For the third consecutive year, the Town of Oyster Bay will host the “Shootout for Soldiers” 24-Hour Lacrosse Game Benefit at the Town of Oyster Bay’s Field of Dreams, located on Old Sunrise Highway in Massapequa.
This year’s round-the-clock event will begin on the morning of July 21 at 9 a.m. and continue non-stop for 24 hours until July 22 at 9 a.m. The event is held annually for the benefit of American military personnel. In addition, the Long Island Air Force Association will conduct a special ceremony at 5 p.m. to honor Vietnam veterans and present them with medals that commemorate the 50th anniversary of the conflict.
The event raises money for organizations that support veterans as well as those currently in the armed forces. The beneficiaries of this year’s event include the Semper Fi Fund, the Ranger Lead the Way Fund, the Gary Sinise Foundation and the Joseph J. Theinert Memorial Fund. Last year, about $115,000 was raised in support of organizations that benefit veterans, bringing the total raised for the first two years of the event to about $200,000.
The event is broken down into 24 continuous one-hour sessions. Registered players and teams will be given jerseys and placed on either the Stars team or the Stripes team and matched against a team of similar ability. The score is cumulative resulting in unique scores for a lacrosse game with totals reaching into the hundreds. During the first two years, the outcome of the games was not decided until the very end.
Participants will include boys and girls, men and women, seniors, youth, high school, college and special needs players .
Among the highlighted matchups is a contest of teams of U.S. veterans beginning at 6 p.m. At 7 p.m., players from the Plainedge community will take the field in a session that honors fallen NYPD Detective Brian Moore. A matchup between the NYPD and the FDNY is scheduled to begin at 10 p.m. In total, 96 teams will take the field during the lacrosse marathon.
Harry Jacobs, chairman of the Shootout for Soldiers Committee, said this event has been a big success since it came to Long Island two years ago.
More information is available online at www.shootoutforsoldiers.com or by contacting Harry Jacobs at longisland@shootoutforsoldiers.com or at 516-315-3002.
