WAUSAU, WI (WSAU) — The Midwest Communications family is once again raising money for a good cause.
The second annual Kickin’ it for the Kids kickball tournament sponsored by WDEZ and American Family Insurance Jonnee Bauer Agency took place Saturday at Wausau’s Athletic Park.
The event brought in 16 teams playing a double-elimination tournament on three fields. But, according to Bryan Scott and Chandra Lynn of the WDEZ morning show, the competition on the field was secondary to the event’s bigger cause.
“For us to be able to give back and know that there’s somebody in our community that benefiting from it, it means a lot to us,” Scott told WAOW TV.
Scott’s talking about Claire, a nine-year-old girl from Wausau currently being treated at St. Jude for an inoperable tumor.
Lynn’s team was called Kickin’ it for Claire in her honor, beginning each game with a team cheer to support her. Their team shirts were gold in color for childhood cancer awareness and featured Claire’s name.
“I get pretty emotional talking about it,” Lynn told WAOW. “So I don’t wanna talk about it too much, but it’s neat to see a lot of people show up and do all of this for her and everybody else at St. Jude.”
After all the games had been played, the team sponsored by Just Build It Construction took home the first-place trophy. A “toilet bowl” trophy was also awarded to the first team eliminated from the tournament.
Other sponsors of the event included King’s Campers, Marathon Town and Country, Ho-Chunk Gaming Wittenberg, Foundation Finance, and Quast Consulting and Testing.
This was the second year the tournament was held. Last year’s event took place at the Kelly Club in Weston and featured just eight teams playing on a modified field due to heavy rainfall the night before.
As of Sunday final fundraising totals had not been announced.
FULL DISCLOSURE: WSAU News Director Mike Leischner, the author of this story, participated in the tournament playing for Team Chandra.
