Tracey – Osgoode Family Ball Tournament

DIFD Photos

A few of the Executive Committee members were lucky enough to be attend the DIFD/The Royal Customer-Led Event Appreciation evening recently. They honoured more than 125 local events that have donated money to DIFD/The Royal over the last 18 months.

It was nice to share the evening with everyone, and it was even better to hear that in total, there were more than 185,000 people made aware of mental illness through the combined attendance of the events, and that our $8000 donation was a part of their total donations of $1,075,000 in that time span. Pretty remarkable.

Oh yes, and we got to get our picture taken with Alfie. 🙂

Here are the photos they sent us from that evening:

Now how did this one get in there? LOL (okay I’m sorry I cropped the boys out of it … just be grateful I didn’t post the one I also cropped Kim out of) haha ~ Tracey

2012

This year (2012) we are hosting our 22nd annual Osgoode Family Ball Tournament.

This year the tournament will be on Friday, August 10th and Saturday, August 11th.

City Site Rental & Other City Info: we have notified the city about our site plan. Hopefully it will all go better this year!

Each year, we need to notify our contact at the ByLaw department, and they do the rest for us in notifying the Councillor’s office, the City Clerk, the health department, the police department, the fire department and the building department that we are having an outdoor event. We need to have running water and a handwash unit for the staff (which we do). We will be renting the inside washrooms again this year. Job Jar: City Liaison: (Tracey & Marty)

Charities:

Our major charity this year is the D.I.F.D. (Do It For Daron) Program. We are donating the majority of our proceeds to this great program. We donate in honour of many of our families who have been touched by teen depression and even suicide, with the hope that we can become more aware and offer those in need help when they need it.

Their story:

“D.I.F.D. is a youth-driven initiative focused on raising awareness and inspiring conversations about youth mental health. Created by friends and family of Daron Richardson who lost her life to suicide at the young age of 14, D.I.F.D. is inspired by hope for a future where young people will reach out for help without fear or shame. D.I.F.D. supports programs and initiatives aimed at transforming youth mental health.“

Job Jar: DIFD Liaison: (Tracey D’Aviero)

We will also be donating to at least two smaller charities this year: the Township of Osgoode Care Centre and the Osgoode Youth Association. The Care Centre will be manning our barbecue Saturday and O-YA will be staffing our kids’ corner on Friday and Saturday this year, each in exchange for a donation. Job jar: Care Centre liaison (Brenden Holmes); O-YA liaison (Marty).

Teams:

Confirmed teams: Blanchfield, Bracken, Brogan, Chambers, Churchill, Clingin, B. Dewan, W. Dewan, Downey, Holmes, Kelly, McEvoy, Moloughney, Quinn, Rowan, Thompson.

Entertainment:

Friday night will be karaoke with the Thompsons (bring your courage and your best singing voice!), and Saturday afternoon from 1 to 4 pm we will have The Two Paddys (Kelly and Maher!) and Saturday evening from 8 to close we will have the new and improved 4 piece Brandy n Port (yes, TWO bands again this year!).

Food:

We will be getting the food order from Osgoode Foodland again this year. Phil will liaise with Andy at the store. We will get the barbecue items, pop, water and other miscellaneous items including ICE.

We will have sandwiches for Friday night and over the weekend as well, thanks to the Rowans (Fri) and the Clingins (Sat). We will have the barbecue Saturday from 11 to 7. We are also going to have hot pulled pork sandwiches late Saturday night again this year courtesy of Tony D’Aviero.

Job jar: Foodland liaison (Phil); Sandwiches (Fri – Rowan; Sat – Clingins); Pulled Pork & Buns (Tony D’Aviero).

Other Food:

Chips: We will get from Costco or Walmart.

Coffee & Donuts: We have coffee Friday and Saturday nights, as well as on Saturday morning. Amanda Nixon is picking up a Tim Hortons coffee kit for Saturday morning, so finally those who play the 8 a.m. game will have something to look forward to! She will also get donuts as usual. Job jar: Coffee and Donuts (Amanda Nixon).

