4th Annual "KICK" Start to Early Literacy Kickball Tournament Results

WRECing Crew Kicks It Out of The Park

Spring Hill, FL – (February 22, 2019) United Way of Hernando County proudly hosted their 4th Annual "KICK" Start to Early Literacy Kickball Tournament at Anderson Snow Park on Saturday, February 16, 2019. Every year, local corporations compete in single elimination rounds to win United Way’s Ultimate Traveling Trophy. At the end of the day, Withlacoochee River Electric Cooperative’s team “WRECing Crew” went head to head with Publix 1132’s team “Try Hards”. The game was a close call and even went into overtime. WRECing Crew pulled through and triumphed with a score of 5-4. For the 2nd year in a row, Withlacoochee River Electric Cooperative took home the Ultimate Traveling Trophy for their success and accomplishments on the field.

The following businesses competed in this year’s event:

·         Holmes Drafting Services

·         Oak Hill Hospital

·         Patriot Lending Services

·         Publix

·         SunTrust

·         Target

·         Withlacoochee River Electric Cooperative 


2019 Kickball Champs: Team “WRECing Crew” Withlacoochee River Electric Cooperative

United Way has provided the Dolly Parton Imagination Library program in Hernando County for the past 10 years. This year, United Way hit a milestone with providing over 100,000 books to children enrolled in the program. Every child receives a free book every month until the age of five. These books are distributed at no cost to the families, regardless of their economic status. This program currently has 1,500 children enrolled and as its popularity continues to grow, so does Hernando’s waiting list and need for additional funding. Event proceeds raised from team registration fees, BBQ sales, raffle prizes, and donations benefitted this program. Child sponsorship opportunities are also available.

Thank you to United Way’s Proud Partners at the Boys & Girls Club, Children's Advocacy Center, Early Learning Coalition, Healthy Families Pasco-Hernando, and Mid Florida Homeless Coalition for coming out and supporting the Kickball Tournament and providing local resources for families.

United Way is grateful to our event vendors and offering a wide variety of services. Food trucks that came out to support were the Peanut SHACK, the Frigid Frog of Florida, and Girl Scouts sold everyone’s favorite cookies. Terlep Chiropractic offered free massages, Sertoma Speech and Hearing Foundation of Florida offered free hearing screenings. The Great Hernando Weight Loss Challenge/CHIPP offered fresh coffee and the YMCA organized a morning stretch to warm up the teams. A very special thank you to Chick-fil-A for providing fruit cups for a healthy start to the day.

A special thank you to PJ the DJ from the Arc Nature Coast for keeping the party going with fun music, Tropic Shores Realty Agent Toniann Ciappetta for supplying all team players with Sunscreen, Simply Soothing for generously donating Bug Soother, and Wawa for providing the players with water. United Way would also like to thank our volunteers and Board Members for donating their time to help make this event such a success.

For more information on sponsoring a child on the Dolly Parton Imagination Library program, call the United Way office at 352-688-2026 or email impact@UnitedWayHernando.org