It’s the mother of all fundraisers -- even by South Side standards -- and those standards are pretty high. The Oak Lawn Rotary Club will load 2,000 golf balls on to a helicopter and fly it over the Chamber of Commerce’s annual golf outing at Stony Creek. Hovering over a designated marker, the balls will be dropped into one tiny hole. The ball that falls in first (they’re numbered) or lands closest to the hole, will win some lucky person $5,000 -- plus other fabulous cash prizes.

The ball drop is part of the Oak Lawn Rotary Club’s efforts to raise money for the 9/11 First Resopnders Monument to be installed outside the Oak Lawn Metra Station. The sculpture will be dedicated on the tenth anniversary of the terrorist attacks on America on Sept. 11.

Rotary Club member and executive director of the Children's Museum in Oak Lawn Adam Woodworth is the official ball dropper.

The Rotary Club has commissioned a world-class sculptor – Erik Blome - who plans to build a grove of obelisks and four beams from the fallen World Trade Center that Oak Lawn acquired from the New York-New Jersey Port Authority. The installation costs $100,000 and the Rotary Club has raised more than half the money toward that goal. No public money is being used for the monument.

To commemorate the ball drop, the Goal Post at 5270 W. 95^th St. is hosting a golf ball party on Monday July 11. Buy a golf ball or two or three, and enjoy unlimited beer and wine between 6 and 8:30 p.m.

Golf balls are $20 apiece; or three for $50. Ten cash prizes are being offered. The ball drop takes place on Wednesday during the Oak Lawn Chamber of Commerce golf outing. Come visit Patch at beer hole while we’re still coherent.

Visit Monumental Oak Lawn for more information or to buy a golf ball through PayPal. All proceeds benefit the 9/11 First Responders Monument.

Then come back to Oak Lawn Patch on Wednesday evening and we'll have video of 2,000 golf balls being poured out of a helicopter.