Project ML-Gratitude Cornhole Tournament 2025

Throwing some bags for a good cause

February 16th, 2025 - It was a great day to toss around some cornhole bags for a great cause. The day started off cold, having received snow the night before the event. But the snow couldn't stop our mission. It turned out that the roads cleared quickly and allowed for people to come out for a fun day at Wheelz Bar and grill. We registered a field of sixteen teams for our first tournament, Emceed by or own Paula Rhoads.

We opened registration for the Tournament at 12:30 pm. Finishing earlier than expected, we began the tournament ahead of schedule. Things were off to a great start with our tournament format being 12 throws per team (6 per side) and all bags scoring without cancellations. This was chosen to keep things moving without long wait times between plays. We played a modified double elimination where any loss after the 3rd round was an elimination. After six rounds a winner was crowned.

During the tournament, we ran a side-game where you could donate $5 in return for three chances to sink a cornhole bag in the hole. The catch was that the tosses were crazy throws. If you won, you got a Project ML-Gratitude 2nd Annual Gratitude Ride shirt. We also offered a 50/50 raffle. At the end of the raffle, our winner graciously donated her award back to our cause. I'm sorry we didn't catch your name, but thank you for the donation of your prize!

Our battle for third place was between the Airmailers and One More. In the end, Airmailers pulled the victory, awarding our Third Place prize to One More. The received a $25 gift certificate to Wheelz, donated by our host, Wheelz Bar & Grill. Unfortunately, we didn't catch a picture of One More before scooting out the door, but we thank you with gratitude for your support.

Our last match for the tournament championship was between the undefeated Quintana's and the Airmailers. The Arimailers needed to win two games in a row to claim the top prize. Unfortunately for them, the Quintana's won the first of three possible games, ending their chances after the first game.

Our friend, Joel Hunt brought Military Broadcast Radio, along with his team of Vicente and Dale, to live stream our event. Thank you, MB Radio, for your continued support! You have our gratitude for giving us and other veterans a much needed voice in our community. If you aren't familiar with MBRadio, you can check them out online at https://mbradio.us/ You can also download their app on Roku and Amazon Fire TV. Thanks Joel!

It was a good day! We had fun putting on this event and hope that we will be able to put on others like it in the future. Special thanks to Paula Rhoads for her insight and planning, and an extra thanks to Jericho from CPS Distributors in Arvada, for donating her time, and for providing the Cornhole boards and bags, along with her knowledge of holding these types of events. Thank you, Jericho, with our gratitude! Lastly, Thanks to everyone for volunteering their time and resources to help us achieve our mission of providing veterans with motorcycles. Our next bike will be given to a deserving veteran at our 3rd annual Gratitude Ride on June 14th, 2025. I'll close out this blog with some pictures of the people who help keep us going.