Booth Fire & Safety is launching a golf tournament to honor Brittney Gorman Parrish, an active member of the Bowling Green community who passed away last year at 28 years old due to health complications.

The inaugural event, the Birdies for Brittney Memorial Golf Scramble, is scheduled Sept. 10 at Indian Hills Country Club.

On Friday, Booth Fire & Safety announced the news to a crowd of more than 175 people during a ribbon-cutting – a unique way to introduce a fundraiser, as the symbolic act of slicing threads is typically associated with grand openings or anniversaries of grand openings, according to Cassie Lain, the partnership services coordinator at the Bowling Green Chamber of Commerce, which partnered with Booth Fire & Safety to host the ribbon-cutting.

“That’s not normal,” Lain said, assigning an estimate of 40 to 80 people for an average ribbon-cutting. “That was a huge turnout.”

And Lain thinks she knows why attendance was so high.

“(Parrish) was a great person,” she said.

A Western Kentucky University graduate, an Etsy shop owner and the former president of the Bowling Green Junior Woman’s Club, Parrish grew an extensive network of friends and colleagues. She also left behind a husband, Terris Allen Parrish, a young daughter, Emery Rose Parrish, parents and siblings, according to her obituary.

Proceeds from the event will benefit a scholarship fund through the Bowling Green Junior Woman’s Club given each year to a senior at Bowling Green High School who has volunteered in the community, as well as Life’s Better Together, a nonprofit organization that provides financial assistance to families with a child or parent battling an ongoing illness.

The event also serves as an opportunity to educate the public about Parrish’s cause of death: acute myeloid leukemia. The rapidly progressing blood cancer interferes with the production of normal white blood cells, red blood cells and platelets, and generally only affects people older than the age of 45, according to the American Cancer Society.

In addition, Parrish’s early death opens eyes to the fragility of life, according to Lain.

“Brittney was someone very well known in the community,” she said. “You would think she was in good health. She was a young person. It’s a good way to make us aware of … how special our lives are on Earth.”

Parrish’s father, Doug Gorman, is the owner and president of Booth Fire & Safety. He was not immediately available for comment.

Pinnacle Financial will sponsor the event along with Booth Fire & Safety, the Murphy Construction Group, M&L Electrical, Scott, Murphy & Daniel and Logan Aluminum.

– More information about the event will be posted on the Birdies for Brittney Facebook page.

This article has been updated since its initial publication to correct references to the organizations that will benefit from the event.