contact: LRSFdonations@gmail.com

Comments: (319) 398-8318; trish.mehaffey@thegazette.com