2014 Us Vs Them Event Benefiting Ayla James

The HOTSTART Softball Charity Challenge, now in its 6th year, is a friendly intra-company charity event that raises thousands of dollars for a worthy local cause. The 2014 “Us Vs. Them” Softball Charity Challenge will be held August 16th, 2014 at 4pm at Orchard Park in Spokane Valley and will benefit Ayla James.  

In six years, the “Us Vs. Them” event has raised over $13,000 for local organizations.  This year, HOTSTART is working to raise money to help one of our own. Ayla James, daughter of HOTSTART employee Nathan James, was critically injured in a car accident in May 2014. Ayla’s recovery has been a long one and will require ongoing physical and speech therapy. All proceeds from this year’s Charity Challenge will go toward Ayla’s recovery efforts.

“Nathan James has been absolutely stellar during his 13 years at HOTSTART,” said Terry Judge, CEO of HOTSTART. “Our hearts have been with him, Ayla, their family as well as Gracie Snider and her family. The HOTSTART community has provided tremendous support with their prayers, thoughts, love and donations of money and vacation time. This softball game fundraiser continues the support and provides a great way for businesses and people outside of HOTSTART to donate and help us support Ayla, Nathan, and their family.”

HOTSTART employees Corey Hovanec and Tim Skimming are currently gathering donations and prizes from local businesses for the August 16th event. The charity challenge includes a softball game between two HOTSTART teams, a picnic for the attendees and raffle of donated prizes following the game

The HOTSTART “Us Vs. Them” rivalry began in 2009 following the conclusion of a company sponsored softball game in which an employee not participating on the team challenged several players to a sand lot game, claiming he could organize a better team of fellow employees to beat the company sponsored team.  Seeing the opportunity to use this “rivalry” for good, the challenge has become an annual event for HOTSTART employees to give back to the Spokane community.