Bar:

We will be picking up our beer from the Beer Store in Manotick again this year. We are sticking with our tall boy cans this year as they cooled much faster than bottles. We will be focusing on recycling cans again this year (they are returnable). We will get our liquor from Raymond’s in Osgoode. Job Jar: Beer Store (Marty); Liquor Store (Tracey)

Paul has been in contact with our (new) local beer company rep, for prizes. Anyone else with prizes should contact Paul as well.

Kids’ Corner:

Ozzie’s Corner will be set up near the kids corner again this year, in addition to the regular colouring, face paint, balloons and candy. Job Jar: (Cathy Quinn)

Prizing:

Each team is to bring a prize valued at $25 for the team MVP draw. Each team will win one prize for their MVP. Job Jar: (prize coordination: Ellen).

Extra Revenue:

We will have the regular 50/50 draw as well as some raffle items. Mary will coordinate this for us again this year. We will seek out advertising from Daley Family Funeral Home and Riverside South Mini Storage again this year.

See the job jar page for the complete list of things that we need help with.

If you know someone who can donate anything at all, please get in contact with one of the committee members. If you are able to take care of any of the ‘job jar’ items, please be sure to get in touch with us as well. Much of the job jar was divvied up at the meeting, we appreciate that! Every little bit helps.

HOME RUN DERBY

We will have the Home Run Derby again this year on Saturday night at 7:00 p.m. sharp, right before the final games.

Details forthcoming about rules and regs for the home run derby.

2011 – our 21st year

2011 marks our 21st year of hosting the Osgoode Family Ball Tournament.

This year the tournament will be on Friday, August 5th and Saturday, August 6th.

City Site Rental & Other City Info: we have to start notifying the city earlier next year because we ran into quite a snag with trying to get our liquor license this year. All ended well, but we will now make a practice of notifying the city 60 days ahead of our event (even though we still know they only need 21 days’ notice!) Each year, we need to notify our contact at the ByLaw department, and they do the rest for us in notifying the Councillor’s office, the City Clerk, the health department, the police department, the fire department and the building department that we are having an outdoor event. We need to have running water and a handwash unit for the staff (which we do). We will be renting the inside washrooms again this year. Job Jar: City Liaison: (Tracey & Marty)

Charities:

Our major charity this year is the former Osgoode Home Support program – it’s now called the Rural Ottawa South Support Services (ROSSS). We are donating the majority of our proceeds to this great service this year. We donate in honour of many of our families who have required the Osgoode Home Support services over the years. .

Their mission is:

“… to build a rural centre of excellence that advocates and champions the rights of seniors, caregivers and persons with physical disabilities.“

Job Jar: ROSSS Liaison: (Cathy Quinn)

Teams:

Confirmed teams: Blanchfield, Bracken, Brogan, Chambers, Churchill, Clingin, B. Dewan, W. Dewan, Downey, Holmes, Kelly, McEvoy, Moloughney, Quinn, Rowan, Thompson.

Entertainment:

Food:

Job jar: Foodland liaison (Phil); Sandwiches (Fri – Rowan; Sat – Clingins); Pulled Pork & Buns (Tony D’Aviero).

Other Food:

Chips: We will get from Costco or Walmart.

Bar:

Paul has been in contact with our (new) local beer company rep, for prizes. Anyone else with prizes should contact Paul as well.

Kids’ Corner:

Ozzie’s Corner will be set up near the kids corner again this year, in addition to the regular colouring, face paint, balloons and candy. Job Jar: (Cathy Quinn)

Prizing:

Each team is to bring a prize valued at $25 for the team MVP draw. Each team will win one prize for their MVP. Job Jar: (prize coordination: Ellen).

Extra Revenue:

See the job jar page for the complete list of things that we need help with.

