Jacob Dimond / jake@yelmonline.com
Bean bags were flying and a competitive atmosphere was present at Mr. Doug’s Restaurant on Saturday, Aug. 16, as 24 teams attended and competed in One Net Yelm’s annual fundraising cornhole tournament.
According to event organizers Line Roy, One Net Yelm’s president, and Todd Stancil, One Net Yelm’s cornhole tournament chair, the fundraiser event raised approximately $3,500 — but the final donation numbers aren’t fully available yet.
“This is our only fundraiser where the funds aren’t automatically earmarked for something. The funds we raise from this tournament, we can use for anything that comes up,” Roy said. “As things come up throughout the year where people are looking for donations or funding support, that’s what we can use to assist with that.”
She added that One Net Yelm has previously used the funds to organize kids packs for the movie toy drive in December at Yelm Cinemas, along with contributions to Yelm Senior Center, All Kids Win, Yelm Rotary Club, Yelm Dollars for Scholars and more.
“It can really help us touch a lot of different parts in our community without having just one specific spot that it’s going to,” Roy said.
Stancil added: “This event gives us some flexibility because things do come up. There’s always a need that comes up. It might not be a need every year, but it’s a need this year. Being able to have the flexible funding to support the one off requests or one of needs, it’s nice to be able to do that in our club.”
In the week leading up to the annual cornhole tournament, predictions for rain in the region were made by meteorologists and weather forecasting apps; however, the bad weather skipped out on One Net Yelm’s cornhole tournament.
“Obviously, the weather was a big question mark heading into Saturday. We were concerned about some rain, because a lot of people wouldn’t have come if it was raining,” Stancil said of the rainy weather forecast. “Obviously, the weather worked out in an awesome way for us. It couldn’t have gone any better. Even the concrete was dry by the time we started playing. The temperature was actually perfect for the most part. Everyone seemed to have a good time.”
Despite the incorrect weather prediction, 24 teams still showed up to compete in One Net Yelm’s annual cornhole tournament. Stancil noted that each team was guaranteed eight games, with six round robin matchups and two double elimination contests.
“One of the cool highlights for me was there were several people who came up to me and asked about joining the club. We didn’t even use the event as a recruiting tool,” he said. “I talked to two or three people who expressed interest in becoming part of One Net Yelm, and I don’t really remember that happening in the past. I had several people come up to me saying ‘anything for the kids, I’m all in.’ Hearing that was awesome.”
According to Roy, one of the event’s highlights, in her eyes, was an act of generosity displayed by the tournament’s winners.
“For me, some of the highlights were seeing the winners and seeing their generosity as they donated their prize money back to the organization,” Roy said. “That’s so giving and so indicative of the types of people who come to this event.”
