Tag: family ball

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

Our home online … permanently!

Got_MailHere 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

Well, well, well …. a RECORD year!

Phil, Tracey, Paul, Marty & Mick

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. 🙂

Tournament Planning

We have had our second meeting with the team reps:

Here are the details for this year’s tournament:

City Site Rental
Contract verified, diamonds booked, beer garden liability insurance purchased payment of $810 – payment made July 24th.
Ball Diamond Markings – Paul will get the bags and chalk again this year.
Chairs & Tables – Sean Blanchfield will bring his chairs and tables. People should bring lawnchairs in case we need extra seating.
Setup & Teardown – Friday setup families: the committee families.
Sunday teardown families: to be determined over the weekend.

Charity – Major
Make A Wish Foundation of Eastern Ontario
suggested by the Downey family.
They have approved liquor license and we have a link to their information on our website (below).

Charities – Minor
Osgoode Township Care Centre doing BBQ again – Phil is in contact – the barbecue will be run from noon till 7 p.m. We are looking into having another barbecue on site (or keeping theirs) to provide longer food service hours, as evening barbecue can be very busy & profitable.
Kids Corner by O-YA – Tracey is in contact with O-YA

Teams
Confirmed: Blanchfield, Bracken, Brogan, Brophy, Chambers, Churchill, Clingin/Seabrook, Dewan, Downey, Kelly, McEvoy, Moloughney, Quinn, Rowan, Thompson (15). Please note that this year, we have capped our registration at 15 teams in order to host a game between our charity – Make A Wish Foundation – and the Kelly team. The game will take place at 2:30 p.m. Saturday (see schedule posted above) after a brief ceremony and speech by Executive Director Mike Wlotzki.
Roster & Registration Fee Collection: please try to have your registration fees in by your first game – fees are $150 again this year.

Entertainment
Karaoke Friday night with Angie Thompson
Brandy n Port Saturday night
Marty will be getting the stage as usual.

Family Tree Info
Mary Quinn put together some amazing family tree info for us last year. We will continue to post this info this year.

Food
Sandwiches – Brackens are making sandwiches for Friday night. The Chambers and the Clingin/Seabrooks will be making sandwiches for Saturday night. Health department is cool with our setup so that’s good!
BBQ – same as always, we will buy our meat from Osgoode Foodland. The rest of the grocery items will be purchased from Foodland and Robinsons.
Chips etc. – Christine Rowan will get these from chip rep in Metcalfe. She is also looking at getting some Coca Cola products donated if possible. Yay!
Coffee & donuts – Tooti Flood will contact Tim Hortons for a donation of product. Tracey will take care of coffee in the morning.

Bar
Liquor license applied for by Marty Kelly.
Tracey will place order with Mike Raymond. We will go with Canadian, Coors Light, red & white wine, Rye, Rum, Vodka, and Bacardi coolers (whatever is popular – two choices).
Paul will approach Travis Vandentillaart, the Molson rep for cups and some prizing.
If you know anyone that can donate something please ask them – we would like to give prizes to all four finalists as usual.
Troughs – Marty & Paul are getting 2 or 3 – if anyone else has access, please let us know.
Beer Runs – we will schedule 2 beer runs on Saturday – we will need families with trucks to commit to these. Clingins and Rowans have each committed to one.
Ice – we always need ice – if anyone has a contact for ice that would be helpful. Phil will speak with Andy at the store. Chelsea will speak with Scott at the Red Dot. Tracey will get some cubes from Tony at Kelly’s Landing.

Liability Insurance
We are buying from the city again this year. We have purchased only Beer Garden Liability insurance this year, for a total cost of $160.

Kids Area
O-Ya will be manning this for us on Friday night for a few hours and Saturday all day.
Candy: Cathy will pick up 20 tubs of candy from Walmart.
Jelly Bean Draw: Clingins will do this again.
Advertising: Riverside South Mini Storage and Daley Family Funeral Home are generously donating funds this year again. We are not actively seeking advertisers but if anyone is interested we’ll always be happy to set it up!

Scheduling
Paul has done a great job of scheduling again this year! The schedule will show game times as well as umping & scorekeeping duties and bar duties.
Please note that if you are scheduled for umping/scorekeeping that you need THREE (3) family members – two for the field and one to score. If you are scheduled for bar duty, you need FOUR (4) family members (two for tickets, two for service), and all must be of legal age. Please be on time for scheduled shifts, as they work around game times – and the families that you are taking over for may have a game to get to.

