Paintballers 4 Autism fund raiser report...

Donations can be made directly to Paintballers 4 Autism via paypal at pballer4autism@yahoo.com

Sunday January 30th 2011

Written By: Gerry Bates

Paintball is a small community packed with individuals with various levels of talent, skill, motivation and dedication. It is not very often that you hear of Paintballer’s banding together on a common front. Mostly there is fierce competition to be recognized as the Best of The Best. Some say that chivalry is dead. I say different…at least on THIS day!

I was privileged to be invited to attend an event in Connecticut held at D & D Paintball. This event was scheduled as the Paintballer’s 4 Autism 3 Man Open.

PB4A is the brainchild of Mr. Rick Greenaway. This collective effort extends to several of his close friends and family all banding together to help raise money for Autism Research.

I met Mr. Greenaway and was immediately taken in by his humble demeanor. We sat for some time and had some personal conversation about how Autism affects roughly 1 in 96 children in the world. Having personal experience through his 4 year old son Dylan, Rick is doing what he can to help increase awareness and aide the community through various programs he is involved with.

One of these programs is the Paintballer’s 4 Autism program he conceived. Working with several Sponsors within the Paintball industry, PB4A is able to offer Jersey’s, Tank Covers, Barrel Bags, and a number of other specialized paintball products where the proceeds from sales are donated to some of the local outreach programs dedicated to Autism. Out of this, Rick introduced the 3 Man Open event.

For his first effort, Rick had a total of 18 teams sign up to play. Teams like Misfits, Sandbaggers, Menace, Bombers, Identity Creed and Iconik; all typical paintball team names that make you wonder sometimes what would inspire them to participate in an event like this. When asking some of the players…I received astonishingly the same answers! It’s a Great Cause…We’re trying to help our friend.

The event was great. All the teams had a wonderful time, and the fans got to see a lot of great paintball.

Finishes:
4th Team PPS
3rd The Sandbaggers
2nd The Misfits
1st Identity Creed

The Sandbaggers went through the event undefeated through Prelims, but unfortunately dropped one in the finals, pushing them back to 3rd from 1st.

Identity Creed walked away with the Main Prize and 3 brand new Eclipse Gear Bags.

Two sportsmanship awards were also given out.

The Bombers are a young team with absolutely NO tournament experience. They worked hard all day and for their great showing, were given entry to the first NEPL 3 man event in 2011. This was donated by Boston Paintball and Identity Paintball.

The second award went to Jason Gerrish from team Iconik. His Awesome attitude and the way he represented himself and the team was a classic example of what Paintballers 4 Autism is all about.

Overall the PB4A event did amazing in that it was able to raise $1200. The plan is to donate all the proceeds to Autism Speaks and Community Resources for People with Autism. Each to receive $600.

When asked what he thought of the turnout, Rick said: “I am humbled by what the Paintball Community is doing by coming together.”

“Many thanks go out to the sponsors of PB4A:

D&D Paintball, Planet Eclipse, Furious Paintball, Kohn Paintball, Cron Paintball, Identity Paintball, and Josh Silverman and Paintball X3 Magazine, Boston Paintball, Bunker King, ORing Monkey, Social Paintball and PBJunkie.com

Without the additional support of the following, this day would never have been able to come off:

Dennis Frank and his staff at D&D Paintball, David Archibald who made the tournament flow so smoothly, Kevin Conlon and his Referee Staff who gave up their Sunday and donated their time, Mike Sokol...Jack of all trades...gopher and videographer.

Mostly, Thanks go to the Player. You guys are the reason the day was a Great Success. I cannot express my appreciation enough for that. If there is anyone that was forgotten, I am Truly Sorry for that and you must know that you mean a lot to me and what you gave up to make this event one of the best. See you all next year...”

Paintballers 4 Autism will be working in close partnership with several of its major sponsors to bring exciting new ways for paintballers to be able to help this very worthwile charity. Expect more updates soon!

You can follow Paintballers-4-Autism on Facebook

Or contact Richard Greenaway directly on:

Phone (413)537-8802

Email pballer4autism@yahoo.com

Donations can be made directly to Paintballers 4 Autism via paypal at pballer4autism@yahoo.com