ActionScript 3.0 :: Targeting An Event From A Different MC?

I made a  play/pause button for this project I'm working on (basically a slideshow with a different movieclips on each frame) and I have managed to get it to  target either the main timeline or a nested MC. The problem is with the  code I have is that the button will only work for one MC at a time. This  means I will need a separate play/pause button for each individual  slide. Is there some way to make a button that globally starts and stops  any MC without effecting the main timeline?
 
Here is the code I am using now:
 
stop(); 
pause_btn.addEventListener(MouseEvent.CLICK, stopplaying);function stopplaying(event:MouseEvent):void {    MovieClip(parent).green.stop();    gotoAndStop(2);}
 
Ned proposed adding an event at the beginning of each movie clip and programming the play/pause button to work that way. My problem (after spending a lot of time with it) is that I can't get my play/pause button (a MC itself) to target the event in a separate MC. 
 
This is my event placed on the first frame of my movie clip:
 
dispatchEvent(new Event("imHere"));
  
This is the code I have in the play/pause button that doesn't work:
 
stop(); 
pause_btn.addEventListener(MouseEvent.CLICK, stopplaying);function stopplaying(event:MouseEvent):void {    gotoAndStop(2);}

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