BARRINGTON — Betsy Akin has rounded up her coworkers and friends from the March of Dimes once again to make their annual three-day visit to Rhode Island Country Club.

Akin is not a golfer. Yet, over the next three days she will lead a team of nearly 50 people at the course. They will work a total of about 300 hours and not get paid a penny. Akin insists she and her co-workers will love every minute of it.

Kevin Sloan is going to spend most of the next three days at RICC, too, but in a very different way.

He will be one of seven executives of the GlaxoSmithKlein company who will enjoy themselves playing golf and attending dinners. In the process they will spend thousands of dollars. It is worthwhile on several levels, Sloan feels, not the least of which is that the money his company spends will end up helping Betsy Akin’s organization.

It is all part of the ninth annual CVS Caremark Charity Classic that begins with its pro-am today. If all goes as expected, while 20 of the world’s best pro golfers are competing for a $1.35-million purse, people like Akin and Sloan, organizations like the March of Dimes and GlaxoSmithKlein, will help raise more than $1 million for area charities.

CVS, of course, has received most of the credit for the tournament’s fabulous success, as it should. Co-hosts Brad Faxon and Billy Andrade have come in for considerable praise, as they should, for being the people behind raising more than $8 million for charity in the first eight years. Their event has become the only one of its kind in the country.

But CVS, Faxon and Andrade could not do it alone. They need people like Akin and Sloan. In all, about 1,000 volunteers will not only give their time, but pay (to buy shirts and a hat) for the right to help at the event. More than 400 businesses will join with CVS in putting up the money that allows so much to be given to area charities.

“We’re business partners with CVS. We work internally within their headquarters building to develop business plans. It only makes sense for us to be involved,” Sloan said.

“But the Charity Classic for us is about more than the fact that CVS is a major customer of ours. It’s an initiative that Tom Ryan and the whole organization at CVS has kind of made their pet project. It helps people.

“We’re happy to be part of that,” Sloan went on. “It allows us to spend time with people we are doing business with day in and day out with all year. It’s in a nice environment where we don’t talk about business, where we get to know them and they get to know us better.

“I’m a hacker, I love to play but I’m not a good golfer,” said Sloan, who comes in from Atlanta each year for the event. “You don’t have to be to enjoy yourself with the Charity Classic, with the am-am (that was held yesterday at Carnegie Abbey) and with the pro-am and especially with the tournament gala (tomorrow night).

“From my perspective as a manager I’ve found it has helped me and my team,” he went on. “It’s a fun outing for us. It builds morale. It’s a neat time. It’s something we all look forward to.”

Somewhere along the line, the GlaxoSmithKlein representatives are likely to cross paths with Akin and members of her team.

Akin is the state director of the March of Dimes. Shortly after she came to Rhode Island seven years ago, one of the medical people she worked with told her about the CVS Classic and how it had begun raising money for charity. Akin made inquiries about how the March of Dimes could become involved.

Ever since, the March of Dimes has been one of the 20 or so working charities. That is, they are charities that not only receive funding from the tournament, they provide some of the volunteers who work to make the event go off as planned.

The money the March of Dimes receives is earmarked specifically for its NICU project — the neonatal intensive care unit.

“The funds we receive support research and education that we do to stem the growing crisis of premature birth. Both in Rhode Island and the United States it is the leading cause of child death,” Akin said. “We have a program, a program we have at Women & Infants Hospital, the NICU, where we are able to support families that find themselves in the crisis of an early birth.”

In Rhode Island alone, 1,200 children are born prematurely. Money donated through the charity classic not only helps families, but also supports the staff at the hospital, as well.

Greg Costello, the tournament director, speaks about how there are so many people who help. Akin, he says, is one of those who goes the extra mile. The March of Dimes workers are on the hospitality committee.

“I know I speak on behalf of my volunteers when I say we love working toward a common goal, all coming together to pull off the success of the Charity Classic,” Akin said. “Our volunteers come back year after year. I think it shows how much they enjoy doing what they do. As an executive director of a working charity I really value the ability to collaborate and contribute to the event with all the other charities.

“Our volunteers aren’t even sure what they will be doing because it changes so much,” Akin said. “The reason we enjoy it is because there is a great deal of flexibility.

“Our volunteers get to interface with the corporate partners, get to work with some of the other charities and bring ambassador families through the suites. And they just love being around the golfers,” Akin said. “It is an opportunity for them to give back to the people who are helping our programs. They enjoy doing it.”

That seems to be the theme for the week: People working to help others, giving back to the tournament and the community, and having fun while they do it.

pkenyon@projo.com