Auburn’s gray skies briefly rained hundreds of golf balls Friday afternoon – all for the sake of supporting community service projects for children and families.

A helicopter, courtesy of Auburn-based Airwork LLC., swooped in over the municipal course’s par-5 10th hole to scatter 1,000 donated and pledged golf balls over a makeshift pin placed in the middle of the fairway.

Buckets of balls were deposited in separate, carefully-orchestrated drops in a closest-to-the-pin contest put on by the Kiwanis Club of the Valley, Auburn.

Two balls actually found the cup – Nos. 0788 and 2166, belonging to Barb Pitney and Heather Holte, respectively. They will split the $1,000 first-place prize and each will receive a free helicopter ride from Airwork.

The golf ball drop was part of a fundraising effort, “Helping Kids Out of the Rough,” for the community service-oriented Kiwanians, who held its 24th annual tournament at the Auburn Golf Course.

Proceeds from the tournament and ball drop will go to the club’s community service fund, a program that traditionally has given an estimated $20,000 to the Auburn community each year. The service club’s mission is to “make a difference, one child and one community at a time.”

According to Cara Rudd, former Miss Auburn and golf tournament chairperson for Kiwanis, the event will go a long way in closing a gap in the organization’s community service fund.

“We lost $15,000 in sponsorships this year and we had to make it up,” Rudd said.

The Kiwanis Club solicited donations to make it happen. Each donor purchased a ball for $5.

The Auburn Riverside High School Key Club assisted in numbering the balls.