Prizing
Prize Distribution:
Each family will bring team MVP prizes again, value $20-$25. Every team also takes home an MVP prize.

Extra Revenue
50/50 draw – Mary will handle this for us this year.
Other raffle items?? any ideas or contacts? see above.

Other Stuff
Media Notification – Tracey has done.
City Dept. notification – Tracey has done.
Handwash Unit – Marty will bring same unit as last year.
Washrooms – We will be renting the washrooms inside the building for a few hours on Saturday (4 till 9). Marty is setting this up. The fee is approximately $25/hr, which will work out to the same amount as the portapotties last year, but we will have access to all washrooms which is money better spent. We will have the outside washrooms as well.

We’re Starting Up Again!

Well it’s that time of year and we are starting to organize the Family Ball Tournament again.

Last year was another great tournament, with $5500 being donated to charity!

We are pleased to announce that this year’s charity will be the Make A Wish Foundation of Eastern Ontario.

About our Charity:

*from their website:
Make-A-Wish Eastern Ontario got started with a little girl’s wish for a trip to Walt Disney World® Resort in 1997. Maureen MacArthur organized a group of volunteers to form a board and the new chapter was officially incorporated and granted charitable status on 1 January 1999.

The Eastern Ontario chapter includes a staff of three and covers a territory that includes Belleville, Kingston, Brockville, Cornwall, Hawkesbury, Ottawa and everything in between. Our area includes the counties of Addington; Carleton; Dundas; Frontenac; Glengarry; Grenville; Hastings; Lanark; Leeds; Lennox; Prescott; Renfrew; Russell; Stormont.

The Make-A-Wish Foundation is celebrating 25 years of creating hope and happiness for children with life-threatening illnesses across Canada. They work with families of children ages three to seventeen, to help fulfill their special wishes at a most difficult time in their lives.

If you know a family who has wants to be a Wish family, or has been one, please let us know! Our funds will go directly to help that family!

Visit their website for more information.

Our Tournament Dates:
This year the tournament will be held on Friday, August 8th and Saturday, August 9th. Same place, Osgoode Community Centre. This will be our 18th tournament! We can hardly believe it.

17th Year is in the Bag!

Well we couldn’t have asked for better weather or better crowds this year.

Final Results:

A Division John Downey Memorial Trophy: Thompsons over the Downeys 12-9. (thanks to Mick Thompson for such a terrific speech..)

B Division Dick Blanchfield Memorial Trophy: Clingin/Seabrook over the Churchills 12-3. (the Churchills happily remaining in the B Division next year!).

The 17th Annual Family Ball Tournament was a great success, and although the final numbers are not quite in, we should be able to give the Palliative Care Outreach Program about $4500. We will also make donations to the Osgoode Care Centre and the Osgoode Youth Association (amounts to be decided).

We had tremendous support from our families this year, from setup to teardown and in between, and we want to say thanks for everything. Marty & I mostly just steered all weekend, and that makes it easy for us to enjoy the weekend also. Every time I turned around someone was asking me what they could do to help. That’s really awesome.

The games were close again this year, with very few high point spreads. No major injuries except maybe a couple of bruised egos – that’s the way we like it! Paul is quite the Merlin with the schedule, I don’t know what we would do without him!

The family tree info was fantastic, thanks so much to Mary Quinn for her countless hours pulling that together. If anyone wants copies of their family information please contact me or her. Of course I was particularly partial to the Everyone’s a Blanchfield list, as it was so much fun to watch people look down the list and the many family names that did, indeed, originate from the Blanchfields of Ireland. 🙂

I hate to single families out because everyone does so much and I don’t like to leave anyone out but I have to give the Rowan family a huge round of applause for once again coming out for teardown on Sunday. Without their efforts the weekend would be tough to wrap up and we really sincerely appreciate their continued support for teardown. (I promise next year I’ll bring coffee!)

Entertainment this year was top rate as usual. The karaoke with J.R. & Kim is just so popular and we are really happy that they keep coming back for us! Vince Thompson was a fantastic addition on Saturday afternoon, and we really hope that he keeps this timeslot free next year! Brandy n Port was back after a few years off and they had as much fun as we did. Great crowds both nights, we hope you all had fun! We only got a noise bylaw warning on Friday night, which is a good thing!

