Pay It Forward, Pay It Back

This season, The Fusion Orange Softball Team started what we hope will be a lifetime of giving back to our community.

The 14U Fusion Orange Softball team has recognized all we have and how much our community supports us. In an effort to be good stewards, the team set out to become more involved in our community. The first step was volunteering to spend time with organizations that serve our community. In December the team spent two evenings delivering Christmas packages for Sioux Falls Cares. Next we helped the entire Fusion Group with a donation to The Sioux Falls Children’s Home Society.

On February 16th the Entire Fusion Orange Family of parents, players, brothers and sisters joined forces with some members of the Fusion 96, The Fusion Silver and The Fusion Black teams and assembled a group of 58 volunteers to cook, serve and cleaned up for 386 dinner guests at The Banquet.

The Banquet, a self-funding private organization, is a blessing to the guests who find themselves in need of a warm, friendly meal. They served over 135,000 meals in 2008. Fusion found the Banquet to be a blessing to our group as well. The staff and guests were amazing. As soon as the meal started a true sense of community was present with everyone in the room part of something bigger than any individual. For the younger Fusion group the experience was a view into the blessings of life and the daily support that they sometimes take for granted. For the adult Fusion group, the experience allowed each to be thankful for all we have and to be mindful of others and the many unique needs we have in our community.

The smiles on the faces of all involved are a testament to the experience. Yes we had fun and we felt good about helping. More important we all now have the memories and a few stories that will help us be a bit more thankful and will encourage us all to give back our time and support to the greater good of our communities.

Fusion Orange will be planning another evening with The Banquet. It’s a perfect way to Pay It Back and Pay It Forward. We encourage everyone to do the same.