By Andy Loigu

The Hackettstown sports community will do its best to help Hope for Maddy and The Tom Kitchen Memorial Fund with benefit events this spring.

The Tigers’ varsity baseball team has made its home game against Bound Brook on Thursday, May 16, at 3:30 p.m. a fundraising event for Hope for Maddy, a fund established to help a local seventh grade girl with cancer who faces expensive chemotherapy.

Both the Hackettstown Police Department and the Hackettstown Education Association are joining forces to help the cause. Police officers will grill hamburgers and hot dogs at the game, which, along with beverages and t-shirts, will be sold to the fans so the Hope for Maddy Fund will benefit.

“Maddy is usually the one helping others and now she needs our help,” her aunt wrote. If you can’t attend the game, you may visit her GoFundMe page.

The Sixth Annual Tom Kitchen Memorial Fund 5K Run is scheduled for Sunday, June 2, at 10 a.m. at Field of Dreams in Independence.

Registration and check-in will happen from 8:30 to 9:30 that morning. A t-shirt and “goodie bag” are part of the experience. Same day registration is $30 and pre-registration costs $25. Food, door prizes and raffle items for all ages will be part of the day’s activities.

Tom Kitchen, a memorable man, made countless contributions to all youth sports in the Hackettstown area, particularly softball, before his passing in 2013. Early in 2014 his family started a scholarship fund in his memory and also endeavors to raise awareness of bile duct cancer.

More information regarding the event may be obtained by visiting www.trkitchenmemorialfund.com online.

“He was a good man who was a leader in many capacities,” said Hackettstown High School Athletic Director Bobby Grauso. “We lost one of our biggest supporters.”

To honor Tom Kitchen, the Tigers’ softball field at Hackettstown High was renamed in his honor on May 9, 2014.