To the editor:
Thanks go out to all our Thunder Bay International Baseball Association volunteers for their work. Our unsung heroes who you rarely see as they are stationed inside the Thunder Bay Community Auditorium, at the host hotel site or driving people back and forth were great.
Our team hosts, ushers and greeters did great.
Thanks to our announcers and local scorers, and our fabulous grounds crews who put the fields to bed each night and woke them up early in the morning.
They also looked after practice fields at both venues. Most worked 16 hour to 18 hour days depending on weather every day for 10 days in a row. T. Our board of directors was again fabulous and most have been meeting monthly since 2010 to help put our bid and the event together.
Thanks to our team captains and site co-ordinators. Thanks to our hard working super connected executive director Warren Philp for his work.
We had paid staff thanks to federal and provincial programs and a huge thanks to our event co-ordinator Martina Benvegnu and our volunteer co-ordinators, Rachelle Gibbs and Craig Steele who had a great experience as he returned to school on the Sept. 7 to complete his MBA in Sport Management at UNB.
When I thanked him he said, “No, thank you for a fantastic practical summer experience for my course.”
Both Martina and Rachelle, who had previous Border Cats experience, were great assets to the organization.
Martina was great at keeping stuff together for us.
Thanks to the local and out-of-town media for the great coverage for Thunder Bay and region.
Internet and TV coverage was great.
To our funding partners: the federal government, the province and the City of Thunder Bay.
Thanks to staff in several areas from the city who offered professional advice in their areas of expertise which helped us immensely.
Thanks to our private sector sponsors led by Tbaytel, our contractors, vendors, suppliers, service organizations and local food outlets who helped feed our volunteers.
Thanks to Bob Halvorsen and the Community Auditorium for doing our ticketing and providing a home for volunteers, media and WBSC and TBIBA headquarters and our doping centre.
Yes, we are required to test for drugs and thanks to that group and our medical community for stepping up to the plate.
Thanks to the Border Cats and the TBBA for making their schedules flexible to accommodate our event.
Thanks to St John’s Ambulance for providing medical services (very little was required) and doing the 50/50 draw at the stadium and the Soroptomists who did the draw at Baseball Central.
Many fans had never been to Baseball Central before and were quite impressed by the park although two fans told me they would like a bit of cover on some of the bleachers there.
Thanks to the CLE for lending us bleachers and to our paid security firm.
We believe it was a great community event and that only occurs when we get fans in the stands and bleacher creatures.
Thanks for supporting our tournament in such a big way. Without you it is a very good “sandlot tournament." With you and some great baseball from the teams on the field who all represented their countries so well, it was a great event where play and good sportsmanship ruled the day.
Our volunteering is not done from our onsite people who have to take down signs, bleachers and tents and restore original signage to our two baseball venues.
Our staff and board have to complete reports to our funding groups and get bills paid and get ready for year end.
Finally, thank you to the fans and players and remember as great as it was it is just a game.
Some of the sountries where the teams are from are being devastated by natural disasters such as Cuba, the southern United States and Mexico and others in south east Asia are under threat of a major man-made nuclear event, as is the whole world, if rhetoric between the U.S. and North Korea keeps escalating to a nuclear battle.
Larry Hebert,
President,
Thunder Bay International Baseball Association