HOME RUN DERBY

We will have the Home Run Derby again this year on Saturday night at 7:00 p.m. sharp, right before the final games.

Details forthcoming about rules and regs for the home run derby.

Bring on our 20th anniversary!

Schedule’s ready! Click here to download it: http://www.familyballtournament.com/2010Schedule.xls

—————————————————————————————————————————————————-

2010 marks the 20th anniversary of the Osgoode Family Ball Tournament.

This year the tournament will be on Friday, August 6th and Saturday, August 7th.

We had our first planning meeting on June 25 and here are the details thus far:

City Site Rental & Other City Info: will only be $395 this year plus liability insurance. Balance is due July 26. Each year, we need to notify the City Clerk, the health department, the police department, the fire department and the building department that we are having an outdoor event. We need to have running water and a handwash unit for the staff. We will be renting the inside washrooms again this year. Job Jar: City Liaison: (Tracey & Marty)

Charities:

Our major charity this year is the Winchester District Memorial Hospital Foundation. We are donating the majority of our proceeds to the hospital foundation this year. Normally we donate in honour of a specific family, but for this year we know that the Winchester Hospital has touched the lives of many, if not all, of our team families, and we are donating in honour of all of us.

Their motto is:

“The Friendship of Those we Serve is the Foundation of our Success!”

Job Jar: WDMH Foundation Liaison: (Debbie and Kim Churchill)

Teams:

Confirmed teams: Blanchfield, Bracken, Brogan, Brophy, Chambers, Churchill, Clingin, B. Dewan, W. Dewan, Downey, Holmes, Kelly, McEvoy, Quinn, Rowan, Thompson. (Moloughney family is out for this year)

Entertainment:

Friday night will be karaoke with the Thompsons (bring your courage and your best singing voice!), and Saturday afternoon from 1 to 4 pm we will have The Two Paddys (Kelly and Maher!) and Saturday evening from 8 to close we will have Brandy n Port (yes, TWO bands this year!). Looking forward to having everyone present for our 20th anniversary party!

Food:

We will be getting the food order from Osgoode Foodland again this year. Phil will be in touch with Andy at the store. We will get the barbecue items, pop, water and other miscellaneous items including ICE.

We will have sandwiches for Friday night and over the weekend as well, thanks to the Brackens (Fri) and the Clingins (Sat). We will have the barbecue Saturday from 11 to 7. We are also going to have hot pulled pork sandwiches late Saturday night again this year courtesy of Tony D’Aviero.

Job jar: Foodland liaison (Phil); Sandwiches (Fri – Bracken; Sat – Clingins); Pulled Pork & Buns (Tony D’Aviero).

Other Food:

Christine will try to get the chips and pop donated from the Humpty Dumpty rep and the Coca Cola rep in Metcalfe, as she did last year.

Coffee & Donuts: We have coffee Friday and Saturday nights, as well as on Saturday morning. Sharron Dewan is picking up a Tim Hortons coffee kit for Saturday morning, so finally those who play the 8 a.m. game will have something to look forward to! Tooti will be bringing us our annual fix of Timmys donuts Saturday morning as well. Job jar: Coffee (Sharron Dewan); Tim Hortons Donuts (Tooti).

Bar:

We will be picking up our beer from the Beer Store in Manotick again this year. We are sticking with our tall boy cans this year as they cooled much faster than bottles. We will be focusing on recycling cans again this year (they are returnable). We will get our liquor from the Manotick Liquor Store as well. Job Jar: Beer Store (Marty); Liquor Store (Tracey)

Paul has been in contact with Martin Ballard, our local beer company rep, for prizes. Anyone else with prizes should contact Paul as well. Brenda Brogan will help Paul acquire prizes from the beer rep.

Kids’ Corner:

Ozzie’s Corner will be set up near the kids corner again this year, in addition to the regular colouring, face paint, balloons and candy. Job Jar: (Cathy Quinn)

Prizing:

Each team is to bring a prize valued at $20-$25 for the team MVP draw. Each team will win one prize for their MVP. Job Jar: (prize coordination: Ellen).

