Firefighters to fight Muscular dystrophy this weekend with ball tournament

A long-standing tradition in the Cowichan Lake area, this weekend’s Slo-Pitch for Muscular Dystrophy firefighter baseball tournament will have over 200 people head into Mesachie Lake this weekend in order to see exciting baseball action throughout the weekend.

But, before the sports and other means of entertainment in Mesachie Lake begin, the firefighting participants are planning a couple of walks, beginning Thursday at 6:30 a.m. in Cobble Hill.

Around 20 participants plan on taking part in the walk into Duncan. The group then plans on driving out to Youbou for a walk to Lake Cowichan’s Country Grocer, a major sponsor of the event, and then out to Mesachie Lake by 3 p.m.

“We started the walk a few years ago to raise awareness,” the event’s organizer and Mesachie Lake fire chief Nick Sohye said. Sohye is organizing the event with his wife Sherry, with the participation and assistance of nine fire departments in the area.

Looking back on the last three decades Nick has been organizing this event, he said that things have come a long way. This year’s tournament is the 31st annual event.

The ball tournament started off in 1979 as a fund-raiser to help pay for Mesachie Lake Fire Hall improvements.

“We figured it was way too much fun to stop,” Nick said.

The goal of the fund-raiser shifted shortly thereafter, when Nick and Sherry found out their son Adam had Muscular dystrophy (MD), a disease that causes muscles to break down and weaken over time. When Duncan fireman Doug Robertson and his wife Debbie found out that their son Grady also had MD, the group of local-area firefighters banded together to turn the annual tournament into a MD fund-raiser.

Last year’s events took in more than $60,000 to help fight the disease, with the tournament taking in an average of between $30,000 and $50,000 per year. Although it’s just firefighters taking part in the baseball games, including seven teams from nine local-area fire departments, Nick encourages others to come out in order to enjoy some baseball, and to take part in the annual auction.

“The auction is the biggest thing of the weekend,” Sherry said. “We have never had to ask for (donated items to auction off), people just bring things in.”

These items will be auctioned off between 1 and 5 p.m. on Saturday in tents at the Mesachie Lake Skydome ball field, at highly inflated prices. Because the event is a fund-raiser, Sherry said people should keep in mind that this event is a fun way of accepting donations from the public and from the participating fire departments for MD.

“To be a fire department involved you must fund-raise for muscular dystrophy. If you’re not dedicated to that, you can’t go,” Sherry said.

Baseball action begins with two games Friday night beginning at 6:20 p.m. at the Mesachie Lake Skydome ball field, where all baseball games throughout the tournament are to take place. Although the ball games are open to the public, the subsequent evening of entertainment, including skits and a dance, in the Mesachie Lake Hall, is closed to participants.

Players will return to the fields again at 8 a.m. Saturday, until about 1 p.m. when the public MD fund-raising auction will begin. Concession and beer gardens will all be open to the public as well.

Sunday will see more baseball games on the field, concluding with a trophy presentation at about 2 p.m.