Ozzie & Joan sure made the trailer look comfortable this year – they arrived at the park on Friday afternoon – even before I did! I’ve heard tell that they may have some neighbours in the parking lot next year …

We were inundated with prizes and donations this year, it was terrific – through the efforts of Marty, Mary & Paul, not to mention the Churchills (have I missed anyone major?), we had a fantastic raffle and 50/50 draw that I’m sure will continue next year. A special note too, to Debbie Bellinger who won the 50/50 draw and put the entire amount back into the tournament fund (I’d mention the amount but I’m very sure the gaming commission would be all over us then!!)

Thanks also goes to Sean Daley of Daley Family Funeral Home for their extremely generous donation of $500.

Our list of thank yous is long, we have taken out an ad in the Manotick Messenger this year to try to thank those who helped us out. I will reprint the list here also:

Tournament Sponsor – Daley Family Funeral Home (Sean Daley)
Kids Corner Sponsor – Riverside South Mini Storage (Dan & Tracy Quinn)

Sponsors & Suppliers:
Molson – Travis Vanden Tillaart; Schneider Meats – Jim Turner; Brandy n Port; J.R. & Kim Blanchfield; Vince Thompson; Osgoode Foodland; A. Raymond and Sons; Brian McDonald, Slow Pitch National; Carleton Pumping; Tim Horton’s; Metcalfe Variety; Hostess Chips; Manotick Slo-Pitch League; Westburn Ruddy Electric Supply; Nedco Electric Supply

Prize Donations:
Newton & Company – Phil Byrne; The Churchill Family; Mark McEvoy; Debbie Bellinger; FCI Communications; Southbank Dodge; Jack May; Turkil Sales; Metcalfe Golf Course; Sandy Row Golf Course; The Patterson Family (Emerald Links, Anderson Links, Cloverdale Links); National Golf Course Owners Association; Barry’s Home Hardware Russell; CanWest Media (Ottawa Advertising); Cooper Physiotherapy

(please see thank you links to the right – to reach our sponsors & suppliers websites).

Final thanks goes to all of those who took pictures. I am enjoying looking through Facebook at everyone’s photos of the weekend. I will pilfer a few (with permission) to put up on this website sometime later this week, after I’ve gotten some actual work done. 🙂

Thanks again, y’all rock.
Tracey D’Aviero
on behalf of Marty Kelly, Paul Downey, Phil Blanchfield, Mary Quinn, Martha Rowan, Vince Thompson & Cathy Quinn, and the rest of the team captains.

How Did We Begin?

The Family Ball Tournament is a fun, fund-raising tournament that began 17 years ago in the village of Osgoode. Marty Kelly and his family established the John Downey Memorial Family Ball Tournament after John ‘s fatal car accident following a ball tournament in Ottawa.

Our tournament is comprised of 16 ‘all-family’ teams that play three-pitch in two divisions over the course of a weekend. While the competition is generally friendly, the teams compete for the coveted trophies: the “A” trophy – the John Downey Memorial Trophy, and the “B” trophy – the Dick Blanchfield Memorial Trophy.

The tournament takes place at the Osgoode Community Centre each year, on the ‘weekend after the long weekend’ in August.

It has been said that the weekend is like holding 16 simultaneous family reunions, and indeed there are families who plan their family activities and vacations around the tournament (many coming in from out of town), knowing that they can see many old friends and family in the relaxed atmosphere of the weekend.

The Family Ball Tournament selects different charities each year to direct the proceeds of the tournament, and tries to focus on a major charity as well as one or more local charities, as proceeds allow.

Most of our families have been a part of the tournament for many years (some have been in for all 16 years). Team names like Kelly, Blanchfield, Downey, Quinn, Thompson, Doyle, Bracken, Brogan, Chambers, McEvoy, Moloughney, Dewan, Bekkers, McCloskey, Rowan, Sloan, Brophy and Churchill and their extended families all come out to enjoy the Family Ball Tournament each year. The tournament is limited 16 teams for logistics, and indeed there is a waiting list of families waiting for someone to drop out so that they can get in.

The families involved in the tournament do more than play ball, they volunteer their time to organize, set up, tear down, cook & serve refreshments, umpire & scorekeep, among many other things. The tournament would not survive without the extensive volunteer initiative by our dedicated families.

The Family Ball Tournament is entering the next generation, with many of the original team players stepping aside to let their children play, making it a great family event all around. There are as many spectators as players, and it is always a great social event, as well as really great ball!

In addition to the ball games, there is a licensed refreshment tent, live entertainment in the evenings, and kids activities.