Pitch For The Cure Near And Dear To Bartholomew

SPRINGDALE -- It's been nearly a decade since Gina Bartholomew was inspired to create the Pitch For The Cure softball tournament on a red-eye flight back to Arkansas after visiting a breast cancer-stricken cousin in California.

The annual youth softball tournament in Northwest Arkansas has since turned into a major success, resulting in $165,000 in donations to the Susan G. Komen Foundation its first eight years.

At A Glance

Ninth Annual Pitch For The Cure

Proceeds donated to Susan G. Komen Foundation

Dates: Today through Sunday

Age groups: 8 and younger through 18 and younger

LOCATIONS

J.B. Hunt Park, Springdale

Tyson Sports Complex, Springdale

Lake Fayetteville Park, Springdale

Gary Hampton Park, Fayetteville

Rogers Regional Sports Complex, Rogers

Memorial Park, Bentonville

Bartholomew and her family have led the charge in organizing and running the tournament since planning began after the 2005 trip to visit her cousin, Linda Walters. Her immediate family works the event each year, while friends and family travel from Oklahoma to help on the weekend. Walters' sister even moved to Arkansas in the last year in part to assist with the tournament planning and setup.

"It's really kind of a family affair for us," Bartholomew said. "We're pretty proud of it."

This weekend's event, the ninth edition of the tournament, will be even more special than usual.

Walters will attend the event for the first time since the first summer the tournament was held in 2006. She will throw out the first pitch at J.B. Hunt Park in Springdale this afternoon.

"I'm just really excited to have my inspiration for the events to be here," Bartholomew said. "We've grown a lot since the first time she was here. The first time we did Pitch For The Cure, it was all at J.B. Hunt Park, and we had 66 teams. And now this weekend we have 154 teams. And she's going to see how much it's grown and how different it is each year."

The tournament has expanded from solely using J.B. Hunt Park to using six parks in the area, including locations in Springdale, Bentonville, Rogers and Fayetteville. One goal for the weekend is to raise more than the $10,000 that was donated to Komen last year.

"What we always hope for is higher than the year before," Bartholomew said. "It's partially based on what the teams bring with them, but we also give 100 percent of a silent auction we do and contests we run over the weekend for the players. And the teams bring donations that go 100 percent to Komen."

One new addition to the weekend will be tournament T-shirts that feature photos of breast cancer survivors with a special tie to the event.

"They came from different people that were connected to softball teams or the tournament in some way," Bartholomew said. "My cousin is in the corner of our volunteer shirt."

Sports on 06/06/2014

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