Extra Revenue:

We will have the regular 50/50 draw as well as some raffle items. Mary will coordinate this for us again this year. We may have a silent auction this year, as well as a new fundraising item that is to be announced once details are worked out. We will seek out advertising from Daley Family Funeral Home and Riverside South Mini Storage again this year.

See the job jar page for the complete list of things that we need help with.

If you know someone who can donate anything at all, please get in contact with one of the committee members. If you are able to take care of any of the ‘job jar’ items, please be sure to get in touch with us as well. Much of the job jar was divvied up at the last meeting, we appreciate that! Every little bit helps.

HOME RUN DERBY

We will have the Home Run Derby again this year on Saturday night at 7:15 p.m. sharp, right before the final games.

Details forthcoming about rules and regs for the home run derby.

ALUMNI GAME

We will also be hosting an alumni game for our 20th anniversary. It will take place Saturday afternoon.

Details forthcoming about the alumni game.

The results!

Well, we will be doing a full tournament analysis sometime over the next couple of days, but for those of you who are wondering how the tournament ended up …

We had a record year for profits, due in part to a very generous donation from anonymous donors.

We will be giving away $10,000 to charity this year!

Bruyere Foundation will be the recipients of most of our proceeds, with $8,750 going to their very worthy organization. We are giving our money in memory of Eleanor Thompson, the matriarch of the Thompson family from our tournament, who we lost this year. We are proud to provide the Foundation of such a wonderful hospital with such a significant donation.

We will also be giving the Township of Osgoode Care Centre a donation of $750 for their wonderful help at our Saturday barbecue. We appreciate the volunteers coming out to help us every year, and we are happy that we can count on them to feed us all day long! Thanks to Leo Noiles and his staff for their continued support of our tournament!

We will also be giving the Osgoode Youth Association a donation of $500 for helping us keep the kiddies busy with our Kids Corner. They provided us with staff all weekend for kids’ face painting, crafts and candy sales. We are very grateful for the wonderful organization of Nicole, Sara and Anne. We will definitely be calling you to help again next year! 🙂

I will expand on the tournament results in the next post, but it’s worth noting that the Brogan team won the A Division handily this year over the Holmes family. Both undefeated in the round robin, this was a surprise defeat by the Brogans, with a final score of 26 to 3. The Brogans take home the A Division ‘John Downey Memorial’ Trophy for a superb result this year. The Kelly family took the B Division title this year over the Blanchfields. The game was close at 13 to 9, but the Blanchfields just couldn’t pull ahead of the mighty Kellys. (That’s okay, Kellys will have fun in the A Division for next year!) The Kellys get to put their name on the B Division ‘Dick Blanchfield Memorial’ Trophy for this year …

Many thanks are coming, as are details and stories of this year’s event, and photos too!

Come back in a few days to check us out! There is MUCH more to come!

Thanks to everyone who played or helped out in any way. We rely on you every year to put together and take apart this wonderful event.

The Schedule is Posted!

The 2009 Schedule is ready … great games in store, as always.

Click on the following link to view or save a copy:

http://www.familyballtournament.com/2009TournamentSchedule.xls

As well, we are having a Home Run Derby on Saturday.

Details are in the post below, or download a copy of our poster here:

http://www.familyballtournament.com/HomeRunDerby.doc

Year 19 – Are You Ready?

Year 19.

It hardly seems possible, but we are about to host The Family Ball Tournament for the 19th time.

The dates are Friday, August 7 and Saturday August 8th this year.

We had our first planning meeting on June 23 and here are the details thus far:

City Site Rental & Other City Info: will be $1214 this year including liability insurance. Balance is due July 26. Each year, we need to notify the City Clerk, the health department, the police department, the fire department and the building department that we are having an outdoor event. We need to have running water and a handwash unit for the staff. We will be renting the inside washrooms again this year. Job Jar: City Liaison: (Tracey & Marty)

Charities:

Our major charity this year is the Elizabeth Bruyere Hospital Foundation. We are donating the majority of our proceeds to this wonderful organization this year, in memory of Eleanor Thompson.

