Tippinators Help Raise $3000 for Charity

The third annual "Bustin Balls for Charity" presented by Mersey Road Paintball, Q104.3FM, M&M Meats of Dartmouth and the Tippinators Paintball Team was held on August 26 at Mersey Road Paintball in East River Nova Scotia. The weather forecast calling for driving rain and thunderstorms kept many players away from the event but those 100+ hearty souls who attended were rewarded with warm sunny skies after the ominous black clouds moved out early in the day.
The format for the 2007 edition of Bustin' Balls was a "cops and robbers" style game with money bag props dispersed around the field as bonus objectives. The "cops" team attempted to capture the "robbers", while both teams attempted to retrieve the money bags. Pitched battles for multiple respawn points located around the field kept both sides engrossed, and the game featured numerous momentum shifts and incredible displays of paintball prowess on both sides.

The game was split into two halves, with the teams changing roles and start points after a lunch time feed of burgers from Pete 'The Meat' Disbrowe, owner of M&M Meats in Dartmouth. Q104 also passed out energy drinks they had brought down, and gave away movie passes and t-shirts. The Q crew also auctioned off an exclusive 4 vs 4 match between themselves and 4 lucky high bidders, which everyone was encouraged to watch.

An underlying attitude of community and fair play was the order of the day, making the decision of the referees on a special sportsmanship award particularly difficult. The decision was so hard in fact that in the end the names of a dozen or more very deserving players went into a hat with an APE board donated by Advance Paintball Electronics presented to university student Hilary Avery as the most sportsmanlike (err… sportswomanlike) player.

Door prizes of t-shirts, masks, tank covers and various other items were handed out to players throughout the day along with a raffle draw for a separate APE board graciously donated A.P.E.

The end of the day was marked by Howard Langlois of Mersey Road Paintball presenting a $3000 cheque to Scotty Mars of Q104 FM, towards the Childrens Trust Fund. This year's cheque brings the grand total raised by the Bustin' Balls series to $11,000.

Event co organizer Justin 'KossaK' Landry of the Tippinators was pleased with the event, "Great effort was put forth by everyone involved. The team gave their day selflessly to ref, and ensure the day went without a hitch." Landry continued, "Of course the real heroes of the day were the players who came out for a great day of ball, and raising money for the kids. Hats off to all."