Dead, dead, dropping, dying, and, then flying on the wings of love.

The Boys & Girls Club's signature event, The 34th Annual Celebrity Golf Classic, was in jeopardy of not being an event this year but Bill Pooley felt a fatherly pull to continue it on at the Twin Lakes Golf and Country Club on June 10.

"The son of the tournament founder said the show must go on," said Suzy Petrich, who is president of the B&GC board. "He said we can't let it die."

The event has been good to kids everywhere in Federal Way for a long, long time now.

At the first moneymaker event this past year in February, benefitting the B&GC, was a breakfast event held at Emerald Downs. And the numbers were down attendance-wise. Although money-wise, more money was raised than ever before for this February B&GC fundraiser, according to Petrich.

Although a good amount of cash came in, it came from a smaller number, which, in short, meant less money came in than ever before from the Emerald Downs event. Weighing the good of money capita up versus the bad of numbers down at that event allowed an the overall consensus from the board that as one of...

"Concern," said Petrich.

And, if anyone understands how boards work for companies, they understand that boards do the hiring, firing and everything else, from temps to CEOS. So, the golf tourney at TLG&CC was in danger of a no-go based on the board's decision.

Enter Bill Pooley, and, a friend, who chose to not take 'no' for an answer.

"We had been fundraising, Ben (Ebbsen) and I, already had raised funds, and, then we were worried there would be no tournament, so we worked harder and we raised more than we ever had from our business, Consolidated Foods," said Pooley, speaking of dad, Ed, no longer with us.

That proved some things.

That snowballed and steamrolled things and with two months planning time, not the usual 'six,' as Petrich said is usually what's allotted for the big celeb golf extravaganza planning.

Less time, less celebs, but the show would still go on.

'The spirit of the town' of Federal Way and surrounding businesses and 'supporters,' like at the celeb golf classic, as Petrich put it, removed the doubt of the celeb tourney's potential cancellation. It was Pooley and Ebbsen, and, others like B&GC's executive director, Shelley Puariea, that dug in, elbow grease in hand.

So, more than just the spirit of the celeb event would continue, of the passed-away Ed Pooley's grand, good work started long ago for this B&GC fundraiser.

The celeb golf event itself, that was hard hit like a lot of businesses, not to mention sponsors, for this event, carried on with a lot less fanfare-only two celebrities, actually three. Two of the three were twin brothers, Eddie and Johnny O'Brien, who played for Seattle University and then Pittsburgh Pirates baseball in the 1960s, plus the celeb golf host talk show personality, Dave Grosby.

"The tournament was almost called off," said Petrich. She stayed all the way through to the end of the event, even biding on and winning some University of Washington basketball tickets, getting one of the many nice auction items present like Jarret Mentink (husband of celeb FoxSports anchor Angie) and the PH.D's book , Alexander The Great, plus an autographed football by the Seattle Seahawks' great rusher rushing the city and state to a Superbowl appearance back in 2005.

Grosby was a hoot, calling out raffle ticket numbers and adding things as he said numbers like 314, 330, two numbers the Mariners batting averages are not.' Then Grosby called out another raffle ticket number...

"165, now that's a Mariner's average," said Grosby.

All proceeds for a good cause called 'kids,' usually ones with broken homes or more straining family and financial circumstances than most so they go before school, after school, to the B&GC

"It is no longer just pick-up basketball games," said Petrich, talking to the crowd, munching on prime rib, Caeser salad, fresh fruit, and wine and beer entries. "There are still wonderful sports programs, but Boys & Girls Club has evolved over the years. So much of the focus now is on the whole child. There are art programs, music, computer labs."

Childcare too. Mariners tickets, Black Lynx sand wedge, even a Cliff Lee autographed baseball all made for good funds and fun times, hosted by sports talk show host Grosby made it all the better. Grosby is otherwise known as "The Groz" on KJR 950 AM. But Grosby's radio sports analysis skills are so coveted that soon he will be jumping ships, going to ESPN Seattle on 710 AM.

"This event, no Bruce (King), is smaller than in recent years, and that reflects the time," Grosby told the capacity crowd inside the banquet room of the Twin Lakes club following the day of golf. To note, too, Grosby is not only helping fundraise for this event and other great causes around Washington State he but will also be the basketball announcer a second season for the newly made Seattle University Redhawks now a D-1 school in b-ball.

So, this golf event was going nowhere fast it looked and people like you were ready to jump in and get in on remote control.

"It's about keeping it alive," said Grosby. "There is something special about this place. It is great how you can have fun and help others at the same time."

King hosted the event most of the past 33 years minus one by Kevin Calabro, who, incidentally, will team with Grosby on ESPN Seattle starting this October. But his polio condition and aging health of being a great sportscaster but in his 80s and not immune to old age kept him away.

