Fundraising Ideas For Baseball Teams

New uniforms?  Tournament funding? Equipment for new players?  Every team is looking for ways to raise money to supplement their accounts. 

We saved for two years as an organization to send our team to Cooperstown New York for the 12 year old baseball tournament two years ago. (One of the teams Son #1 played for had the costs covered by the annual fees we paid to be on the team plus the corporate sponsorships they secured as an organization...NICE! The other local team he played for relied completely on fundraising by parents.)

Now that my second son is getting closer to the trip, we are starting fundraising for his team.  The cost of participation at Cooperstown varies based on how far you have to travel to New York, how many players you are sending, which Cooperstown facility you are attending and how much parents are going to pay out of pocket.  The costs can be cut down and even covered in total by putting out fundraisers throughout the season and throughout the year by employing some of the below ideas.   I would also LOVE to hear about your ideas for successful fundraisers.   

Bowling fundraiser at local bowling alley - they may even donate the space and shoes. 

Sell candy, soda, waters at home games (propose Doubleheaders with other teams and sell food in between games)

Do a summer brat fry or hot dog sale at the local grocery store.

Bagging for tips – Some grocery stores allow kids and adults to bag groceries for tips. This is a great way for the team members themselves to get involved instead of mom and dad doing all the work.

Car wash – have a donation only concept - that way people can pay you what they want once they hear what the car wash will benefit.  When we did this in college, we had a couple of people whose job it was to explain the concept to the people who were getting their car washed. they usually got more money because they explained what the money was going toward.

Kid sitting event where we watch little kids in the community for small donation per child on a Friday night

Look at local sports teams who may offer fundraising where portion of group ticket sales go back to your club

Provide an instruction camp to younger players put on by coaches or even older club players and charge a fee for the camp.

Invite area food truck to baseball fields on game night.  We get the word out in advance and they give us a percentage of sales.  Invite the night of registration too and let parents know in advance

Sell signs for your yard with players numbers

Have a community aluminum can or telephone recycling event

Remind parents about corporate matching programs

Have your own tournament with multiple age groups, concessions, parking and vendors

Fast Pitch Fundraiser – This is a great fundraiser for baseball teams.  Set up a radar gun to measure the speed of pitches. Whoever is the fastest in each age group wins a donated prize. Charge a participation fee to raise money.

Face painting booth. Face painting is a fun and easy fundraising idea for older youth. Set up a booth at a local festival or carnival and be sure to indicate to which charity the proceeds will be going

Bake sale - who doesn't like yummy treats??

Pizza Hut or Papa John’s buy one get one free on pizza. Both of these organizations (as well as dozens of others) provide opportunities for earning money back on purchases made by your team or group. 

Flock of Flamingos – “sell” the announcement of a birthday or something special by putting a flock of pink flamingoes in the front yard of someone.  The flock gets purchased by someone as a gift.  Its a small up front investment of the flock - I even saw them at the dollar store - then its just setting up/taking down during specified times for the recipient.

Phoneraiser.com – send in old cell phones and PDAs, laptops. Etc and earn money back for them

Presell baseball mom logo car magnets. Logomagnet.com

Presell baseball mom tshirts or bracelets and then get a cut of each unit sold

First Tournament is Upon Us!

YAY!!!! The first tournament is finally here!  After MULTIPLE times a week driving to the indoor practice facility and a couple of false starts on outdoor practices, the first tournament is here.  Good news - its here!! Bad news, baseball mom is home with the other sons and dad is on the road this time.  Well, with a questionable weather outlook, Dad decided it would be better for him to take the first trip so that he wouldn't have to worry about me in the middle of nowhere Illinois driving like a crazywoman in some goofy snow or sleet.  I'm ok with that.  I can cheer from 8 hours away!  Its not the first time or the last time.  The little brothers are excited to have some time at home with me, so I should be glad cuz we all know those days won't last forever!  Please send me a photo of your son's opening day!  I want to post them and I can include a name or just a first name and hometown, whatever you choose.  I think its awesome to see them so excited to start the new season and those smiles are the reason we do it!  Send them in and I will do my best to post them. 

Here are some oldies but goodies from past years: (Ignore the years printed on the photos, I never figured out my old camera..loser!)

Little peeps at Miller Park.

