The third annual Kylie Ann Rosset Memorial Golf Classic will be held May 12 at Metedeconk National Golf Club, Jackson.

This event helps local families whose children are fighting pediatric cancer. For a donation of $500, participants will be given a buffet lunch and a cocktail reception dinner after enjoying a day of golf.

They will also compete for prizes such as a car for a hole-in-one, and other prizes for being closest to the pin, having the longest drive, and winning the putting contest. Raffles and a silent auction will also highlight the day.

To register online or to find out how a business can help sponsor the event, visit the foundation’s Web site at www.kylie.org.

Four years ago, Gina and Henry Rosset of Rumson lost their youngest daughter, Kylie, 3, to cancer. The Rossets saw a need for advocacy and launched the Kylie Ann Rosset Memorial Foundation. They started with a Web site and a nonprofit organization classification.

The foundation serves families whose child with cancer is living or being treated in the metro New York, New Jersey, Connecticut area. Since the foundation’s beginning three years ago, about 30 families from the tristate area have been assisted by the Rossets — one-quarter of them from Monmouth County.

The foundation sees a need to give New Jersey families an alternative to commuting to New York for the best cancer treatments. Most recently focus has been given to Dr. Barton Kamen, head of pediatric oncology at the Bristol-Myers Squibb Children’s Hospital at Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital, New Brunswick.

Besides donating 10 wireless computer laptops so that young patients could keep in touch and keep up with homework while undergoing treatments, the foundation raised $50,000 for Dr. Kamen to further his cutting-edge research of childhood cancers.

While helping to broaden research efforts here, the Kylie Ann Rosset Memorial Foundation is also working hard for pediatric cancer advocacy.

Funding for pediatric cancer is significantly less than more publicized diseases, such as pediatric AIDS or juvenile diabetes, according to the foundation.

The incidence of pediatric cancer is 20 times greater than that of pediatric AIDS and more children die from cancer than from asthma, diabetes, cystic fibrosis, congenital anomalies and AIDS combined, according to information from the foundation.

Further information about how individuals or businesses can support this local effort nay be obtained by visiting www.kylie.org or by calling (732) 450-1250.