Their mission statement:

Bruyère Foundation inspires the community to make a difference in the lives of the most vulnerable in our society through philanthropy and the stewardship of funds, guided by the mission and values of the Sisters of Charity of Ottawa and by the core values of justice, respect, compassion, community spirit and learning.

We are proud to be working with the Foundation this year for an organization that is so close to the hearts of two of our Executive Committee members, Vince and Mick Thompson, and their family. Job Jar: Bruyere Liaison: (Tracey)

We will also be donating to at least two smaller charities this year: the Township of Osgoode Care Centre and the Osgoode Youth Association. The Care Centre will be manning our barbecue Saturday and O-YA will be staffing our kids’ corner on Saturday this year, each in exchange for a donation. Job jar: Care Centre liaison (Sharron Dewan); O-YA liaison (Marty).

Teams:

Confirmed teams: Blanchfield, Bracken, Brogan, Chambers, Churchill, Clingin, B. Dewan, W. Dewan, Downey, Holmes, Kelly, McEvoy, Moloughney, Quinn, Rowan, Thompson. (Brophy family is out for this year … the Holmes family was one of the original families in the Family Ball Tournament … welcome back, almost a generation later!)

Entertainment:

Friday night will be karaoke with the Thompsons (bring your courage and your best singing voice!), and Saturday night we have The Two Paddys (Kelly and Maher!) coming out to sing the best Celtic tunes so we can dance the night away.

Food:

We will be getting the food order from Osgoode Foodland again this year. We will get the order to Andy as soon as possible. We will get the barbecue items, pop, water and other miscellaneous items.

We will have sandwiches for Friday night and over the weekend as well. We will have the barbecue Saturday from 11 to 7. We are also going to have hot pulled pork sandwiches late Saturday night, for those who fancy a snack after the band starts to play. We have previously had the barbecue meat donated, but we will need to purchase it this year (unless someone has a contact they can get donations from).

Job jar: Foodland liaison (Phil); Sandwiches (Fri – Bracken; Sat – open); Pulled Pork & Buns (Tony D’Aviero).

Other Food:

Christine will try to get the chips and pop donated from the Humpty Dumpty rep and the Coca Cola rep in Metcalfe, as she did last year.

Bar:

This year we are going back to buying our beer from the Beer Store in Manotick – Marty will work with Mike Brophy to get a contact there so when we pick up the beer it is cold. We are also switching to tall boy cans for faster cooling and better cost (we will be using the troughs and ice again this year for beer). We will be getting some recycle bins to place around the beer tent so that we can recover the returnable cans. We will get our liquor from the Manotick Liquor Store as well. Job Jar: Beer Store (Marty); Liquor Store (Tracey)

Paul has been in contact with Martin Ballard, our local beer company rep, for prizes. Anyone else with prizes should contact Paul as well.

Kids’ Corner:

Look for something special in the kids’ corner this year, in addition to the regular colouring, face paint, balloons and candy.

Prizing:

Each team is to bring a prize valued at $20-$25 for the team MVP draw. Each team will win one prize for their MVP. Job Jar: (prize coordination: Ellen).

Extra Revenue:

See the job jar page for the complete list of things that we need help with.

If you know someone who can donate anything at all, please get in contact with one of the committee members. If you are able to take care of any of the ‘job jar’ items, please be sure to get in touch with us as well. We will be assigning each job to a family soon enough (and many more little jobs along the way), so don’t be afraid to speak up if there is something you want to help with.

HOME RUN DERBY

We are having a new fundraising and fun idea this year coordinated by Christine Rowan.

We will host a Home Run Derby on Saturday night at 7:15 p.m. sharp, right before the final games.

