By Annabeth Miller
In 1999 two young men walked into my office. I’d known them both for quite a while. The younger one even sat around a Sunday School table when I tried to lead the class. Good young men. Their dad was like another brother - he always seemed to be at our house with my oldest brothers as I was growing up and he was part of the of the crowd in the back of the old Methodist Church.
These young brothers had an idea. Let’s play golf, have some fun together, and while we’re at it raise money for a great cause and help folks genuinely in need. Not a half-bad idea.
Scott and Ben Kruse seemed to have it all planned out. The money raised would go to the V-Foundation, named for legendary Coach Jim Valvano.
The local charity would help fight an insidious disease – cancer. Thus, 18 Fore Life was born, and in those years since much has happened, the event has grown, and has become a small-town miracle.
The organization the Kruse Brothers created and have inspired is so much, much more than just another golf tournament. It is more than a banquet, more than another silent auction. There is heart, soul, and joy in this weekend; it is one of the special parts of this community that makes Dexter a unique place. The work of this weekend lives 365 days a year through the everyday love and kindness and spirit of the 18 Fore Life Foundation.
Think about it: Because of the work of 18 Fore Life, more than half a million dollars has gone to families right here in the Bootheel. No administrative costs, nothing taken out for staff, or “overhead”. More than $600,000 to families right here at home – families who are battling the enemy called “cancer”. Love gifts – real gifts of love from the heart and the joy of a community banding together.
And there is another aspect. Because of the work started through 18 Fore Life, there are so many more people involved in the fight against cancer. The middle school volleyball squad started a “pink” game tradition that last fall moved to DHS. And the DHS game saw macho high school guys donning pink, a Poplar Bluff squad wearing their pink jerseys along with Dexter, and a Poplar Bluff coach and former Dexter resident talking about her own fight against breast cancer.
And the “pink” revolution is now in other county schools, all raising awareness about the disease and funds to help those fighting breast cancer in the county –all through 18 Fore Life.
And let’s not forget the 10 Pins For Ben, when kids and grownups have fun bowling to raise funds for cancer – this time for kids fighting cancer at St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital in Memphis. Then there are the church groups, community organizations, fishing tournament, Claus of for a Cause, and families who raise funds throughout the year for 18 Fore Life – all to help families facing the battle against the “Big C”.
This weekend is more than a golf tournament, more than a banquet. It’s more than a duo of inspirational speakers, a silent auction, more than the traditional toast to Ben.
This weekend is, in many ways, a testament of all that is right, and good, and decent about small communities like Dexter. It is about a community banding together for a common cause, it is working with joy and spirit together to help another.
So, thank you to the Kruse Brothers and their family and friends for wanting to do something good and simple – something that is fun and valuable and that has become a real part of the heart of this community. It has lived through the years.
What an incredible legacy to Ben, and to those who have fought the fight against cancer.
Annabeth Miller is a Dexter native and editor of the ShowMe Times.
