Tournament Mission
The goal for this tournament is to raise money to Sponsor A Dream for a Sunshine Foundation child whose dream is to be sent to the Dream Village in Loughman Florida for a week. The child's family will also be sent with no expense to the family. The average cost to "sponsor a dream" is $5,000.00. With today's rising costs, the total amount is sure to go up. In 2008, we raised over $8,700. This amount was enough to send two families to the Dream Village. For more information on the Dream Village and to view pictures, go to the Beneficiaries tab. Also under the Beneficiaries tab, you can see those who have benefitted from our tournament's. Your contributions will help us achieve our goal. You can contribute by becoming a web site sponsor, tournament sponsor, volunteer or simply make a monetary donation. Please click on the Forms tab for information on how to help or email any questions to the address listed below. Thank You in advance for your help and for visiting our site.
For 2008, our softball tournament consisted of 16 12U teams that competed in a one (1) day fundraising event to benefit the Sunshine Foundation - Mercer County NJ chapter. Teams were guaranteed three (3) games. We utilized four (4) fields at the Ewing Girls Softball Associstion Complex aka Armstrong Fields in Ewing NJ. This complex is the home of the Ewing Edge. We had a champion in both our A and B brackets. The first and second place teams in both brackets received a team trophy and all players received individual awards. The tournament is laid out in the following format. All 16 teams played two (2) games in the first two (2) rounds which is selected at random by a computer program. After their first two games, they were placed into an A or B bracket. Once they were placed into a bracket, they remained there for the entire tournament. We chose this format in an effort to prevent the better teams from running through the tournament with ease due to mismatches. After two (2) games, you will then be set up for the elimination round. Who you play in the elimination round depends on your record from your first two (2) games. If any teams are tied at the end of the two (2) games, we then seed you by your runs scored/against totals. If you lose the third game, you are done for the day. If you win, you will move on to the semi-finals. If you win that round, you will move on to the finals. Go to the FORMS tab for more information on rules, directions, etc.
2010 Facts
- 14 teams from New Jersey participated
- One team signed up in 24 hours the day before the tournament
- Close to 900 miles were traveled by all teams going to and from our event
- Total money raised after expenses was $8,063.00
- The tournament was postponed to Sunday July 10th due to weather
2009 Facts
- 17 teams from New Jersey and Pennsylvania participated
- Donation's / money raised totalled over $5,700.00 after expenses
- The amount of volunteers for 2009 nearly doubled from that of 2008
- We played a total of 9 out of 35 scheduled games due to weather
- 4 major sponsors returned for our second year
2008 Facts
- We achieved our maximum amount of teams in getting all 16
- Our teams consisted of 14 from New Jersey, 1 from Pennsylvania and 1 from New York
- A total of five (5) teams went on a waiting list
- Our final donation after expenses was $8,725.00. More donations came in weeks after.
- Our goal was to raise $4,000 which covers the cost to sponsor one dream as of June 2008. We raised enough money to sponsor two dreams instead of one with extra money to put towards other childs needs within the chapter
- Our raffle prizes brought in a total of $1600
- The ad book consists of more than fifty (50) contributors / sponsors
- The tournament took a total of six (6) months to assemble & 12 hours to complete
- Seven (7) professional sports organizations contributed to our raffle
- Five (5) Olympic Softball Team members contributed to our raffle
- Three (3) local volunteer organizations provided volunteers as well as donated time from friends and family