Two Pittsburg softball teams – Hype and Bestuvit – gathered for a group photo in between games at the “Batting Down Cancer” softball tournament held Father’s Day weekend at Julius Moore Park.
Teams compete to bat down cancer
The annual softball tournament on Father’s Day weekend at Julius Moore Park has celebrated different causes over the years, but the spirit remains the same. Play softball, barbecue, raise funds, see old friends, make new ones, and have fun.
According to this year’s organizer, Valerie Nelms-Harris, it started out as a tournament for cancer awareness under the Guardian Angels Sisterhood, and they are trying to bring it back to its roots, and resurrect the organization led by its former president Michelle Smith.
The tournament always fell on Father’s Day weekend and coincided with Juneteenth celebrations, the June 19 holiday that commemorates the Emancipation Proclamation, which ended slavery.
“That was just the weekend that it fell on and it gave us something to come out and do, young and old,” said Nelms-Harris, who grew up playing in the tournament and now lives in Dallas. “It hadn’t happened in about four years, and we wanted to bring it back to the park and Pittsburg for the community.”
Funds raised from this year’s event will go to the American Cancer Society in the name of the Guardian Angels Sisterhood, Nelms-Harris and Smith said, but plans are in the works to reorganize the local nonprofit.
Eight teams signed up to play in the tournament, including teams from Pittsburg, Winnsboro, Quitman, Sulphur Springs and Jefferson.
“We haven’t had that kind of turnout in 10 years,” Nelms-Harris said.