So "The Groz" stepped in.

"We were delighted when Dave Grosby would be our celebrity host," said Petrich. "He's just a great guy, got a great sense of humor. He would do one hole with one foursome, talking a few sports, and move on to the next foursome."

Grosby was busy and that kind of workload from him when he could be doing other things is nice to see, with this ultimately being a special event for the kids. And Grosby knows that or he wouldn't be in attendance.

Before the auction and raffle and following the smorgasbord banquet dinner were Boys & Girls Club young people that spoke to the crowd, the B&GC "Youth Of The Quarter" award winners were a pair of 17-year-olds, Moses Ssemakula and Chardae Dennis, graduating seniors in 2010 from area high schools and actively involved in the B&GC programs.

Both volunteer at the club, doing what they can to help the boys and girls around them become more confident of themselves and others around them. There are two main places of work.

"I am trying to set up a music studio at the B&GC," said Ssemakula, born in Uganda and taken here by his father because his dad saw 'opportunity' in America and wanted his kids having the exposure to all that. "We already have a booth, but we need equipment."

Maybe there's a music store out there listening. Because Pooley did say that new sponsors are needed from the economy taking out some sponsors.

Ssemakula just wants to do what he said the BG&C did for him when he came in 2006 with his family. "I knew when I got here that I was not leaving. I just want to have a positive influence on others like the Boys & Girls Club has had a positive inflluence on me."

A Positive Place For Change.

Those five words painted on the side of a B&GC bus says it all, as does Ssemakula, who spoke for a minute to the banquet dinner crowd, speaking of his wanting to help others at a 'high level' like the B&GC did help him.

"A lot of kids recorded music last summer here and they would be telling you they would be doing something negative if not doing that," said Ssemakula. "The music is our attraction. It's what joins people together and what seperates them."

Heavy, filled words from Ssemakula and philosophically challenging, to say the least, and, the other Youth of the Quarter member at the event from B&GC was Dennis and she too is wanting to do others good things.

"When I arrived five years ago (age 13), I had a spongebob blanket with me," said Dennis.

Mom dragged you there?

"Uh-huh," said Dennis. "When I first started going, I didn't speak to anyone. Kylie (Thornton) was one of the workers there and she helped."

Open you up?

"Yeah, her and Smokey and Mary," said Dennis.

A couple other workers?

"Teens volunteering," said Dennis.

Well, Dennis has come full circle. She now helps others, manages the cafe at the EX3Ron Sandwith teen center, also in Federal Way.

"I was invited to the Keystone Leadership program," said Dennis. And it, working the cafe, etc, there did things for Dennis.

"It opened up my world," said Dennis, who will do the challenging peace work program, Americorp, next fall.

Her mom, Eileen, and dad, Michael, were in attendance for the banquet, listening to Dennis give a speech about her leadership class changing her life to help others and her mom said it changed her life for the better getting her daughter involved with B&GC .

"Godsend for me," said Eileen Dennis. "I was working all the time, and her going to a place that was safe. And then she wanted to go back more without any coercing."

What was your reason for why she glommed on to B&GC so quickly?

"I think it is because they put her to work," she said.

Dennis said she learned from the B&GC, "Being understanding to other people, connecting to other people in ways I couldn't connect before."

The EX3 teen center, directed by Pam Credico, is located by Gateway Center, and it is such an example of positive change that it is 'becoming a model for all of the rest of Boys & Girls clubs in the nation to see,' according to Puariea, and Credico.

So that's saying something and this event hopefully next year will carry on bigger and better than this year with more celebrities, if that so be the way for the most success for the kids.

Because the kids, after all, are who the whole evening and afternoon and morning are about. It's not about the Million Dollar Shot sponsored by Doxon Toyota (who wasn't there this year), or, the sponsors like Western Hardwoods, Consolidated Foods, and those like Highline Community College, Met Life Foundation, Multi-Service Center involved with the 'Check and Connect' program to keep kids in school until graduation which is an alarming nationwide rate of 33 percent. This event is, really, about one thing: helping to change young peoples' lives.

"The focus is on the kids, we are expecting more celebrities next year, but I have four kids and they grew up in the Boys & Girls Club. The atmosphere at the Boys & Girls Club is great, it is so great for kids."

And adults. Teens. Everyone.

Yes, kids can do so much and be so much in the community from a young age, and, like many that choose to stay in their town after growing up, for a long, long, long, time to come, along the way they need help. The Boys & Girls club and places like the Federal Way Noon Rotary that made Boys & Girls Club its "Fund-An-Item" event this year that was done from raising paddles going in the air to the result of $23,000.

Such change, as Petrich said, on the podium, at the dinner...

"It's like that butterfly that flutters its wings in Brazil and it's effect, ripple effect, makes it felt all the way to America."