25 Years Of Giving: Lori Craven Memorial Continues A Legacy Of Compassion

What began 25 years ago with eight ball teams, an ice cream pail filled with $5,100 and a community determined to help a friend has grown into one of the Lloydminster area’s most enduring displays of generosity.

The 25th annual Lori Craven Memorial Ball Tournament brought 32 teams together Aug. 15 and 16 for a weekend of slo-pitch, fundraising, laughter and remembrance, marking a quarter-century of carrying forward the legacy of the woman whose name the tournament bears.

Lori Craven was a slo-pitch pitcher who loved sports, children and family. In 2002, while she was battling cancer, friends learned she hoped to travel to Seattle for treatment and organized a ball tournament to help with the financial burden.

Eight teams took part that first year and raised $5,100.

Organizer Gerry Maier still remembers how they gave it to Lori.

“We gave it to Lori in an ice cream pail,” Maier recalled during an interview. “It was coins and cheques, and everything else.”

Lori was hospitalized at the time but received a day pass so she could attend the tournament.

Lori never made it to Seattle for treatment. Instead, in an act that would ultimately shape the future of the tournament, she passed the money raised for her along to friends and others who were sick and needed help.

“That’s the kind person that she was,” Maier said.

Lori passed away only months later, and her family asked organizers to continue the tournament in her memory.

The following year, organizers knocked on doors looking for sponsors and donations, using entry fees to provide assistance to a recipient. From there, the tournament grew from eight teams to 16 and eventually to the 32-team event it is today, complete with a waiting list.

“It has been amazing how the community has stuck by us and trusted us,” Maier said. “It has been fantastic.”

Heading into the 25th year, organizers estimated the memorial had raised approximately $1.8 million and hoped to move closer to the $2-million mark. Last year alone, Maier estimated approximately $160,000 was raised, including funds generated through its partnership with the Motley Troupe, with around 18 recipients receiving assistance.

While the memorial initially focused on helping families with sick children, its reach has expanded. Organizers realized that when a parent becomes seriously ill and cannot work, helping that parent also means helping their children.

Committee member Deanna Wandler said in an interview, the goal is simply to find a way to ease the burden, whether through food, gas, travel expenses or helping make it possible for a parent to take time away from work to be with family.

The years have also provided reminders of how far the memorial’s reach extends. Maier recalled recently working at a barbecue when former recipient Bretton Dykstra, who received assistance as a young boy, happened to be working nearby and stopped to buy a burger.

Children who once benefited from the memorial are now adults, while another generation is growing up learning what the tournament represents.

Children hold lemonade stands, collect tabs, sell ice and find other ways to contribute. Wandler said her children have grown up with the event.

“My kids say it’s like Christmas for them, the Lori Craven Memorial Tournament,” she said.

When the memorial presents cheques at the Statue of Hope, young fundraisers are invited to participate so they can see what their efforts helped accomplish.

“They know what their work did and contributed to,” Maier said. “So it’s great.”

Fundraising during the tournament includes team entry fees, silent and live auctions, food and concession sales, donations and the popular Sunday head and beard shaving auction.

Support also extends beyond the ballpark. Over the past two years, the Motley Troupe has contributed $90,000 from proceeds of its annual dinner theatre productions, allowing the memorial to help families throughout the year, including during the difficult Christmas season.

Amid the laughter and competition, however, there comes a point each year when the atmosphere at the diamonds changes.

At noon on Sunday, the games stop.

Organizers recognize those to whom the tournament is dedicated and remember people who have passed away. Recipients and their families have also shared what the memorial’s assistance meant during some of the hardest periods of their lives.

“We’ve had families come and say what the Lori Craven Memorial Foundation has done for them,” Maier said. “That’s really when it gets really emotional.”

Past tournaments have included balloon and butterfly releases, while music gives those gathered an opportunity to reflect and remember.

Then comes the head-shaving auction, bringing laughter and excitement back to the crowd before play resumes.

“You have a little moment and then we brighten it up with the head shaving that brings a little excitement, and then it’s back to playing ball,” Maier said.

Through all the changes and growth, Lori’s family has remained part of the tournament. Her aunt and uncle have helped flip burgers, while her mother continues to attend and brings photo albums filled with photographs and newspaper clippings from tournaments past.

One memory from last year particularly stood out for Maier. Lori had played for the Thundercats, and while music played at the tournament, Lori’s mother could be heard singing along to “Thunder” in the background.

Those moments are reminders that behind the teams, fundraising totals and 25 years of growth is the woman who inspired it all.

The Lori Craven Memorial describes

Lori as someone who showed up for others with love, kindness and compassion and made people feel supported during difficult times. Today, the memorial strives to provide that same support to families facing serious illness.

After 25 years, organizers can no longer easily say exactly how many people the memorial has helped. There have simply been too many to count without going back through decades of records.

What they do know is where it began.

Eight teams. A sick friend. And $5,100 delivered in an ice cream pail.

That money was raised to help Lori Craven. When she could no longer use it for the treatment her friends hoped it would provide, she chose to help someone else.

Twenty-five years later, an entire community is still paying that kindness forward.