AVON — Steve Boone, owner of Avon Softball Park, holds an annual charity softball tournament to memorialize his late sister.
”I’m very happy (to have this as a memorial),”Boone said. “Beth died about five years ago and it took me a long time to even think about it. We’ve been doing a winter fundraiser for another charity. It seemed to make a lot of sense to switch the event to be in memory of my sister.”
Beth Boone Buech lost her battle with stage 4 glioblastoma, brain cancer, on April 27, 2007.
Boone said the purpose of the tournament is two-fold: to raise funds and to bring attention to the fact that “we need to fight cancer harder.”
A men’s tournament was played last weekend, with this weekend centering around a co-ed tournament.
”It was very smooth,” Boone said. “Everybody was really in the right frame of mind. We raised a good amount of money the first weekend and hopefully raise about the same amount this weekend and have a pretty good turnout.”
The weather looks to accommodate them this weekend and Boone said last Saturday’s event enjoyed perfect weather.
”We got lucky, there’s no doubt about it,” he said. “Historically, we have had about every type of weather that you can imagine this time of year. It’s Indianaafter all. We’ve played in dry and minus five and we’ve played in 10 inches of snow. It was actually really good compared to what it has been in past years.”
Along with the support of the many who participate in the games, the event also sees internal support.
”It’s great (to seethe support),” Boone said. “It’s also become kind of a family affair. My sister and my mom come out, and my other sister will be out this weekend to help sell the T-shirts that also support the charity. It’s very heart warming.”
Boone said there are plenty of local teams, but they also haveteams come from out of state.
”There are a lot of local Indianapolis-type teams,” he said. “We get a lot of teams from Bloomington, Bedford. The team that won the men’s (event) was from Evansville. We did have a team from Illinois. We’ll have probably two or three teams come over from Illinoisfor the co-ed.”
For more information about the tournament or the softball park, visit the website at www.avonsoftballpark.com.
ryan.palencer@flyergroup.com
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