Shives
09-22-2004, 10:32 PM
Charity day at Bushwhackers
Well, I’ve waited almost a week to write this little report. I hoped that something would change to “fix” the ugly part. I wanted to see if a little time would turn the heart of the field owner in question. It hasn’t, so I’ll report the facts as they are.
The set-up: Several years ago, some friends of my wife’s family had a son born w/ severe birth defects. They knew at the outset that the child would not survive long, but carried it to term anyway (good Catholics that they are). The baby only lived a couple of days. During that time, Mother and Father spent time in the Family Garden at St. Louis Children’s Hospital. The garden helped, as much as could be expected, to ease the pain they were feeling. In memory of their son, and in thanks for the peace it gave, they wished to make a donation to the garden. Being an occasional recball player, the Father decided to stage an annual paintball event to raise money to give to the garden. I missed the first year, but have played the past 2 times. Not being tied to any specific field, they play wherever they can make arrangements w/ the field owner. This year, the event was organized at Bushwhacker’s Paintball Park near St. Louis.
The good: Saturday morning arrived splendidly. Last year it was hot and wet (which is good if…never mind), it certainly wasn’t this year. It may have reached the 80’s, was mostly sunny, and there was a slight breeze blowing. When I met Steve (the Father) at the field, he was fretting that he had gotten very little response on his emailed invitation. He worried that we may not even have enough people to play as a group, not that mix w/ the walk-ons would have been bad. His wife had told him not to worry, but go and have fun. It turned out we had ~20 people show up, several of who were paintball virgins. He was happy w/ the crowd. In the end we brought in almost $500.
The not too bad: I had played at Bushwhacker’s perhaps 10 years ago. It had been one of the first fields around. I recall it having been a good field to play at. Only negative I recall was one game when the field-sponsored team beat the snot out of the walk-ons. Since then, the field had moved to a new location w/ the same ownership. I got to the field early hoping to get onto the chrono range and make sure all of my guns were humming along (I had brought a handful or so). Turns out they don’t have a chrono range, they chrono groups as they go on the fields w/ those little handheld chronos, and even if they did, I couldn’t do anything w/out first hearing the safety talk w/ my group. Now, I respect the need for a safety talk, and would have willingly sat in on an earlier groups talk, but according to the owner, I had to wait for my group. OK, minor gripe. Also, minor gripe, I like to keep my gear locked in my car and go from there to the field; I couldn’t do this at Bushwhackers. They did not have any true “concept” fields, which didn’t bother me any. However, all of there fields were very one sided, and w/ the exception on a couple, we never switched ends to replay a field. Our ref was a very nice kid, who did a great job of turning games around. The only time I recall waiting more than 5-10 minutes was when we took an actual lunch break. I think only once did we play a capture the flag game, all the other games were mini scenarios. Don’t get me wrong; scenarios are fun, and a nice diversion from the normal, but not every game. Being forced into a “role” for every game kind of weighed on me after a while. All in all, we had fun. The first timers all said they wanted to come back.
The ugly: And boy was it ugly. At the end of the day, Steve went to the owner of the field to get the money that was supposed to go to charity. It had been agreed that a share of the field fees and a share of the paint price was to come back for the charity. The amount he gave Steve was much less than it seemed it should have been. Turned out, the owner had not given any of the field fees. He claimed that he should have charged us more if a part was going to go to the charity. Steve pointed out that that had not been the agreement. The owner admitted that was his mistake, but he couldn’t loose money on the day (the place was packed all day w/ other groups and many walk ons). Steve protested that it was for charity, to which the owner responded, “don’t play the charity card on me.” Needless to say, Steve was very unhappy. We all agreed we would not return to Bushwhackers anytime soon. Adding insult to injury, when we got to Steve’s car in the parking lot, an errant paintball had escaped the netting around the fields, crossed the parking lot to the far side, and left a mark on the rear window of his mini van.
That’s the story.
Shives
Well, I’ve waited almost a week to write this little report. I hoped that something would change to “fix” the ugly part. I wanted to see if a little time would turn the heart of the field owner in question. It hasn’t, so I’ll report the facts as they are.
The set-up: Several years ago, some friends of my wife’s family had a son born w/ severe birth defects. They knew at the outset that the child would not survive long, but carried it to term anyway (good Catholics that they are). The baby only lived a couple of days. During that time, Mother and Father spent time in the Family Garden at St. Louis Children’s Hospital. The garden helped, as much as could be expected, to ease the pain they were feeling. In memory of their son, and in thanks for the peace it gave, they wished to make a donation to the garden. Being an occasional recball player, the Father decided to stage an annual paintball event to raise money to give to the garden. I missed the first year, but have played the past 2 times. Not being tied to any specific field, they play wherever they can make arrangements w/ the field owner. This year, the event was organized at Bushwhacker’s Paintball Park near St. Louis.
The good: Saturday morning arrived splendidly. Last year it was hot and wet (which is good if…never mind), it certainly wasn’t this year. It may have reached the 80’s, was mostly sunny, and there was a slight breeze blowing. When I met Steve (the Father) at the field, he was fretting that he had gotten very little response on his emailed invitation. He worried that we may not even have enough people to play as a group, not that mix w/ the walk-ons would have been bad. His wife had told him not to worry, but go and have fun. It turned out we had ~20 people show up, several of who were paintball virgins. He was happy w/ the crowd. In the end we brought in almost $500.
The not too bad: I had played at Bushwhacker’s perhaps 10 years ago. It had been one of the first fields around. I recall it having been a good field to play at. Only negative I recall was one game when the field-sponsored team beat the snot out of the walk-ons. Since then, the field had moved to a new location w/ the same ownership. I got to the field early hoping to get onto the chrono range and make sure all of my guns were humming along (I had brought a handful or so). Turns out they don’t have a chrono range, they chrono groups as they go on the fields w/ those little handheld chronos, and even if they did, I couldn’t do anything w/out first hearing the safety talk w/ my group. Now, I respect the need for a safety talk, and would have willingly sat in on an earlier groups talk, but according to the owner, I had to wait for my group. OK, minor gripe. Also, minor gripe, I like to keep my gear locked in my car and go from there to the field; I couldn’t do this at Bushwhackers. They did not have any true “concept” fields, which didn’t bother me any. However, all of there fields were very one sided, and w/ the exception on a couple, we never switched ends to replay a field. Our ref was a very nice kid, who did a great job of turning games around. The only time I recall waiting more than 5-10 minutes was when we took an actual lunch break. I think only once did we play a capture the flag game, all the other games were mini scenarios. Don’t get me wrong; scenarios are fun, and a nice diversion from the normal, but not every game. Being forced into a “role” for every game kind of weighed on me after a while. All in all, we had fun. The first timers all said they wanted to come back.
The ugly: And boy was it ugly. At the end of the day, Steve went to the owner of the field to get the money that was supposed to go to charity. It had been agreed that a share of the field fees and a share of the paint price was to come back for the charity. The amount he gave Steve was much less than it seemed it should have been. Turned out, the owner had not given any of the field fees. He claimed that he should have charged us more if a part was going to go to the charity. Steve pointed out that that had not been the agreement. The owner admitted that was his mistake, but he couldn’t loose money on the day (the place was packed all day w/ other groups and many walk ons). Steve protested that it was for charity, to which the owner responded, “don’t play the charity card on me.” Needless to say, Steve was very unhappy. We all agreed we would not return to Bushwhackers anytime soon. Adding insult to injury, when we got to Steve’s car in the parking lot, an errant paintball had escaped the netting around the fields, crossed the parking lot to the far side, and left a mark on the rear window of his mini van.
That’s the story.
Shives