It came again. And, yes, what a show it was.

The 32nd annual Bruce King Celebrity Golf Classic at the lovely Twin Lakes Golf & Country Club, that's what, all to benefit the Boys & Girls Club of South King County Thursday.

"Another day of perfect weather, 32 years in a row," said King, retired KOMO News 4 sports anchor.

Or did King say that at the golf classic?

Bruce King? Wait ! Halt! Lies, deceit, from the reporter!

King wasn't there this year, you say? The smiling face of King, walking with a crutch due to polio at an early age, he was not there? Nope.

King's missing presence seemed to be filled in. Though his way of doing things so generously warm and amiable to celebrities was all genuinely grand and won't be ever forgotten. The show must go on. It's got to. This is about golf and shots, including a million dollar hole, but it's really for the kids of the B&GC.

It's now hosted by the voice of the Seattle Supersonics, the great voice of Kevin Calabro that could do any NBA team's games under the sun but is here. He's terse, to the point, and, with a flare for panache with the microphone for 20-some years now calling Sonics games.

"Bruce asked me to help out so I decided to volunteer," said Calabro. "We need to continue to get the word out for contributions to the Boys and Girls Club. It's more different with the economy and things now, but we still need to do it."

How would the transition go? From King to Calabro? Has the word on the street, so to speak, been good? Let's ask a celebrity.

Without a hitch said longtime (since 1991) big voice of KJR Sports Radio 950 AM, Dave Grosby, otherwise known as "The Groz."

"I would not have thought this event could be as good without Bruce King, but Kevin Calabro has been the perfect choice," said Grosby. "It's great to see with Kevin. Nothing has changed."

Things seemed the same. The same scrumptious snack-size packages of Tim's Cascade Chips rested in big bowls, the same great potato salad and pasta dish with wonderful red peppers to highlight the salad and sun-dried tomatoes richly accenting the pasta. The same great cooking of the bratwursts and hotdogs and one other that cook Stewart Kelly said was in the bunch. All for the celebs to munch on. Plus, drinks supplied by different companies, including Vitamin Water. Yummy fixings once again. Nope, nothing changed there.

Then there was the fun of the golfing by people that paid a fee to golf (as a pod of three) with one celeb in each grouping. Randall "Too Hot to Handle" Morris, a running back in the 1980s with the Seahawks, was there. His friend, Ivan Long, was in his pod. Long flew in from Fort Worth, Texas to actually be in town for his daughter's graduation.

"Randall called me and said, 'You want to play in a tournament,' and I said, 'I'm there,'" said Long.

Morris talked a little about what the Boys & Girls Club meant to him as a kid, as we now get to the serious part of the discussion. You might all want to hear the great quotes of people like Bill Yeend in attendance of the classic, the KIRO, now KOMO, morning radio show host that's thrilled us with his presentation of news that's been smooth as a glassy lake surface for over 40 years now. You all might want to hear something from Joe Callero, the Seattle University head boys basketball coach who is excited for this first upcoming season. He is excited, too, that Aaron Broussard, who helped the Federal Way Eagles do amazingly well this season, taking second place in the 4A boys state tournament last February.

OK, a little from Callero about Broussard, also a football and track star for the Eagles.

"The great thing about Aaron is he's physically ready to play D-1 ball," said Callero. "He's very coachable. He's from a successful program."

Eagles coach Jerome Collins has masterfully, consistently guided the Eagles' boys hoops to many state appearances, as many as any coach in the state probably minus Ed Pepples, of Mercer Island, who coincidentally, was at this local celebrity tournament.

Callero also mentioned the goodness he received from former Foster standout Darnell Lyons.

"He was great for the program," said Callero. "He was a great athlete here and has got a great sense of humor."

So that is good to hear from celeb Callero, talking about a starting out Redbird player and former one. Now let's hear about the kids that found happiness of "self" at the B&GC. Like Morris, who was able to get out and do things, thanks to the boys and girls club. And, heck, I bet Broussard and Lyons might even tell you they were a part of B&GC.