Hawks with their nicknames:)

Pals.

Little guys in Merton

You send 'em, I'll post 'em!

Spring is in the Air

Did you feel it? You know, that sense of spring starting to trickle in?? I know, its still VERY early in the season, especially for those of us in the northern states, however, the month of January has turned from the month of post holiday blues, to the anticipation of green turf, the smell of hot dogs and boys in their spankin clean baseball pants stretching and warming up.  For some reason, this year more than others, I have felt excitement earlier in the winter.  Part of it is that I live in Wisconsin and the many times I find that I'm thinking about spring in order to remind myself that the frigid cold is going to leave!  One of my baseball mom friends and I discussed that there could be several reasons for the earlier excitement...probably the fact that the kids will get to be outside virtually nonstop and that travel baseball mom gal pals will get to be back together! 

Right now, you southern state baseball moms are probably thinking, uh, ladies, we don't have an off season so we get to hang out together all the time.  That is yet another advantage to living where you do! 

While the schedules are not final, here are some of the glorious 50 states that we will venture to this year. 

Illinois, Indiana, Nebraska, Kentucky, Ohio, Mississippi, Alabama, Texas

How about your travels?  Where will they take you and are you ready?

Are you having to purchase any new gear this year?  Our logos and team names changed for two of the the three teams and the third team is a whole new team.  SO, lots of preseason shopping happened at the holidays and will continue until the season begins.  I always have a friend of mine make our littlest brother a shirt that coordinates with the big brother teams so that he is in the game! 

One of the most awesome travel baseball mom purchases I am waiting for is my custom travel baseball mom crystal bracelet.  The store Sparkle of Eden can customize cell phone cases, necklaces, bracelets, anything you want. I ordered a bracelet with my son's team colors and a little charm with his number.  I can't wait to get it!!!  I will post it when I do.

Holiday Gifts for the Travel Baseball Family

Deck the Halls With Boughs of Holly!!!!!

The holidays are fast approaching.  And as a reminder to those of you with travel baseball or travel sports kids, here are my top 5 holiday ideas for family members who participate in travel baseball or travel sports:

In no particular order:

1)  A great duffle bag.  Get a decent quality duffle bag for your player to transport the non-sports gear that they are going to need on a weekend away.  Consider one from LandsEnd or UnderArmour.  Both of these product lines give lifetime warranties on their products so if the zipper breaks next year you don't have to invest in yet another expense.  Many times the outlets sell these products as well and they have the same guarantee.  TOTALLY worth the additional nominal upfront expense for these brands, in my opinion.  You could also fill the bag with other essentials, a neck pillow, a smaller shaving/make up size bag, a laundry bag, travel size shampoos and other toiletries.  Get the bag monogrammed or stitched with their number or nickname for added personalization.

2) Baseball jersey for grandparents.  I don't know about you, but its kinda hard to come up with new and great gifts for the grandparents each year.  Buy them a team jersey with your players number on it (my two players happen to wear the same number so its easy for me) OR put John's grandpa as the name on the back. Even grandparents who live far away can feel connected to their player with a jersey to wear on game day.  Want something more generic?  Get a Baseball Grandma or Baseball Grandpa shirt made by someone.  My favority place to look is etsy to get unique gifts. 

3) Gear.  You already know you have to buy new stuff every couple years or every year.  Why not turn that catchers mitt purchase into the gift for the holidays?  Or give your player a handmade gift certificate for the item so that they can pick it out, but its still a holiday gift to open.

4)   Headphones all around.  You know on those road trips not everyone wants to have the same tunes on the radio, so why not give everyone their own headphones.  Carve out some time on the car trip that all headphones are off, so you still get some quality interaction and togetherness (awwww!) but this way your love of country music does not interfere with your son's love of rap music or vice versa.

5)  Blankets.  Customize a blanket or have one made that highlights your players previous year of play.  Many companies allow for this (walgreens just ran a special on this).  What kid doesn't like to see photos of themselves playing their sport?  This is a great way to capture some action shots on something they can use on their bed or in the car on their roadtrips.

I would love to hear from you with ideas as well.  Let me know what you have purchased in the past!  And happy shopping.  Looks like this year we can get started on Thursday night after dinner instead of Friday at 3am.  Yippee!!!

