HOT TOTS, HONEYBEES HELP BCBSND REACH STRIKE OUT THE STIGMA GOAL

MINOT, N.D. — Through the month of July, the Minot Hot Tots and Honeybees have been racking up the strikeouts. Each strikeout by Minot pitchers at Corbett Field marks another $50 donation by Blue Cross Blue Shield of North Dakota (BCBSND) to the Brady Oberg Legacy Foundation. By July’s end, the Hot Tots and Honeybees had produced enough strikeouts to meet BCBSND’s donation goal, across all participating teams, of $25,000.

In total, the Hot Tots and Honeybees struck out 181 batters in July, a sum of $9,050. The Hot Tots were responsible for 107 of the punchouts and were led individually by Clayton Stewart with 16.

On the softball side, the Honeybees sat down 74 hitters in just 12 July home games. Half of those strikeouts came from Madi Balk who recorded 37, an individual donation of $1,850.

In this year’s Strike out the Stigma program, a record six teams participated across the state of North Dakota. The Badlands Big Sticks, Bismarck Larks, Grand Forks Spitfires, Minot Hot Tots and Minot Honeybees represented the Northwoods League. Also included in the program was the Fargo-Moorhead Redhawks.

Once all strikeouts were counted, the Hot Tots were atop the state-wide strikeout leaderboard with 107.

Money raised during the Strike Out the Stigma event goes towards the Brady Oberg Legacy Foundation. Brady Oberg was an Afghanistan war veteran from Ulen, Minnesota. He sadly took his own life in August 2015. Since his passing, the Legacy Foundation has made it their mission to help other veterans who quietly suffer from PTSD and assimilating back to civilian life after combat. The Foundation connects veterans to soldier retreats as an alternative form of counseling and offers scholarships to veterans who want to enter the field of mental health research and counseling.