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In June 2010, Hal Zaima was watching a PGA Golf Tournament that was to benefit St. Jude Children’s Hospital. The concept was for PGA, LPGA and Champions Tour golf professionals to pledge $1,000 for each eagle they score during any tournament and donate to St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital. Hal thought the per eagle donation amount was a very generous, however realized that the number of participants were too small to make a huge impact.

Then the thought came to Hal. What if “we” could mobilize all of the private country clubs across the U.S. by having members donate $1 or $2 per eagle for any eagle scored by a member on their course, the program could have a long-lasting annual impact to help disadvantaged children across the U.S. With enough participants, a small donation such as $2 per eagle by each member could become a very large aggregate amount. The calculation indicated that if all 4,000 private golf clubs in the U.S. participated and with an average membership of 350 per club and 50 eagles per year, at $2 per eagle, that would equate to $140 million annually to help disadvantaged children. Eagles for Children® was born! 

Well, kind of, at least the idea was born, but Hal thought, someone else will come up with the idea and do it, but the idea just wouldn’t go away. Then in October 2011, he attended a church Men’s Retreat and bumped into Don Kegley, a friend and past president of Oakland Hills Country Club. During the retreat and on numerous other occasions, the idea of Eagles for Children kept popping up in Hal's head. Convinced that God wanted him to start Eagles for Children® and that he could no longer run from it, he incorporated, Eagles for Children®. 

On November 16, 2011, Don and Hal had coffee to talk about their faith walk and their respective opinion of the Men’s Retreat. They had a nice talk. At the end of their coffee, Hal decided to bring up the Eagles for Children® idea. It ignited Don’s heart. He was on fire and became the rocket fuel Eagles needed to launch Eagles for Children®. He shepherded the approval process with Oakland Hills’ Executive Board and Eagles for Children® became a reality.