October 10, 2024 · 0 Comments
By Brian Lockhart
The Kala’s Wings Co-ed Softball Tournament got underway at Rotary Park and other local ball diamonds in Orangeville on Saturday, Oct. 5 and 6 to bring attention to suicide awareness.
Kala, who the tournament is held in memory of, was a 26-year-old Orangeville woman with two children. She committed suicide in 2018.
Her parents Don and Colleen Menard started the baseball tournament to raise funds and awareness about suicide – which is often a taboo subject people don’t want to talk about.
Suicide worldwide is responsible for more deaths, than war, car accidents, and murders combined. In Canada, on average, 12 people take their own lives every day.
“This is Kala’s Wings, raising suicide awareness,” Colleen Menard explained. “We have 22 teams this year and over 300 players. We want to raise awareness because there is a real stigma that goes with suicide. It was always such a hush-hush thing, and people don’t want to talk about it. We do this to raise awareness. This year we are raising funds for DCAFS [Dufferin Child and Family Services] in Orangeville. Kids can go in there and talk. A portion of the funds will go to DCAFS, and some will go elsewhere – maybe a family or parent who needs it.”
DCAFS offers programs that help youth who are dealing with depression and other mental health issues.
The funds raised at the tournament go directly to local causes.
“This is a hand-to-hand fundraiser,” Don Menard explained. “We want to see where the money goes. We want people to know there’s help and people you can talk with. This is way of giving back to the community and bring awareness to suicide.”
Suicide touches countless lives each year. More than 720,000 people commit suicide each year worldwide, according to the World Health Organization.
Sometimes there is no known reason why a person decides to take their own life.
“Kala was a real charismatic girl, she was really outgoing,” Colleen Menard said. “Kala was a happy go-lucky girl. She was a great, creative mom, she was fun. Everybody loved having her around. You never know what someone is battling with. I can’t save her, but maybe we can save another life.”
The tournament was bigger than ever this year. Numbers had to be capped because there are only so many ball diamonds available to play games, however, more than 300 players were on the diamonds over the weekend.
The tournament was played in a round-robin format, with the teams still standing playing in the finals on Sunday, Oct. 6.
Some of the teams already play in a league, while others were put together specifically for the tournament.
Many local businesses supported the tournament and there were many prizes given out to players who took part in the event.