There will be 20 spots available to enter – the entry fee is $10. There is one spot available for each team to enter someone in the derby, plus four extra spots. If a family does not want to enter someone, then their spot will be up for grabs. We will take sign ups until Saturday at 4 p.m. If there are more registrants than open spots, we will draw for the ‘non-family’ spots.

Each home run derby contestant will get 5 pitches from their own pitcher. The winner will be determined by number of home run hits, and if there is a tie, the winner will be the one who hit the farthest. The winner of the derby will get their name on a new trophy, and will get bragging rights for the year.

The fine print: We have allowed only a half hour for the home run derby, so it will have to begin promptly at 7:15 and anyone who is involved will need to be on time or they will forfeit their spot. Fee must be paid prior to 7 p.m. There will be no warmup pitches on the field, so be sure to practice with your pitcher before the derby.

Looking forward to an exciting new event!

Thanks … we’ll be in touch soon!

Our home online … permanently!

Here we are at our permanent home – www.familyballtournament.com – I hope you enjoy finding your way away around, and definitely point any questions at all to us via email.

Be sure to join our mailing list, and invite your family and friends to do so as well. It will be used to keep you up to date on new and info about the tournament.

I will be attempting to get some other items added to the website that we used to have on the old site before dismantling that one (ie. our links to our sponsors, and our photos, and so on) as soon as I can, so come back often to see what’s new here.

If you are interested in contributing to this site (blogging, photos, anything at all), please let us know via email, and I will set you up with a user account so that you can contribute! This is a WordPress platform site, so users can log in from any computer and add content to it very easily. If you don’t know how to use it, I can show you the ropes.

As well, feel free to use the ‘comments’ in this site to leave your opinion about the things we put up here.

Thanks for coming by – be sure to sign up for the list – we will be using this as our main communication method moving forward (and it will protect everyone’s email addresses as well, since they will be private with the mailing list system that we are using), and of course, you can opt-out any time you like (but I don’t know why you would ever want to!) :).

Thanks a bunch,

Tracey

Make A Wish Donation $5250

Paul Downey presents our record donation of $5250 to Mike Wlotzki, Executive Director of the Make A Wish Foundation of Eastern Ontario.
Thanks to everyone who helped us have such a great year in 2008!

Well, well, well …. a RECORD year!

We could not have asked for better weather. Seriously, we do not know how the rainy weather passed us by during the ball tournament weekend, but we sure are glad that it did!

We had record crowds all weekend long, and as a result, we raised record proceeds.

This year we managed to raise $5,250 for our major charity, The Make A Wish Foundation of Eastern Ontario, and $750 for the Township of Osgoode Care Centre, and $500 for the Osgoode Youth Association. That’s a total of $6,500 raised in a day and half. Thanks so much to everyone for coming out, and for staying!

Friday night was fantastic – I always totally enjoy Friday … it’s great to see people arrive at the park and greet each other. Some haven’t seen each other since last year’s tournament! Lots of hugs, and everyone always has the biggest grins on their faces .. because it’s finally here again!

As I stand in the gazebo and watch folks arrive, I am reminded that there will be some people who will not be here this year … they have left us … and I think about visiting with them last year. That’s one of the best parts of the ball tournament, collecting those kinds of memories.

As the teams and spectators stream in, I see how much the kids have grown … that one who was a baby last year is running around … that toddler is speaking full sentences … that young lad is playing in his first family ball tournament … that girl has her driver’s license … it’s astonishing how quickly life flies by us! How nice that we are able to watch them grow up before our very eyes! And how wonderful to be able to slow it down for a weekend of hanging out with loved ones …

There were awesome ball games and then there were tunes! We had a great evening Friday night – terrific crowds – and the Blanchfields were behind the bar like the old days (!). The weather was a little cool, but not too bad.