"I used to work at the YMCA," said Morris, who ran beside the likes of Curt Warner on the Hawks. "It did some things for me. And, for me, it's all about giving back. I was paid to play (paid a lot). I love working with kids. I went there for sports growing up. They taught me the basic fundamentals of being a good athlete. It wasn't about black and red, yellow and white. Everyone was the same there. It was about co-existing as a community, a melting pot."

Long, Morris' friend mentioned above, was listening. "It's important," he said. "It gives you somewhere to go as a kid. It's a positive environment.. It's important to us."

It's important to us, the conviction in Long's words there. Morris' nodding, really says it all.

Alexa Hartman, a junior at Federal Way High School now, was recently voted "Youth of the Quarter" and received an award in front of all the celebs in attendance that also participated in a raffle and auction featuring items like a signed Eldredge Recasner Husky shirt or Seattle University team gear or a bottle of vintage wine and a gift certificate in a basket.

"It is nice to be able to give her back something for giving so much of her time and energy and abilities to us," said B&GC's Shelly Puariea, executive director of the Federal Way chapter of the club for kids knee high to a grasshopper all the way to 18. Parents too can go to the club with little ones for inexpensive daycare, which we all know is a big expense for a parent. And, a lot of these kids are just that with a parent, not parents.

"Her mom drops her off in the morning on weekends and she gets paid for two hours and stays all day," said Jennifer Youngblood, a Unit Director for B&GC, speaking of Hartman. "People ask her questions and she does not get flustered. One kid one time came in with a bad bloody nose and was crying. She came over to him and said, 'Let me read you a book' It took his mind off his bloody nose that was really bleeding and wouldn't stop."

Something about Hartman just makes others there think that something is different when she's not there.

"On days she's sick, it's like something is missing," said Youngblood. "She's like Louie."

Louie?

Louie Grill. He graduated from Bates Technical College recently. When he was 16-17, Grill was nowhere thinking that kind of direction.

"Four years ago he didn't want to finish high school," said Puariea. "He was forced to do an internship (at B&GC). He came up with the idea of journalism. He wanted to write a newsletter, but (through doing that) he decided he wanted to work with kids on staff here."

Now Grill is a part of B&GC this summer before he will go off to the Evergreen College this Fall to be a teacher, getting a degree in Early Childhood Education from Bates.

Grill came from a single parent household, the youngest of six kids as a child.

"Mom was a truck driver. She drove local but she worked 15 hour shifts so she was not around much," said Grill. "The older siblings watched the younger."

It was a tough time of life, fair to say. Grill attended a alternative school in Federal Way, Harry S. Truman.

"Boys and girls club gave me inspiration and I want to give kids inspiration now," said Grill. "Boys and girls club gives you a new approach to learn something. It gave me the inspiration to better myself."

A lot of betterment goes on at the B&GC and these celebrity golfers were doing things to make a difference in our community. People like Calabro do these kind of things all over the state, rain or shine. Thankfully here it's always been 'shine' on this day, according to King anyway. And, Calabro has one year under his belt as host with perfect sunny weather.

If it's rainy, do you not go?

"You come out and bring a rainsuit," said Calabro. "Nothing should keep you from helping the kids. It was 40 degrees and raining at an event I was at last week."

It's important to the kids. These celebrities know that. Celebrities like Yeend, who Puariea mentioned a "Steak and a Burger" event of his where a kid got a steak and the sponsor got a burger, with 3,000 kids and celebrities out for that.

So this is big here in Federal Way, but it's one time a year. These kids' lives go on, though, often, as Puariea mentioned, in "barely making it" homes. You can guess. While your turning on your heat in the winter, they are turning off their heat. It's a Cinderella story, like Russel Crowe, in that movie, "Cinderella Man." Crowe did what it took to get his kids back when his wife told him they were gone to her mother's because they could not afford them.

What pain that is, but what a reality it is for kids from homes of that nature. Thanks to celebs donating so much of their time and money and the B&GC doing things in their way, the story can be like Grill and Hartman, "Happily Ever After."

"If I get an award for something I enjoy, it is just an added bonus," said Hartman.

You must be really proud of your daughter, Ms. Hartman.

"I am," she said. "Yes, I am."

Yes, we are, Alexa, Louie. "Yes, we are."