Over the past year, RC has been getting a little more involved in the community. Sure, we like to play paintball but we also like to hang out together off of the field. I am pretty sure that Wimpy planted the bug for making our off-field time a little more "productive". So, we started looking around for ways to contribute to the community. We started out staffing a rest stop to help out the local Multiple Sclerosis Society with one of their large bike rides, then we spent most of a day doing some work for the local Habitat chapter and somewhere along the lines, K-rob found out about Mason's story.
Mason Thomas is a 9 year old Charlottesville boy with Neuroblastoma. Neuroblastoma is a form of cancer that occurs in infants and young children. It is rarely found in children over 10. Mason was diagnosed with Neuroblastoma when he was five. After several rounds of treatment between UVA hospital (in Charlottesville) and the Sloan Kettering Cancer Center (in New York City) Mason was cancer free for over three years. In April 2009 he relapsed and has been travelling to New York again for treatments. When RC heard about Mason's story we all agreed that we had to do something. We wanted to raise awareness for Neuroblastoma and help Mason's family with the expenses associated with his treatments and travels. This is how the Mason Thomas Championship Cup came to be.
We've got a lot of people working behind the scenes to make this a great event. KPS Paintball in Midlothian, VA will be hosting the event with two speedball fields and The Ishan Gala Foundation is helping us with a lot of the administrative and organizational aspects of running a fundraiser. Last but certainly not least we'll be tapping our own tournament experience and help from some KPS locals to bring you a high-quality tournament.
All of the important details are on the flyer. Once registration is open and as more details come in we will be posting updates here and on your favorite paintball forums.
