The fifth annual Braiden’s All Nighter softball tournament took place at the Southwest Softball Complex in Cortez last weekend.
The tournament began in 2012 to help Misty and Mike Smith pay for transportation, lodging and medical bills while their son Braiden was being treated for acute myeloid leukemia.
And although Braiden was declared cancer free after four rounds of treatment, the Smiths and cousin Bill McCoy – who was instrumental in the tournament’s inception – decided to continue to put on the event.
They have since partnered with the Children’s Hospital of Colorado to support other families with children diagnosed with AML leukemia, cancer, heart disease or failure and other illnesses.
There were eight men’s teams and six women’s teams that participated in the fifth annual event. They began play on Friday evening and ran through Saturday afternoon, with team B-12, from Cortez, coming out on top.
And for the second consecutive year, there was a helicopter landing nearby with pilots giving children tours of the cockpit and allowing them to try on helmets and push buttons.
McCoy, who dresses as ‘Hero the Clown’ for the event, said he mixed up his outfit this time, dressing like rodeo clowns in the Professional Bull Riders organization.
All in all, McCoy said he counted $2,156 in proceeds that will be donated to the Children’s Hospital of Colorado, and that there was still a donation pending that he expected to bring the total closer to $2,300.
McCoy is already planning the sixth annual tournament for next summer, saying he expects it will be held during the third weekend of August.