Lenox Baseball and Fire Co. fundraiser ‘win-win’ for community

LENOX – Last Saturday night at the Sportsmen’s Club, the baseball boosters and the Lenox Fire Co. teamed up for a fundraiser to support the local community.

Lenox Baseball Boosters President Paula Downer began planning for the event in January, rounding up auction items and volunteers to help create an event that included 150-160 members of the community.

The auction was moderated and organized by Bob Romeo of Century 21 in Lenox, which included items such as a Canyon Ranch spa package, Celtics and Red Sox tickets and a Bruins hat autographed by Cam Neely, as well as local restaurant gift cards from Alta, Firefly and the Heritage House, just to name a few.

What made the event special was the Lenox Fire Co. was invited to combine forces with Lenox baseball about eight months ago, in helping create funds and scholarships for local kids and youth programs.

“We combined forces with the fire co. this year so we could split the profits – so the baseball team gets half and the fire co. gets half,” Downer said. “It’s good because both organizations give back to the kids – a lot of people don’t understand what the fire co. does for our kids.”

Fire company members Billy “Flash” Colvin and Chris O’Brien were seen Saturday night working in the kitchen, as well as other members who cooked brats, which were donated by the LFC.

“[Flash] doesn’t like to take credit for anything, but he is a huge help – he does a lot,” Downer said. “And the baseball moms play a huge part of this [as well].”

While a lot of the money goes to local scholarships, other costs include field management and equipment for a Lenox baseball team that has league title aspirations this year in Berkshire County.

“It was a total team effort on both parts with the parents of the kids of the baseball team and the members of the fire department,” said O’Brien. “It was an awesome thing and a win-win for the community.”

While the Lenox Fire Dept. also provides T-shirts and funding for local youth sports, the focus was to help raise the “pot” in order to be able to provide for more youth programs in the future.

“Everyone enjoys coming out and supporting,” Downer said.

“We provide scholarships and support to Cal Ripken Youth Baseball and youth basketball and other leagues – it was an awesome time – it really was,” O’Brien said.

Posted by Tim Davis on April 4, 2013. Filed under High School Sports,Sports. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry