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25th annual Community Cup kicks off with breakfast
By TIM CLEVELAND
On April 24, the Central Branch of the Youngstown YMCA hosted its annual breakfast to kickoff the 25th annual Community Cup.
There will be 17 events that the 20 teams participating will be competing in this year, beginning with the Youngstown Meltdown, which is a weight-loss event that begins the first week of May and concludes in September.
The 20 teams are comprised of employees of area businesses. There are three divisions in the Community Cup – Red, White and Blue. Each division winner at the end of the season will receive a cup to display in their respective businesses.
After the Youngstown Meltdown, the Community Cup season begins in earnest Aug. 8 and concludes Sept. 6. Among the events will be bocce, basketball, swimming, a golf scramble, bowling, volleyball, a 10K relay, obstacle course and a tug-o-war.
“Today is our kickoff breakfast for the Community Cup. It’s our 25th annual,” said Community Cup Director Jennifer Quinlan. “This is how we start off our Community Cup season. We invite any companies or organizations that are interested in participating in our Community Cup so they can learn what it’s about and what’s going on this year.”
Quinlan said she expected about 50-60 people to attend the breakfast. The menu consisted of quiche, redskin potatoes with peppers and onions, sausage, fruit salad, muffins, coffee, water and orange juice.
Quinlan said the Community Cup got started due to a past YMCA CEO.
“It was the Y’s CEO at the time, Dick Bennett, and I believe he had heard of a Community Cup-type event that was in Akron,” she said. “He thought it would be really cool to bring it to Youngstown. At the time, there was a gentleman named Tom Grantonic. He kind of put that on his plate and Tom developed it. It wasn’t as large and didn’t have as many events. It started out small and just through the years it’s grown. Now we have 17 events.”
For the last three years, the team from Humility of Mary Health Partners at St. Elizabeth’s Hospital has won the Community Cup in their division. Linda Feher of Youngstown has been a member of the Humility team for all but two or three of the 25 years the Community Cup has been in existence.
“Somebody just asked me if I wanted to do it,” she said of why she first began to participate. “I was like, what do I have to do? [They said] we’ll just walk. So we walked. Then I played volleyball, then I did pep rallies.
“We’ve gotten a lot of wins. That’s a good thing. It brings the community together. It’s a good thing for the city. You make friends.”
Feher added she and her teammates will be going for a fourth consecutive victory this year.
“It’s a wonderful experience,” Quinlan said of the Community Cup. “The three goals of our Community Cup are to promote health and fitness, create employee morale and create a greater community spirit for the Youngstown area.”