Good afternoon,

I wanted to take a minute to "introduce" myself to those of you that may not know who I am, my name is Teresa Ryan, I am Taylor's mom and we are so very grateful to all of you that participate in this tournament.

We will be down at the fields this weekend with a blue tent and blue ribbon balloons handing out free Ralph's Italian Ices, some information about Histiocytosis and we will have some raffles also. I know this email may be a little lengthy but if you could take 5 minutes to read it so that you know what this tournament means to us I would appreciate it.

Over the past 9 years we have had to watch our daughter Taylor go through things that we wouldn't wish on anyone because of her diagnosis. She handled it with strength, resiliency and laughter - it wasn't always easy but when it got hard people around us were there to remind her (and us) that we were not alone. We never wanted to let the "bad" swallow us up, so we were constantly trying to find some good to focus on, whether it was having fundraisers to raise awareness, hosting a toy drive, band aid drive, blood drive or trying to do something special for a family that was having a hard time. Unfortunately we weren't in a financial situation to make a big impact and help the amount of people we wanted to. When Joe D'Addario approached me about doing a tournament 5 years ago for our family I was overwhelmed because the financial impact of having a child fight cancer is honestly crippling at times. As the tournament got closer I mentioned the possibility of starting a foundation to help more people while still raising awareness and money for a cure, he said "why not do it?". When I told him I wasn't sure how to go about it, he told me he would help me with the paperwork. I was thrilled but honestly I never even thought of the financial part of starting a foundation, it is a pretty big expense when you're trying to keep our heads above water ourselves. The very first Taylor Ryan wood bat tournament was a big success, and the proceeds not only helped our family pay off some of the mountain of bills, the proceeds also paid the fee to get this foundation started.

Since we got started a few years ago we have helped many families with sick children, whether it is paying bills, sending them on a much needed day of fun of giving them gift cards for something they may need. We have also recently pledged $100,000 to Cohen's Children's Medical Center for a Histiocytosis Research and Registry program.

We have no way to thank you all enough, from the guys/ladies that plan this event, to the families that participate and give up their weekend, to the umpires, to the moms and dads that are running like crazy this weekend trying to get everything in around 4 games - it truly means the world to us. Without the Taylor Ryan wood bat tournament I am not sure when or if Taylor's wish of reaching so many people with a foundation would have ever happened. 

Taylor was finally told in May that after 8 years of chemo she is in remission!!! There are some medical things she still deals with and we need to keep a close eye on her symptoms but she has finally reached remission so we are thrilled beyond words.

Please stop by if you see us and say hello! We can't wait to meet as many of you as possible and thank you in person for participating and helping us make a difference.

As a thank you to each of the kids playing the coaches will be getting an envelope with 3 raffle tickets for each player to be entered to win a Nintendo Switch game system basket. We will have tickets for sale at the tent as well as a few other raffles for our Bowling 4 Histio event in August. I will attach the flyers to this email for anyone that wants to take a look. Each team will also be entered into a raffle to win free admission ticket to our bowling event, the team that wins will get one free ticket for each player on the winning team.

If you have any questions about the disease, Taylor's story or the raffles please feel free to email, text or call me (631)965-8155.

Thank you from the bottom of our hearts for helping us make a difference!

Teresa Ryan

631-965-8155