The second annual Charity Corntoss Classic headlined a stellar Saturday at The Irish Volunteer / Hockey Bar that raised 17,680 yuan for maovember. Along with the tournament, the full day of festivities included Pickle Zachs, pies, a sausage-eating contest and a raffle that included an overnight stay at The Crowne Plaza Lido.
A large crowd watched the sixteen-team corntoss tourney throughout the afternoon and early evening, with Corn Thugs-Hominy ultimately emerging as the winner after a narrow two-point victory. Each 100-yuan team fee was donated to maovember, totaling 1600 yuan.
During the afternoon, attendees could partake of a “Pickle Zach“: a shot of moonshine followed by a shot of Corner Melt pickle juice. Shots were 30 yuan and, with tips included, raised 1900 yuan.
They could also buy raffle tickets at 30 yuan each or two for 50 yuan, with prizes from Catherine de France, East Meets West, Hockey Night in Beijing and Oasis, among others, up for grabs (see full list here). The tickets raised 2200 yuan and, when Marty Handley won the hotel package, resold it for 1000 yuan and donated the cash, the raffle totaled 3200 yuan.
And the hungry could buy sausage rolls and pies from the mobile Two Guys and a Pie unit, with 20 yuan or every 30 yuan sale to maovember. That raised 580 yuan.
The activities wrapped up with a sausage-eating contest called The Homewrecker Challenge, so-called due to the potential destructive power of the links in question. Four teams competed to finish one of these monsters donated by Andy’s Craft Sausage, with the BratFirsts seizing victory. Each 100-yuan team fee went to mavember for a total of 400 yuan.
Finally, Irish Volunteer co-owner George Smith, who is also director of North Asia for Orbis, this year’s maovember charity partner, made a 10,000 yuan donation on behalf of the bar. He cited the comradery of the 2014 campaign as so many of the city’s smaller bars and restaurants have come together to easily surpass this year’s goal and are now closing in on the even bigger one of 100 cataract surgeries.
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Maovember focuses on quirky events for good causes. Our 2022 partner is Library Project, which has furnished thousands of reading rooms in rural schools. Learn more about Maovember here. Follow us on Facebook and Twitter.