×

Weekend event plans big return

FAIRMONT — The annual Play4ACure is back for its seventh year in Fairmont, after organizer Mike Fischer took a year off to help his wife and father-in-law with their own battles against cancer.

Now, with the help of co-director Luke Ebeling, Fischer is excited to see the event gain traction. He shared some details of the event, which is set to begin at 6 p.m. Friday, and continue through Sunday, at the Winnebago Diamonds Softball Complex in Fairmont.

“On Friday night, there will be a few games to start the softball tournament, and at 8 p.m. is when we’ll have the beanbag tournament,” he said. “Then we start back Saturday at 8 a.m., when we’ll have softball going right away, and then we’ll have bounce castles for the kids. We’ve got a caricature artist coming down again, which is all free.

“We’ve got all the raffle drawings. We have a main prize raffle with about 50 items, we have a grand prize raffle with a couple of big items on there and we have a kids raffle and they have a lot of nice stuff on there. Concessions will be open — we have Scotty Biggs BBQ coming — and the games will be going on all day.

“Then, about 5 p.m., we’ve got a big presentation with all the raffle drawings, and the winner will have to be present. Then we do a presentation to the American Cancer Society of other funds that we have.

“On Saturday evening, we start double-elimination and then we’ll have double-elimination games going all day Sunday, and then we’ll wrap it up probably around 6 p.m. with trophy presentations at the end.”

Fischer said this year includes commemorative T-shirts, which seem to be popular.

“We just wanted to try something new to see how it would take off,” he said. “We had over 40 online pre-orders, and then we’ve got another 30 that we’re bringing down to the field. So that’s 70 orders of shirts, with all profits also going to ACS.”

Fischer shared just how much the event means to him, and how glad he is to see it keep growing.

“When my wife came up with the idea the very first year, we thought this could be something good,” he said. “The softball community at the time, we had 26 teams in the league, and we got 12 or 14 teams that signed up the first year, and then it just blew up. Every year it keeps growing bigger and bigger.

“We have teams that come from all over, and the coolest thing is when you get all of these hometown businesses from Fairmont, Mankato and the surrounding areas, but then you get also contacted by major corporations. Southwest Airlines is donating tickets again. It’s cool because the word travels through the right people.”

Fischer also shared what he believes to be one of the best donations the event has received.

“Probably the coolest donation that we’ve had from the get-go, we were able to secure a donation of 120 bears from the Build-A-Bear Workshop,” he said. “Twenty of them will be at the event, but the other 100, we get to take 50 to the children’s hospital in Minneapolis and 50 to the children’s hospital in Sioux Falls. It’s awesome that, on behalf of Play4ACure and Midco, we get to present these kids with something that might make them smile a little bit in the battle that they’re going through.”

Fischer noted that he is grateful to co-director Ebeling.

“I brought him in to kind of be my co-captain on this, because everything on my shoulders was way too much over six years,” he said. “So Luke coming on has been a huge help; we’ve doubled everything that we’ve had before.”

Fischer said they are both grateful to those who help with the event, as well as the community that supports it.

“We’re not here to play ball; we’re here to help people and it really does make a big difference,” he said. “Even the smallest community event that we’re trying to make is a huge thing to someone that’s going through the fight. It’s amazing to see the support, and there’s a lot of positive things to say about the people that help and come out to do this stuff.”

Newsletter

Today's breaking news and more in your inbox

I'm interested in (please check all that apply)
Are you a paying subscriber to the newspaper? *
   

COMMENTS

[vivafbcomment]

Starting at $4.65/week.

Subscribe Today