There are a lot of sore people in St. Francisville today. On Saturday the West Feliciana Education Foundation (WFEF) hosted a dodgeball tournament to raise money to support the school system and, in the process, well and truly put the "fun" into "fundraising." Like most of the people who signed up, I'd never played dodgeball before, but that didn't stop almost two hundred of us from organizing into teams of six, dreaming up daft costumes and "ball"-inspired team names and descending on the sports park to hurl balls at one another.
There were teams from all over the region. There were beer and cocktails, hot dogs and jambalaya, a highly ironic commentator, and a deejay to keep the sidelines dancing. From 4 pm, the balls—and the innuendo—flew thick and fast as thirty-two teams with names like the Mother Duckers, Beastie Balls, Artful Dodgers, Disco Balls, the mysteriously named Dodgy Narwhals, and our own, BALLet Feliciane, did battle for the chance to take home a Golden Hippo trophy—or at least a ribbon for "best team name" or "best costume." And while the on-field talent definitely increased as the 8 pm championship game approached, the whole event also proved that a nominally "sporting" tournament could also tap into a bottomless well of fun, team spirit, and shared commitment that had little to do with athletic ability and everything to do with community spirit. Turns out, all you need is the right blend of wit, irony, creative costuming, good-humored competition, and beer. It was a colorful, joy-filled event and a very successful fundraiser, and everyone who had a hand in making it happen should be really proud.
Someone on Facebook wrote that the Dodgeball Challenge was an example of St. Francisville putting its best foot forward. I think I'd go one further: the Dodgeball Challenge put a new kind of foot forward: a playful, ironic, inclusive, don't-take-yourself-too-seriously foot. It had a tube sock on it, and it knew how have fun while supporting the public school system: the institution with more potential for improving life in West Feliciana Parish than any other. I loved the foot that WFEF's Dodgeball Challenge put forward. It supported the kind of community that I want to live in, that I want my kids to grow up in. And no matter how sore I might be today, I'm already looking forward to next year.
