When Bruce Pearl and wife Brandy arrived in Auburn one of the first things they looked for was a place to help out in the community. Now four years later their involvement with Children’s Harbor has produced the very successful benefit golf tournament Fore The Children.
Held at Willow Point Golf and Country Club in conjunction with a Sunday night dinner at auction, this year’s event is another successful one on the road to the $1 million goal set forth when the partnership began.
“The work that is done in Birmingham at the hospital to provide a safe harbor for kids that have to stay in the hospital way too long and of course the camps here on beautiful Lake Martin, Alabama Power and Russell Lands with Ben Russell have made it so easy for us to be able to come and have our tournament here,” Pearl said. “We told them that in five or six years we would raise a million dollars for Children’s Harbor and this is year four, and by the time we get done with this tournament the total could be north of $800,000.
“We’re making a difference and it’s all about Auburn family, it makes it so easy with our friends and people that support us,” Pearl added. “They’re here every year. We have a great time. We talk some basketball and we made a difference for the kids.”
Joined by former Auburn football coach Tommy Tuberville, former baseball Tigers such as Tim Hudson and Josh Etheridge, former women’s golf Coach Kim Evans and others, the event has taken on a life of itself and Pearl said it’s all due to the partnerships they have created over the years and the generosity of the Auburn people.
“What we’ve done in our foundation and what Tim Hudson has done in his foundation and what Jason Dufner has done and what Charles Barkley has done, we all try to help each other and Coach Malzahn,” Pearl said. “Everybody just goes out of their way to support one another and the situation that we’re in, Tim Hudson doesn’t want to be introduced. Jason Dufner wants to put his hat on and come out here and play golf and have a good time like everybody else and not looking for any more of the fanfare than any of the other folks that are out there playing and paying and supporting.
“I will say this, this tournament has been sold out from the very beginning and about 95 percent of the golfers played in it the first year,” Pearl pointed out.
Kicking off the event was a Sunday night get-together near Willow Point at a home owned by Ben Russell. Talking basketball and mingling with the guests, Pearl said the main goal was to raise money and they accomplished that.
“We had a great celebration last night,” Pearl said. “We auctioned off three things and made $40,000. That’s just the generosity and support and difference that is being made.
“The bottom line is, where would the community be without Children’s Harbor? Where would the kids that have to be in the hospital for a month’s stay go where there are no needles and no doctors and no IV’s? They’ve got a place they can go and play ping pong and watch a movie and relax because sometimes hospital stays can be long.
“Here at the lake kids with burns or with a heart condition or cancer, things like that, they have special needs and not every camp will take those children. Children’s Harbor will and they can boat and they can canoe and they can ski and do things at camp that children without special need or challenges don’t have. It happens every summer here for thousands of kids, so it’s really a special place.”
