Local family honors one of their own with annual tournament.

On the dusty baseball mound of one of the city’s recreational fields, three young Red Sox became fast friends.

The friendship carried those young boys, Michael Wade, Jeff Gentry, and Paul Meyers, through their high school years and beyond.

Three years after the tragic loss of Vestavia native Meyers, who died in March 2012 after suffering from sudden cardiac arrest at the age of 33, Wade, Gentry and others are working to carry forward the ideals they most admired about the friend taken from them far too soon.

“I was in my front yard planting flowers with my daughter when the phone rang,” said Wade, describing the morning he and Meyers’ mutual best friend, Matthew Michael, called with the news. “I saw on the caller ID that it was Matt and I immediately felt uneasy, as he does not typically call me that early in the morning.” Not long before, Wade and Meyers had gotten together for one of their favorite traditions – Mullet Toss weekend at the Flora-Bama.

 “I was in kind of a daze after that,” he said. 

Fast forward one year later when Meyers’ sisters approached Wade with the idea of a golf tournament in Meyer’s honor, and he was all in.

“I love Paul and I love Paul’s mother and sisters,” he said. “It was rare that I would hang out with Paul without Julia, Margie, and Laura Ann. They were kind of a package deal. When Paul’s sisters asked me to be involved [in the tournament], it was a no brainer.”

Another lifelong friend of Meyers, David Dutton, is an enthusiastic supporter of the event, which he said serves as a fitting tribute for Meyers’ legacy, and is also befitting of the Meyers family. 

“Paul’s passing was no doubt the most difficult time for the Meyers,” said Dutton, who first met [Paul] Meyers in a local Cub Scout troop. “The circumstances could have destroyed them, but instead, they celebrate his life every day and carry his legacy forward with acts of kindness and gifts of love.”

In that spirit, the Meyers family, as it has done every year since the inaugural tournament in 2013, will donate proceeds from the event to the Paul Meyers Foundation. The nonprofit organization focuses on three priorities in Meyer’s honor, the first two of which were causes of particular importance to Meyers in his work as a public defender:

To provide medical treatment to severely underprivileged people;

To provide safety and rehabilitation to victims of human trafficking, and;

To educate the general public on the importance of early and continual screening for heart disease

Of the tournament itself, Dutton dubbed the affair a golfing event like no other, for golfers and non-golfers alike. 

“There is literally something fun for everyone of all ages and backgrounds,” he said. “The people involved in this tournament are family to me. I look forward to this day every year.”

This year’s event, will take place on Saturday, April 11 at Highland Golf Course. 

For more information,  please visit: paulmeyersfoundation.com.