Last year's Kukoo project was so successful in educating the children of the Boys & Girls Club and raising much-needed funds, organizers had to one-up themselves this year.

"We decided to give [Kukoo] a friend," explained Barbara Sullivan, director of Wareham's Boys & Girls Club. "A fish!"

Kukoo, a bird and the Club's mascot, had given the children a new understanding of their avian neighbors. This year, a fish-themed educational component had Boys & Girls Club members visiting the New Bedford Whaling Museum, creating masterpieces in fish art projects, and exploring a marsh behind the Club with the Buzzards Bay Coalition.

The adventure culminated in a dinner and auction — complete with remote-controlled helium balloon fish — held June 16 at the Kittansett Club in Marion.

"We are most focused on the children who are at risk and need the support of the community to attend the Club and its programs," Sullivan said in explaining the importance of the fundraiser.

Jose Gonsalves, who serves as President of the Board of Directors of the Boys & Girls Club of Greater New Bedford/Wareham, concurred.

"Just remember that you're helping all these kids ... who do not really have someone in their life to pull for them," he said.

More than 110 bidders battled for everything from marine photography to a sunset sail on Buzzards Bay to hand-carved fish, a clam boil for twenty, and an entire kayak set-up — complete with lessons from local legend, environmentalist, and avid kayaker Richard Wheeler.

Robert Mendes, executive director of the Boys & Girls Club of New Bedford/Wareham, was thankful for the support.

"The difference that you made will go on for the next year," he told the crowd, "and for some of our kids, will go on for the rest of their lives."