BILLINGS- COVID19 has put much of the Landon's Legacy Foundation's fundraising on hold.
However, the seventh annual Landon's Legacy Golf tournament will go on, and for a very good cause.
The tournament kicks off at 8 a.m. with a shotgun start.
Fifty-six teams registered for the 2020 event, and the interest was so great that registration had to be capped.
The dream that the foundation is working toward will serve wounded warriors, special needs individuals and allow children to play together.
"We have a great community that we can utilize the parks, but there is a part of our community is not being served and Miracle Field will be that addition that we're missing," Landon's Legacy Capital Campaign Manager LeAnne Visser said.
Landon’s Legacy Foundation, Billings Kiwanis and Billings Parks and Recreation are working together on a capital campaign toward the community's first special needs baseball field.
"Landon is my son, and he was in a wheelchair. He has been through so many surgeries and always had a smile on his face," Landon's Legacy President and Founder Marcie Smith said. "We as a family started taking him to the Mariners games.
Landon was a Yankees fan and collected baseball mitts.
"Derek Jeter was his hero, and he was supposed to get to meet the Yankee players with Make a Wish. But he passed on the day he was supposed to leave," Smith said.
"I was writing his obituary and it said instead of lieu of flowers you can donate to Landon's Legacy Foundation, and I didn't know what that was," Smith said.
She figured it out along the way.
"I watched Landon for all of his life say 'I wish I could do that, and we decided, well I don't know if I decided, or if Landon decided it after he was gone, after he passed," Smith said.
In total, the campaign calls for $3 million in fund raising, though the foundation is able to break ground after the first million is raised.
"He said baseball, I love baseball. So I started looking into it and found the Miracle League Baseball Field and that's where it kind of took off," Smith said.
Billings Parks and Recreation donated the land for the baseball field.
"Inclusive for everyone, there's a zip line of one level, there will be a zip line next to it for the next level of play," Smith said. "And to belong, and to be happy and to play and I think that's all any kid deserves. All kids deserve is to be happy and to play".
Events like golf tournament have helped to push the nonprofit past the halfway point of the first leg of the fundraising.
The tournament will use two separate check-in tables outside. Golfers will be provided with Jersey Mike's boxed lunches to limit interaction.
For additional information, visit http://landonslegacy.com/#section-about
