Farewell to the DBMT

Over the past 45 years, the Denny Buehler Memorial softball tournament has supported more than 50 families and individuals when our neighbors were in need due to catastrophic medical events and growing medical debt. Additionally, with your support, in 2019, we raised enough money to pay off over $1 million in medical debt for folks living in our region. We could not be more grateful for the past 45 years of service to our community. And of course, we will always be grateful for the support we received for Denny Buehler at the very first DBMT, way back in 19980.

As our mission evolves, so must the ways we connect and give back. After much reflection, we’ve made the tough decision to retire the tournament and channel our energy into something new. 

While we have loved producing the DBMT for many decades, there have been growing challenges. People just don’t play as much softball as they did back when the tournament was founded, and it has been harder to recruit new and competitive co-ed teams to sign on for the weekend. Expectations for the tournament have evolved as well… gone are the days when we could function with volunteer umpires, as players expect (and deserve) a fairly called game in a competitive tournament. We have also been struggling to manage rising prices over the last several years, which has made it increasingly difficult for us to raise enough money to have a significant impact.

The end of the tournament does not mean the end of the foundation. We feel that investing our energy in different ways can have a greater impact on the well-being of the community. We continue to be dedicated to supporting people in our corner of the world who are struggling due to medical debt, but how we go about that will change. Please stay tuned as we shift our focus to different ways of raising money.

And to every person who has played in the tournament over the years, volunteered to help us pull the event off, to the fans who attended and supported us over the years, to everyone who has donated and shared and helped what we have been trying to build, we thank you from the bottom of our hearts. Our community is better off for your contributions and we hope you’ll walk with us into this next chapter.