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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)

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 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.

Year 19 – Are You Ready?

Baseball

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.

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:

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:

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. 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!

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.