It was touch-and-go for the Bayonne Department of Public Works softball team in their fund-raising game against players for the BMW warehouse team, but in a late surge, the DPW pulled off a 20-13 victory.
The real winner, however, was 8-year old Autumn Trackawicz, a student at Horace Mann School, who was diagnosed with leukemia in March and has been undergoing treatment at Morristown Memorial Hospital.
The situation looked bad for the DPW team in the early innings at Gorman Field early in August. The longshoremen on the BMW warehouse team took a two run lead, and though the DPW tied it up a short time later, BMW pulled ahead again for a 6-2 lead by mid-game. Then the DPW exploded in a rush of line drives that allowed them to score 14 more runs. BMW wasn’t through scoring though, and soon scored seven more runs in the late innings. But the DPW prevailed in the end, scoring a few more runs that allowed them to coast to victory.
The event raised more than $3,000 for Autumn, said officials from BMW International Longshoremen’s Association Local 1588.
“Bill asked me if we would play a charity softball game to raise funds to help an eight-year-old Bayonne girl stricken with leukemia.” – Bill Weaver
________
Weaver, a senior park caretaker at First Street Park and a player on the BPW team, began organizing the game after speaking to his brother-in-law, a BMW worker and member of Keith Trackawicz’s union, who told him about Autumn’s condition.
A little girl’s struggle gets help
Autumn is suffering from acute lymphoblastic leukemia and is undergoing aggressive treatment that includes chemotherapy. According to her doctors, she is responding positively.
“Bill asked me if we would play a charity softball game to raise funds to help an eight-year-old Bayonne girl stricken with leukemia,” Weaver said, “ I said, ‘Bring it on.’”
The game included gifts for Autumn from both the DPW and BMW union members, as well as a proclamation from Assemblyman Charles Mainor.
“We had the field and Chuck Singer fixed it up really good for us,” Weaver said.
Singer worked with Peter Amadeo, supervisor of Parks and Recreation, and the Field Marketing Crew.
Nearly all of the workers had heard about the situation, and, almost to a man, the DPW wanted to help.
BMW ILA also had a more personal link, since the girl was the daughter of one of their members, and they were going to do everything necessary to make sure she got all that she needed in her battle to beat the odds.
Danny Boy’s Pub held a pool tournament in June as a fundraiser to help off set some of the costs associated with the treatment. Weaver said the DPW is trying to organize another event in the near future.
The DPW team included Scott Corrigan, Todd Stackawitch, Carment Cannorozzo, Josh Yurkon, Keri Distaso, Derel Turner, Anthony Smith, Pepe Smith, Jimmy Lioi, Dave Solari, Steve Mazzacola, Richard Malia, Joe Terrana, Mark Weaver and John Kosko. Lioi was named the game’s most valuable player.
Public officials who came to watch the game and support Autumn included Assemblyman Jason O’Donnell and council members Deborah Czerwienski and Ray Greaves. The umpires Gene Klumpp, Bob Miller and Shane Murphy were from the Hudson County Umpires Association.
Donations – including gifts for Autumn – came from a number of local business and unions.
Al Sullivan may be reached at asullivan@hudsonreporter.com.