Children’s of Alabama returns for the eighth year to host its “Tee Off Fore a Cure” weekend Feb. 22-23. The pre-party and silent auction on Friday night will kick off the weekend at the Wash House, located at 17111 Scenic Highway 98, Point Clear. The golf tournament will take place at Lakewood Golf Club located at 1

Grand Blvd., Point Clear, on Saturday along with a new, creative event -- Gracie’s Ball Drop.

The Friday pre-party is open to participating golfers and the public and begins at 6:30 p.m. The event costs $25

per couple and includes food, beverages, and live music from Shifting Tracks. Throughout the evening, pre-party guests can bid on more than 80 silent auction items including weekend beach getaways, clothes, jewelry, University of Alabama football keepsakes and 40 different pieces of art by local artists.

This year’s Tee Off weekend also includes a new fundraiser, Gracie’s Ball Drop. Up to 1,000 presold, numbered

golf balls will be dropped from a hot air balloon over a hole at Lakewood just before the first tee off. The first ball in or closest to the hole will win 50 percent of the ball drop proceeds. Anyone can purchase golf balls at

http://childrensal.kintera.org/graciesballdrop.

The Tee Off weekend and Gracie’s Ball Drop are held in honor of a local survivor and patient of Children’s of Alabama, Frances Grace Hirs, 13, of Fairhope. She has been the inspiration of this event for the past seven years for a simple reason -- she is a hero. Frances Grace fought cancer as a toddler. Two years later, she relapsed again, and today she is a two-time cancer survivor. She, along with her parents and the staff at Lakewood, are raising money and awareness for the cancer clinic at Children's of Alabama.

The golf tournament begins with a shotgun start at 9 a.m. on Saturday. Fees are $200 per golfer or $800 per team.

All proceeds will benefit the Alabama Centers for Childhood Cancer and Blood Disorders at Children's of

Alabama in Birmingham. Events are held annually to help raise funds to fight childhood cancer. To register for the pre-party or golf tournament, contact Kerrie Benson, Children's development associate, at 251-610-4969.

About Children’s of Alabama

Over the past seven years, Tee Off Fore A Cure has raised more than $416,000 for cancer research at Children's of Alabama. Children from Mobile and Baldwin counties made more than 1,700 visits to Children's in 2011 and 90 percent of all Alabama pediatric cancer patients are treated at Children's of Alabama.