Mum Sale Helps Oakland Braves Get to Cooperstown

The Oakland Braves baseball team will be selling mums on Saturday and Sunday, Sept. 29 and 30, and on Oct. 6-7, from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.

It’ll only cost you five measly bucks; Oakland moms will be selling the mums to support the team that will travel to baseball's motherland next year for a big tournament. 

“The sale is to benefit the 2013 Oakland Braves for the trip to Cooperstown next August,” said Noreen Anderson, a lead fundraiser. “We want to offset the costs of the tournament for the kids, so we cover all the expenses for the trip by fund raising.”

Eight-inch potted mums will be sold for $5 each, for and come in assorted colors: white, yellow, gold, purple, red.

The sale will take place in the Copper Tree Mall parking lot on the Yawpo Avenue side. This is only the first fundraiser of many this year, where proceeds will go to benefit the baseball’s tournament team. Each town team conducts different fund raising events to raise money for expenses.

“Every year, the tournament costs a little more, so we try to budget about $1,000 per kid and a little extra for kids to maybe have a party or go to the arcade,” Anderson said.

There’s anywhere from 12 to 16 kids per baseball team and 4 to 5 coaches; tryouts for the tournament team are held every spring to determine the team that will travel to Cooperstown, according to Anderson.

“We usually get a good turnout because most people know about the sale,” she said. “We even got some money back last year because we raised so much."

“The road to these boys’ dreams of home runs, diving catches and heroic saves is paved with mum sales, car washes and bake sales but most importantly with hard work,” said Coach Wolfgang Albrecht. “They must work as a team both on the field and off to raise the money and by doing so they grow as young men who know the value of hard work and a sense of community support.”

“They represent Oakland with pride and honor, which equates to a sense of pride for their larger community by paying respect to our national pastime through good sportsmanship and traditional values,” Albrecht said.

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