Crazy Driving Songs

How appropriate has this song been ALL SUMMER as we hit the road with our baseball player sons!  Everytime I hear this I look in the backseat and watch my 2 1/2 year old do the motions.  The oldest kid thinks its now lame to do this in the car, but I always have the toddler to keep me remembering all the fun we had traveling around to games:)

I am hitting the road today for a bit of a drive so this is definitely on my playlist....keep it coming baseball playahs!

What's It Like as a New Traveling Sports Family?

What is it like becoming a travel baseball mom, dad and family?  I know that tryouts, recruiting and invitations to play next year or even atarting Fall Ball for select travel baseball teams has begun already, so its probably time to share some of what it means to take the leap!  For those of you who have made the decision to join the rest of us crazy travel baseball families, here is a little bit of a preview.

This article made me smile and realize that virtually all of these points are true!  
titled Then I Became A Baseball Parent....here ya go
http://www.infosports.com/baseball/arch/3250.htm

Now, the couple of points I am forced to add to this list because they have proven themselves over the past three years:

Frequent flyer miles. Accumulation is now banked for baseball tournaments!  Not that we can't squeeze in a trip or two with the remaining miles, but it's mostly about how to get The Kid where he needs to go. Caution, shameless plug...we always use Sunsationalbeachvacations.com for our beach trips;)

Hotel loyalty program.  Ditto.  See the frequent flyer entry above.  We try to stay at the same chains as the husband and I do for our other jobs (you know, that thing we do to collect a paycheck instead of spending it).  Even if it's not the same class of hotel that we would have for business trips, ie JW Marriott, we try to stay at the same overall hotel company ie Courtyard By Marriott in order to get some additional perks or point accumulation.  It's not always possible to get all your stays in a comparable hotel since your group may oftentimes stay together at a hotel for a group rate discount.  We have mostly stayed at the hotels the team chooses however at times we elected to stay somewhere else. 

Siblings find and make friends with the other siblings and get to spend time with children outside of their school, church and neighborhood.  My younger kids used to be a little more shy about making friends.  Not any more!  I find I am more open to the kids hanging out at the field with other sibs.

My Garage looks less like a place to store cars and more like a Play It Again Sports store.

My calendar used to have plenty of open days with nothing written as commitments.  Now, it's all a jumbled mess of confirmation numbers, hotel names and practice locations.  

I reserve the right to come back to this entry MANY times!   

Tips for Planning Your Trip to Cooperstown

 Some of these tips are from my son's team and some from other moms and dads who I spoke with during the competition.  I hope these help you prepare for one of the most memorable baseball adventures your son can experience.

• Food at the park is reasonable so don't worry that you cannot have carry in food or drinks.  There are several healthier choices as well as breakfast all day as options
• When sending water and Gatorade for the team, send the smaller bottles so that the kids don't have dozens of half consumed bottles around
• Send snacks for the barracks in individual portions. These are best for freshness and cleanup plus there is less chance of bug issues if the boys open one serving at a time.
• Parents and guests are not allowed inside the players/coaches village after check in, so get your photos, etc done quickly at the beginning
• No one is allowed to walk into the park from the outside so don't try it. Everyone has to drive in due to park restrictions
• There are not many chain hotels in close proximity to Cooperstown Dreams Park, but best western, country suites, and holiday inn are closest
• There are family owned cottages, inns, bed and breakfasts, resorts available and can be found on water, on farms, in town.  Lots of choices!
• If you are going to order a customized bat for your son, do it early in the week to avoid lines.  The bats come with team name, teammates names, logo of the park.

There are a ton of photographers that work the games however, no photos are taken after 4pm so be prepared to take your own photos. 

There is a jungle gym at dreams park for little brothers and sisters to blow off some steam and you can see one field from that vantage point

Ommegang brewery has brewery tours and kids are allowed

Campers/players will need a top sheet and a blanket for the bunks, a bottom fitted sheet is provided

Shower shoes are necessary for walking to the shower and while showering in community bathrooms

When you see the player and coaches village, its truly barracks with each team staying in their own bunkhouse.

Entrance to Dreams Park

The Kid warming up on the gorgeous fields with festive decorations and flowers.

It's foggy and cool virtually every morning so be prepared with warmer clothes for early morning batting warm ups