Jeremy Feder baseball tournament in Oceanside to help vets
Jeremy Feder makes friends with Banshee, an America's VetDogs companion in training. Credit: Laura Koss-Feder
This year, on Dec. 10, is my bar mitzvah — a major milestone in the life of a Jewish boy. I wanted to do a mitzvah project. This means I wanted to do something to help others. But, what would I do?
I knew I wanted to do something with baseball. I have played baseball since age 4, and now I have played on travel and national teams, traveling all over the country. I am a catcher. I then joined the Patriot Club this past school year in seventh grade at Oceanside Middle School. This club helps raise money and awareness for wounded soldiers. This meant a lot to me, and I felt I wanted to do more to help.
So, I decided to combine the two and create a charity baseball tournament that would help wounded soldiers. With some marketing help from my mom and some advice from my dad, who worked with the military when he was with the U.S. Department of Defense, I decided that the tournament would benefit America’s VetDogs. This Smithtown organization provides free, trained service dogs for disabled veterans on Long Island and all across America. My family then took our proposal to Oceanside Little League and the group agreed to host the event with us. “Jeremy Feder’s All-Star Charity Baseball Tournament” was born. It will take place in Oceanside from Sept. 16-18, with opening ceremonies on Sept. 16, at 6:30 p.m. at Wrights Field in Oceanside.
This tournament has been growing into a big community event where I live. Kids from the ages of 8 to 10 will be playing, and they will be coming from Long Island neighborhoods, as well as parts of New York City to play. We have eight sponsors, local politicians will be there, and students from the Patriot Clubs in Oceanside Middle and High Schools will help sell food and raffles on opening night. They will get community service credits for doing this. Money from all items sold and tournament fees will go to the charity.
I am so excited about this event, and almost can’t believe that this has grown into something so big. I can’t wait until it is here, and I hope we can raise a lot of money to help soldiers. Maybe this can even become an annual event in my town. Wow.
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