Supporters change plans to help Schmitz family and Chandler
They tried pumps, hoses, shovels, most every tool available to a grounds crew trying to make a ball field playable. In the end, the rainfall at Don Giesen Field the past week just wouldn’t allow the annual home run derby to be held.
But out of disappointment, the eighth annual derby benefit was deemed a big success, even if a ball was never hit over the fence by players willing to give their time to help. The fundraiser was planned to benefit New Prague natives Maddie and Sean Schmitz, now of Lonsdale, as they and their family deal with their son Chandler’s ongoing medical needs. The youngest of the couple’s three children, Chandler was born prematurely this spring with a heart condition. He spent 81 days in the neonatal intensive care unit at Minneapolis Children’s Hospital before coming home to Lonsdale Thursday, June 13.
The home run derby was to include vendors and raffles with the proceeds earmarked for the Schmitz family. But after days of rainfall, Saturday, June 22, at 3 p.m., three hours before the national anthem was to be sung and the opening pitch thrown, the Union Hill Baseball Board declared Don Giesen Field unplayable.
“The water in the infield would’ve been up to your ankle,” said Eric Steinhoff, one of many volunteers who helped sell items with the proceeds benefiting the Schmitz family and a twotime winner of the slugfest.
“They did everything they could to get water off the field,” said Ted Nytes of Home Town Bats, the organizer of the fundraiser. “I didn’t want to be the one to tell everybody we weren’t having it. That’s a year’s worth of planning.”
The board’s decision meant Nytes had to call the Schmitz family. But first, he met with his mom and siblings and they formulated a plan to sell whatever they could in the bar’s parking lot. They turned to social media and broadcast the last-minute change of plans. With the permission of the Union Hill Bar’s owners, the fundraiser was scaled down and held in the bar’s parking lot. Dubbed “Chandler’s Second Chance,” the group transformed Union Hill Bar’s parking lot at the intersection of Highway 19 and County Road 7 into a drive-thru as people came by and purchased donated items. By sunset, they had sold nearly all of the merchandise given to the benefit for sale or to raffle off during the actual home run derby. Even the beverages intended for volunteers were sold.
And while the fundraiser didn’t generate the funds it...
To see more on this story pick up the June 27, 2024 print edition of The New Prague Times.
Mother Nature threw benefit a curve ball