Angie Thompson rocked the stage with some acoustic tunes, karaoke and open mike. Great job, Angie!! Special thanks to Justin Falardeau and Vince Thompson for their performances! Sorry we ran out of beer at the bar, but you know, that’s just the sign of a great party!!

Saturday morning I have to admit I was allowed to sleep in …. aaah … thanks Phil and Marty, for tending to the coffee. Kinda nice to arrive when everything is in full swing! (that’s a baseball joke hehe).

Saturday we spent most of the day watching the sky – waiting for it to fall in! To our utter amazement it did not, and the games went on.

This year on Saturday afternoon we did something a bit different – our charity’s Executive Director, Mike Wlotzki, wanted to come out to say a few words to us about their organization. He took the stage at 2:30ish and explained how our proceeds would go directly to a sick child who had asked for a wish. It might be a trip somewhere, or something else that the child wishes for. It is incredible that this year we will know exactly where our money goes. We can’t wait to hear who we helped! We will post here when we know.

After Mike’s speech, the Make A Wish team played a game against the Kellys. We hear they had a lot of fun, and contributed to the Kellys near-perfect weekend. 🙂 Then we actually made them work the bar. They had a great time but they sure couldn’t believe how busy we were! They will be remembered as one of our hardest working charities for sure, and we were so pleased that they got so involved in our fund-raising efforts this year! Special thanks goes to Tina Eggens who did the office legwork for us, but was unable to attend the tournament, as she was out of town. There’s always next year, Tina!

The results were close this year in both divisions, and it came down to the last couple of games to determine who would be in the finals. Great scheduling, as always, by Paul. I still don’t know what we would do without him.

The final games started a bit late because we did the draws before the games, but they finished up right in time for Brandy n Port to take the stage. I don’t know about you guys, but when Danny Byrne gets on that mike, I just really know I’m at the ball tournament. It may be partly because he teases me non-stop, but every year when I hear him start talking, I always know the party of the year is about to begin. I’m so happy the lads came out to entertain us again this year. Truth be told, I think they have as much fun as we do! The McEvoys RAWKED the bar, and the dance floor was always full. Janet McEvoy is the first person I’ve seen swing on the rafters in the gazebo since Mike Doyle and Gerry Duplessis. Hell of a party, gang … hell of a party.

The Brophy team came out on top of the Kellys in the B Division by a score of 16-11. I wish Meredith could have been there to see Conor kiss the trophy! (get well, Mer!)The Downeys will get their name engraved on the A Trophy again this year after their defeat of the Brogans, 14-9 (oops, score is right now!). Paul presented the trophy to Angela Doyle, but only after she put the Downey team t-shirt on!

Mick Thompson spoke after the hardware was handed out, and led our moment of silence for the family members and friends who are no longer with us. Then he surprised Marty, Phil, Paul and me with plaques for our tireless efforts (…what??) over the years. I think I can speak for the boys when I say they’re not tireless efforts at all … we are plenty tired! haha

But really, we REALLY DO do it for charity, we do it for fun, we do it for the memories. Thanks for the recognition, but we couldn’t do it without all of you. It takes so much to get it going, happening, and wrapped up, that we really appreciate every little effort from everyone. We also really appreciate the support of our spouses every year. Y’all are good people.

Congratulations to all of the winners!

Thanks so much also to the Care Centre volunteers who ran our barbecue and the O-YA volunteers who helped out at our kids table. Thanks to all of our sponsors as well – see the list at the right.

Each year I think I’ll step down from the committee, and then things get rolling, and before we know it, the weekend gets here and I just don’t know what I would do if I wasn’t milling around in the background. My team would probably make me play … ack! … no one wants to see that!

Anyway I’m so proud of everyone who lends their support in every way, to help us continue to put this amazing weekend on each year – thanks for everything.

We’ll see you all next year! When? Why, the weekend after the long weekend in August, of course!

Tracey

on behalf of
Marty, Phil, Paul, Cathy, Mary, Martha, Vince, Mick, Christine, and everyone else in charge. 🙂