Darts with Hearts, a local non-profit will be hosting a poker run, dinner and music event July 19 beginning at 10 a.m. to help create a trust fund for Runner, the son of Justin Toney who died in early June on the Spring River while holding a child above water to prevent them from drowning.
“Justin I knew him for a while and he had turned his life around was doing things in the community. When he died, saving someones child. He has children of his own, and he didn’t have insurance,” Billie Suiters, President of Darts with Hearts said. “We want to give runner a little Trust for when he’s older.”
Registration for the run begins at 10 a.m. at the Copper Feather in Cherokee Village and the cost to participate is $20 per car or rider and $10 per passenger. Suiters said the entry fee also pays for the food and music taking place later in the evening.
“We’ll have different stops and you’ll pull cards. The best hand at the end wins $100 and the low end is $50. We want bikes, cars, trucks.. whatever you can put on the road, we want you there and to come have fun with us,” Suiters said.
Following the run, participants will return to the feather for food, and entertainment as well as more opportunities to win items though the silent auction and raffle items.
“We’ll have the Chad Marshall Band starting at 5 p.m.followed by the Creek Rats,” Suiters said.
Terry Smith, one of the event organizers and member of Darts with Hearts said there is one item that he believes will be of particular interest to sports fans, especially if they’re Cardinals fans.
“We had a really great sports fan step up. What we have that we’ll be raffling off is two stadium seats from Busch Stadium when it was torn down in 2005. They’re paired, numbered and have a certificate of authenticity,” Smith said. “These chairs were donated to us by the Creek Rats. We appreciate what they’ve done for us and these should raise a lot of money for Justin’s family.”
Tickets for the seats are $5 per chance and are just one of the many items that will be up for grabs.
When asked why Darts with Hearts had chosen to help champion this cause and create the event, Suiters said it fell in line with the teams mission.
“Darts with Hearts was formed two years ago. We had a local dart league at the Copper Feather and we decided we wanted to make a difference in the community and so we formed a non-profit with our members,” Suiters said. “Some of the things we do, we raise money for Christmas baskets. Last year we did 17 baskets with food to foster children and helped DHS with that. We’ve done several fundraisers and done events at Easter, Halloween, and like with Justin, any kind of need we know about, we try to fulfill it.”
Lauren is a an award-winning journalist who decided after 10 years of newspaper experience to venture out. Hallmark Times was born.
