ESTEVAN — The Estevan Public Youth Centre's (EPYC) inaugural cornhole tournament, sponsored by the Estevan Kinette Club, raised over $6,000 on April 29.
The fun-filled event ran from 1 p.m. through midnight. The cornhole was the main attraction, but people were also invited to play giant Jenga and beer pong. Drinks and food were available, and there was also a 50/50 and raffle prizes donated by local businesses.
Over 30 teams registered for the event this year, and Michelle Walsh, EPYC's treasurer, said that everything went really well, but as it develops into a tradition, they probably will change few things.
"I think it went really well, especially for an inaugural tournament. Next year, we'll probably shorten up the round robin a little bit. All in all, the tournament was over 10 hours of play for the cash prize," Walsh said.
While cornhole is a fun game and the event had a friendly spirit to it, there also were prizes for first, second and third places. CornFathers claimed first place and went home with $1,000, Deadly Duo came in second and were awarded $500, and Cornstars were third and received a gift card from Southern Bolt Supply. The business also sponsored the costume competition, and the Shuckin Ducks team won it by audience vote.
Music was playing at the premises and a DJ entertained throughout the afternoon and into the night. The event had a party component to it and was open to everyone, not just the competitors. However, Walsh noted that they didn't see many spectators stopping by this time.
"In the beginning of the day, we probably had a few [spectators] but towards the end there, it was just mostly the teams. We had very few spectators come so that's something we definitely would like to see change next year," Walsh said.
"This is definitely going to be an annual event, and next year, we're going to do more for people that don't so much play cornhole or want to start trying to play, and we'll do a few more contests and different things to get people interested in it."
The EPYC board also will gauge the interest to see if there is appetite to turn the cornhole tournament into a biennial occurrence.
The event was strongly supported by local Kinettes, which allowed for more funds being raised for the youth centre, and Walsh said the board was really grateful for help.
"The local Kinettes sponsored the prize money and the hall by donation to EPYC. They also generously volunteered and managed our bar the whole night. The Kinettes were a huge sponsor of this tournament," Walsh said.
"We wanted to thank our sponsors, of course the Kinettes, and Black Beards, and also the EPYC board of directors."
Sask. Cornhole League also stepped in and helped the local not-for-profit to organize and run their first tournament. They also provided scoring tablets and additional boards for the event.
Funds raised will help the EPYC with its operations.
