Skyline Country Club manager Jesse Thorpe, center, is spearheading Tee It Up and Serve It Up for the Troops next Saturday. With him are event CEO James "JB" Ball, left, and board member Ken Anderson.

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Next weekend, Jesse Thorpe and the members of Skyline Country Club would like to see Tucsonans put politics aside and offer support for our troops and their families.

"For someone to leave their family and go into harm's way and do what they are commanded to do — whether you agree or disagree with the politics is immaterial. They go out and are willing to lay down their lives and you have to respect it," said Thorpe, who is spearheading the third annual golf tournament to benefit the Wounded Warrior Project, the Fischer House and Tucson Community Cares.

Last year's event raised almost $36,000, which was matched by an anonymous donor; this year is already sold out, but Thorpe hopes to attract more participants and broaden community appeal by adding the "Serve It Up for the Troops" tennis tournament this year.

The unique events will partner golf and tennis players with Davis-Monthan Air Force Base personnel and Arizona Air National Guard Task Force Desert Hawk troops who play and dine at no cost. Golfers play a modified five-person scramble to host the military personnel, while tennis players are partnered with airmen through mixed doubles play.

Thorpe, general manager and a member of the board of directors for Skyline Country Club, said the support from club members has been phenomenal. Since many members are veterans themselves, they have experienced the isolation and sacrifices that military families face during deployment, and are eager to show their appreciation and support.

"Our members recognize that when personnel are deployed there are a lot of things that don't happen — or that don't happen in the way you think they should — for their families.

"You hear stories of spouses of deployed personnel who don't get invited to certain functions and obviously if the personnel are abroad, sometimes money gets tight … for the day these people are our honored guests and they come and play as our VIPs and don't pay for anything," Thorpe said.

The event is very special for servicemen and their families, according to Karen Halstead, chairman of the Board of Directors for Tucson Community Cares. The non-profit was established in cooperation with Air Force Association Chapter 105, Davis-Monthan 50 and the Tucson Chamber of Commerce Military Affairs.

The organization is dedicated to funneling support from local businesses and individuals to airmen and their families — particularly those coping with deployment — based at D-M.

Tucson Community Cares sponsors a variety of programs and projects, ranging from educational reintegration programs for returning airmen to Hearts Apart, which provides free monthly social activities for children and families of deployed airmen.

"Whenever there is someone deployed, if a wife stays behind she not only has to take over all the husband's duties in the household, but has the added stress of not knowing if her spouse will return to the U.S. with a traumatic brain injury or post-traumatic stress disorder or if he will return alive," said Halstead, a veteran and the spouse of a retired airman.

"One way our community can help families destress is to support programs that give them better tools to cope."