(by Steve Hopkins)
Rhode Island Table Tennis has connected with a local Veterans support group to put on a charity ping pong tournament. On its face, you can’t go wrong supporting a good cause and the local support group, Mission Boots to Briefcases, is helping veterans transition from service to the work force.
Anytime our club can work with other groups, there is potential synergy – a benefit to both groups. The event that will be held on May 17 at a local High School, will involve 16 tables and up to 32 teams. As these are 3-person teams, there could be 96 players and close to 200 people in the room. These are not table tennis players, the event will include local politicians and community members (teams have been entered including the town mayor, the City Council, RI State Representatives and Senators, local Police Department, Fire Department, teams from two hospitals and teams representing a number of local businesses. By the end of the event, there will be a long list of influential people who have been exposed to our table tennis club. There should also be extensive, organic social media posts as well as news coverage.
The event itself will be run from 2-5p. That is, this entire fundraiser will be three hours in total. It is carefully planned and choreographed with patrons arriving at 2p, play beginning at 2:30p, and the tournament ending by 4:45p. With 16 tables, 32 teams can play a format with player 1 versus player 1, and player 2 versus player 2, and player 3 versus player 3. As games take 5-7 minutes, a format where each team member plays one game only will mean a full team match can be played in 15-21 minutes. If things move quickly, then each round should take no more than 30 minutes.
After the first round, there will be 16 undefeated teams, and the other 16 teams can be set to play in consolation matches. After the second round there will be 8 undefeated teams (and the other teams can continue to play in consolation rounds). After the third round there will be 4 undefeated teams. At that point, all teams will have played three matches, and a maximum of 1.5 hours will have passed. After the Finals and Semifinals, there will have been 5 rounds of play – and all of the matches will have been completed in just over 2 hours. The team ping pong event is not unlike a charity golf event – with most of the participants focused on the charity and the fun. In this case, the $75 team entry fee should net a little over $2,000 for the charity, and it will bring 200 people into a closed environment for an opportunity for additional fundraising and promotional events.
There will be a great deal of work involved. Tables will need to be moved from our club on the day prior to the event. The room will need to be set up. And after the event, the tables do need to be returned. That said, the return for this investment of time, will be exposure to a hundred players, a hundred onlookers, and many who will be exposed to the Rhode Island Table Tennis Club for the first time.
*The first rule of fundraising is that you have to ask. If anyone reading this feels inclined to make a donation to support this charity ping pong tournament, please visit the Charity’s ping pong event site here, or their direct donation site here. For questions about the group Mission Boots to Briefcases or to sponsor a team from a distance, visit the group’s contact page.
