By Kevin Spradlin
PeeDeePost.com
ROCKINGHAM — Kee Kee Williams had, until Saturday, never before played cornhole. It turns out she’s pretty good.
The 13-year-old Hamlet resident teamed up with Trae Jones, 10, of Rockingham, to win the youth division of the cornhole tournament at Richmond County Hospice in Rockingham. The event, and the accompanying adult division, was part of the nonprofit agency’s fundraising efforts for the 4th annual Salute to Veterans event scheduled for Nov. 7.
While Kee Kee was a novice, Trae was a veteran. He said his dad had built two boards for him to practice on regularly at home.
Being a kid, though, means that even the emotion that comes with triumph is short-lasting. Immediately after the tournament, Trae looked to his mother.
“Can I go play on the bouncy house?”
In the adult division — and a best-of-three championship round — the duo of Brian Baucom and Jason Tyson out dueled Harvey Melton and Arturo DeAguilar, the latter of which, like Kee Kee, hadn’t played cornhole before. DeAguilar, director of human resources for Hospice, didn’t seem phased by finishing second in his first tournament.
“God is good,” he said.
Baucom and Tyson each won a set of hand-crafted cornhole platforms, each with a military theme. One set had a POW/MIA design while the other had an antiquated or stressed American flag image. The platforms were built by Sgt. First Class Matt Harshman, who serves in the Army in civil affairs at Camp Mackall.
Harshman also competed in the tournament, but “I’m not that good.”
As part of Family Fun Day, there was plenty to offer kids and adults alike: balloon animals, face painting, music and a live auction were all part of the festivities organized by Kristina Leyden, interim chief executive officer, and her staff and board of directors.
The Hospice mission “is to comfort the body and heal the heart through compassionate, quality care during end-of-life experiences, so patients and families may live each day with peace, comfort and dignity.”
But part of Hospice reaches out to veterans long before they’re ready to die. The Salute to Veterans is a relative new opportunity for Hospice, 29 years old, and the entire community to gather and thank military service members like Harshman, a Chicago native, and so many others for what they do.
Auctioneer Ronnie Hawks, on the Hospice board of directors, went through a series of items as nearly three dozen people registered to bid on items ranging from a Marvel comics backpack to various types of cake — carrot and apple cinnamon among them — and from mums to tickets to Richmond Pines Golf Course or Discovery Place KIDS children’s museum.
Leyden said the goal of raising at least $3,000 — the floor cost of the Salute to Veterans — was reached through donations and cornhole tournament entry fees. That meant 100 percent of the proceeds from all other sources, such as food sales, and the auction, could go directly into the making the event one to remember.