• donation of shingles for the vandalized roofs of the elementary dugouts
• parent(s) saw to it that the drinking fountains were fixed and working at the elementary
• donation of a cooler
• loan of two coolers for last tournament
• a parent arranged for the ice trailer at the high school
• loan of a fan for the concession stand the entire season
• a parent arranged for the use of a pick-up the entire weekend of the last tournament, as well as a generator in case we had power problems again

• several parents and youth would show up during unassigned times just to see if their help was needed
• a couple men who worked during some hot, hot hours to put the shingles on the dugouts
• a family put up a temporary home run fence at the two fields at the elementary, as well as took it down afterward
• a man sprayed the weeds in the infields at the elementary
• several persons spent numerous, numerous hours picking up trash, dragging, raking and hoeing the infields at the two elementary fields before the last tournament
• a woman twice brought in a steaming crockpot of shredded chicken to sell as sandwiches at the last tournament
• a woman picked up the large hotdog and hamburger bun order early Friday during the last tournament to free up some time for me
• one woman in particular spent nearly the entire weekend at the last tournament either helping in the concession stand, cleaning dugouts between games when we were short on youth field attendants, and running numerous, numerous errands
• loan of a napkin holder, cooking utensils, water cooler and extra canopy
• loan and transport of two banquet-sized tables and canopy for the elementary concession stand
• donation of poker chips used at the h.s. concessions (we handed out wrapped buns and they'd walk to the grill to get their brat or hotdog. A poker chip designated that you purchased a brat. Besides that, we were often told by our patrons that it gave us a "Vegas atmosphere".
• trips to stores to get quarters, pizza, refill propane tanks
• arranged to make sure the outfields were mowed
• stop on the way before the morning shift to buy donuts for the concession stand
• donation of an American flag for the elementary diamonds
• spray-painting the foul lines at all the diamonds
• taking care of business (answering questions, paying umps, taking water over) at a Sycamore Park diamond during the one day we had to use a field there during the last tournament
• someone manned the check-in table during the entire last tournament, answered a variety of numerous questions, gave directions, sold t-shirts, wrote in scores on brackets

• hosed down fields when they became too dusty
• jumped in to help when the concession stands had a line-up
• hung a Classics banner atop the crow's nest at the high school
• brought chairs for the ump station at the high school
• printed and laminated signs for donuts, pizza, t-shirts and menus for both concession stands
• stopped by the elementary diamonds and cleaned up the trash for 45 minutes when they noticed it had been vandalized
• took some frozen brats to a nearby kitchen to parbroil them
• younger siblings would help out as field attendants

The above are actually just a smattering of some of the things people did for the Classics during our tournaments. I posted them for two reasons: to thank you and let you know your help did not go unnoticed or unappreciated, and to show others the numerous 'unscheduled' things that so many of you helped with to make our tournaments successful.

Thanks, also, to all the adults who worked the concession stand during non-tournament days, and to all the adults and youth who worked during the tournaments as either runners, concession stand staff, or field attendants. Your dedication to Classic's Fastpitch to make our tournaments and program successful once again drew numerous compliments from coaches, spectators, and even several of the umps, as well as compliments on our answering machine, in our webpage guestbook, and even comments seen on other team websites.

Y'all should be proud!

Thanks again,

The Coach's Widow (a.k.a. Shelly)