The Paris Optimist Club will celebrate a successful year at the Paris Optimist Foundation’s ‘Field of Dreams’ Annual Baseball Bash and Auction on Saturday, August 24, at Love Civic Center.
“The success of past events has allowed Paris Optimist Club to use the funds raised to improve our ballpark immensely resulting in us being able to host several baseball tournaments where teams from outside of Paris have come into the Paris Community,” said Paris Optimist Executive Director Sabra Vaughan.
The club hosted an all-star practice tournament June 8 and 9 that had 37-teams entered, with half of the teams from outside Lamar County.
On June 14-16 the Club hosted the Dixie Youth Baseball District 5 Tee Ball and Coach Pitch all-star tournaments where 17 teams attended, including several out of town teams that visited Paris for the weekend.
The club’s final tournament of the season was the Dixie Youth Baseball Ozone Divisions 1 and 2 Regional State Tournaments held July 6-9.
“We are proud that we have been able to bring visitors into our community hosting these tournaments. It is through community support that we were able to make the improvements that allow us to hold more tournaments and attract visitors into the community where they buy hotel rooms, meals, etc. We truly have a reciprocal relationship with our community,” stated Vaughan.
Now that the 2019 spring baseball season is a wrap, Paris Optimist Foundation is now asking for community support at their upcoming Baseball Bash and Auction.
“We still have sponsorships available, and we can always use donated items for our auction. No item is too small or large. We can group smaller items into packages for our silent auction, and of course, we also love receiving large items for our live auction. Right now our biggest item is a trailer donated by Load Trail, LLC. I think our most special item that will be auctioned is a baseball signed by our 9U team that won the World Series in Mississippi this year,” Vaughan continued, “and we need lots of people to attend the event to make it successful. The event is free to attend, but tickets are needed to enjoy the catered meal by Savory Sisters and partake at the bar. We reduced the price of our tickets this year to only $35 each hoping to get more attendees. It’s a really fun evening, and the dress code is super casual – it’s baseball after all!”
Anyone interested in sponsoring, donating or attending can contact Vaughan at (903) 2419-3499 or ed.parisoptimist@gmail.com.
