Marlene keeny Memorial Softball Tournament

The History of the Marlene Keeny Memorial Softball Tournament

My name is Ronald Dierich and I ‘m writing this letter on behalf of my two brothers, Gary Dierich and Dave McMillen, and our families. In the year 1975 our mother found a lump on her breast and was told by the doctor not to worry about it. In 1976 she was diagnosed with breast cancer, which resulted in a mastectomy at the very young age of thirty. In January of 1977, our mother passed away leaving her three young sons to be raised by their grandmother. Living on a fixed income and already raising three foster children, our grandmother managed to get by. There was always a struggle to pay bills and buy groceries, but she managed somehow to provide for us all.

Now that we’re all married and have families of our own, we decided to do something in our mom’s memory. Being a father of three daughters and heavily involved in women’s softball, I came up with the idea to hold an annual women’s softball tournament in which all the money raised will be donated to a charity in my mother’s memory.  The charity that we chose is Vickie’s Angel Walk. They help families who have a family member with cancer. They help pay monthly bills, hospital bills, and grocery bills. All money raised goes straight to the families.  With your help we would like to make this a successful event and to help raise money for families’ that are going through breast cancer.

Almost everyone has had a friend, coworker or loved one who has gone through the affects of breast cancer.  With your help, we can help those individuals and their families reduce the stress about where the money is coming from to pay for everyday living and medical expenses while they are going through cancer treatment.