We are all feeling the winter blues with the recent snowstorms, rain and flooding the county and region have endured over the past month.

While the temperatures will hopefully start to rise over the coming weeks and make the winter weather we have had a distant memory, something that will surely warm your heart and take those blues away is the annual March Madness event hosted by the Lawrence County Board of Developmental Disabilities.

The evening features several basketball games with teams from Tri-State Industries, the Lawrence County Open Door School, The Tribune and other media and Lawrence County elected officials.

A few years ago, working with the folks at the board of DD and county elected officials, there was a new element to the March Madness event.

While some may think that the media and elected officials are on opposite sides, this isn’t always the case.

However, it was most certainly the case as a team of Tribune employees and various elected officials from Lawrence County were facing off in a basketball game to help fundraising efforts. Each team makes a donation to aid in the continuing efforts of the board of DD.

Now, we don’t claim to be the Harlem Globetrotters, UCLA Bruins from the 70’s, Boston Celtics or Los Angeles Lakers from the 80’s or the Chicago Bulls from the 90’s, but we do go out and play hard.

It’s about the pride for either side in this game. The team from the Tribune has been fortunate to win all of the games so far, and we don’t anticipate letting the elected officials have the bragging rights this year either.

While the game itself is hard-fought and some trash talking may surface, it’s all in good fun because we all understand the importance and reason of why we are there.

After that game, both teams join forces to play against a team of all-stars from Tri-State Industries.

For the past nine years, I have had the pleasure of participating in this event and although we never seem to get over the hump and win,I can tell you that even in defeat I leave with a smile on my face.

In the end, we want to have fun and help bring our community together to help a great cause.

If you have not had a chance to attend this event, I encourage you to make your way over to Dawson-Bryant High School on Tuesday, March 24, because you are missing an evening that will put a smile of your face.

Ultimately, it doesn’t matter what the scoreboard says at the end of each of these games, we are all going to be winners for being a part of such a special evening.

 

Josh Morrison is the general manager at The Tribune. To reach him, call 740-532-1441 ext. 16 or by email at josh.morrison@irontontribune.com.