‘End of Summer Hummer’ Softball Fundraiser

What a great name for a Missoula event, really doesn't matter what will be happening there, how can you NOT attend an 'End of Summer Hummer' party?

Long time Blaze listener Kris Bratlein is one of the founding members of 'Shock N Awe Inc.' They started out as a rec softball team but have grown into a non profit organization that host tourneys and fundraiser for local charities.

Their two big events of the year are "Battin' For Boobies" which is an annual June event to help raise funds for the Tough Enough to Wear Pink campaign. The next party coming up is the End of Summer Hummer this September to benefit a local 4-year-old boy named Easton who has been diagnosed with cancer.

Easton loves the Incredible Hulk, so the game will be super hero themed. How can you help? Kris explains:

We are looking for help from the community to make this the biggest Shock N Awe event ever. It costs a lot of money to put on tournaments so we are looking for people and businesses who like to underwrite certain expenses. The less money that comes from the tournament fund, the more we get to give to Easton and his family. Just a few examples are field rentals for the weekend, umpires, new softballs, concessions etc.

 

We are known in the softball community for having the best and most fun tournaments, but that comes at a cost, we want to be able to keep doing what we are doing while bring more outside money in.

 

Donations can be in the form of money, products or services or just helping us get the word out. The tournament is September 12-13 so we only have a few months to raise as much money as possible. If you are interested and would like to know more about this event or how you can help please call me at 406-830-5866 or email at shocknawemissoula@gmail.com.

 

More about 4-year-old Easton and his family:

At this year’s Battin’ For Boobies event we were approached by the father of a four year old boy named Easton. Six weeks prior Easton was diagnosed with a rare aggressive form of cancer. They found a Desmo Plastic Round Cell Tumor. This is a very rare and aggressive tumor that is part of the Sarcoma family of tumors. It is classified as Stage 4 because it has metastasized (spread) throughout his abdomen, into his liver and there are small nodules on his lungs. It shows up mostly in males aged 14-25 in fact, Easton will be the youngest patient ever diagnosed with this type of tumor. Easton’s Father, Ryan, had heard that we had already been talking to some fellow ball players about Easton and had decided to do the Summer Hummer 3 in honor of Easton. Ryan came and introduced himself to us and we chatted a bit about the upcoming surgery Easton was going to have. Just days prior to his 4th birthday Easton had to get part of diaphragm, small piece of liver, entire spleen as well as a few things they did not expect (piece of pancreas, and entire gallbladder). After Surgery Easton was in ICU for 6 days, but has came around and is now doing better. I spoke with Ryan yesterday (July 9/15) and he told me Easton has just started his 7th round of Chemo.