Another charity softball tournament to be held. This time the cause is the “war” against the Alzheimer’s disease. The competition is named “Miriam Burnette Memorial Softball tournament”. There are lots of local softball teams, which are going to take part in the competition.

This will be the fifth edition of the charity tournament. The competition is called after the chairman’s mother, who has died of Alzheimer’s disease 4 years ago after fighting it for 6 years. The chairman of the tournament, Darron Burnette, told that he was helped by his friend (Chandler Dennard), who has already had a softball tournament and then just renamed it in Marion’s honour. Dennard used to call the competition “Bulloch Bash”, but he decided to help his friend Darron Burnette.

In the very beginning of the organization of the tournament, there have been 6 teams. But, now there are 14 softball teams to take part in the competition.
To continue with, such an initiative is a great opportunity to be raise the awareness of such diseases. The growth of the tournament has attracted several sponsors, who have donated much more money for the cause.

Thanks to the main sponsors – Southeast Roofing Solutions and Southern Manner, the chairman has reached his goal of $20 000. The sponsorship was necessary, because the tickets hardly paid the cost for renting the softball facilities. The total amount Burnette has collected is $250 000 for the last year. He is going to use the money for a new Alzheimer’s research.

The teams to take part in the competition are mainly schools. And this tournament will be very helpful for the players, who can play in competitive games before the start of the season. Moreover, the coaches of the teams have been touched by the initiative, because all of them know people, who is suffering from the disease. They are also causing a great support to the chairman!

The tournament is going to last 2 days. The local high school teams will be 4, while there will also be lots of high school teams from the neighboring counties. For example, there will be teams of Pinewood, Bryan County, Vidalia, Gatewood and so on.

Two of the Cuban softball team’s players, who are competing at the Women’s World Softball Championship didn’t appear for their last match in Surrey. And nobody knows where are they! So, it’s time the Canadian border services to look for them.

Cuba’s last softball match of the tournament was scheduled for Monday, 18th July, and both women didn’t show on the pitch. That was the second match they are missing from the tournament and now the Border Service Agency of Canada is looking for them.

All the players from the team have visas, which allowed them to be in the country for a six-month period, during the competition. They were scheduled to leave Canada next Monday and this may be the reason for their absence. But it’s still not clear whether the players are trying to defect.

“I don’t know where the players are. But you know, at this point, they have a visa and at the moment they can be legally here in Canada,” Laura Ballance, who is a spokesperson of the tournament, said in an interview. Ballance also said that all the players, who are taking part in the competition are in hotels, which are located near the stadium, but she didn’t tell where exactly the Cuban team has been staying.

We also don’t know the names of these women, but they are an example of how you shouldn’t act when you are at an international softball competition.

The Women’s World Softball Championship is one of the most prestigious softball tournaments, as Surrey won the bids to host it in 2016. 31 countries and about 500 players will compete in the last stage of the competition this weekend, when will be the last round of the tournament. So, these two women have maybe thought that they can imperceptibly stay in Canada. And notice how smart are they – the players have waited almost until the end of the tournament before the escape. But this is only a guess, they can also be kidnapped, which is a worse scenario.