The Christmas season is upon us. It is that time of year when we begin to reflect on the year past, and what we are thankful for. It is truly the season of giving, as giving is better than receiving. 
This year has been full of wonderful things for the Big Four Foundation, as we continue to help people in our community, our season of giving never ends. 
Many of you know of the fire that took place here in Sidney, on the corner of Walnut and Michigan streets. The stories of children being dropped from the burning home second story windows and the loss of a life, as well as a few four legged family members are heart wrenching. A family has been left with nothing during what should be a happy giving season. The Big Four Foundation went into action and immediately began trying to find contacts and people that could lead us in the right direction. With the help of Chris North, and his connection to a generous amazing person, Amy O'Leary Sprague, we have bought more time in the hotel for this family to continue to put the pieces back together. This family needs our help in ways that I cannot count, or even imagine. They abandoned their burning home with nothing, and are now tasked with putting it all back together again. 
This is where we come in. As a community, as a group of thoughtful, helpful citizens, we can give this family a piece of hope. We can't make things the way that they were, but we can try to help ease the burden a little, and let them take a breath.
There are five children involved. Kerrigan is 12 and wears size 16 youth or 1 woman's pants, medium shirts, and size 7 shoe. Brendan is 10 and wears a size 10 pants, large shirts, and size 6 shoe. Landan is 8 and wears size 8 pants, large shirts, and size 2 shoe. Aidan is 7 and wears size 8 pants, large shirts, and 2 shoe. Noah is 7 and wears size 7 pants, medium shirts, and 13 shoe. I cannot find the information right now about the adult sizes, I know XXL for shirts and L shirts would help. Brenda Rowe has a donation account setup at US Bank in her name to donate funds for the family. You can also donate funds directly to the Big Four Foundation and we will get those funds to them as well. Any help is welcome. Dishes, furniture, hygiene items, anything that you can think of that is needed on a daily basis, they don't have it. There is a drop off for clothing at the Salvation Army in Sidney on Buckeye. Dave Deam graciously offered up the Parker Store on Michigan Ave. in the plaza as a drop off point for items as well. 
The family should hopefully have a place to live soon, and will begin to put their life back together. May we all find it in our hearts to let them know that they are not alone. Giving is truly better than receiving during this time of year, and our community is big enough and strong enough to help anyone overcome!
Monetary donations to the Big Four Foundation are always welcome as we still have funds to give to the Owens family in their support of Austin. Feel free to contact me at mmitchell@bigfourfoundation.org, or 937-726-8524.

October 26th, 2014 - The Cleveland Browns will host the Oakland Raiders in a game that starts at 4:25. The Big Four Foundation will be putting on their 1st Annual Cleveland Browns Tailgate Party. The festivities will begin at 12:00 pm at Buffalo Wild Wings in Sidney, Ohio and will last until 4:00 pm just before the game. 

There will be a silent auction of Browns sports memorabilia, including an authentic Jim Brown autographed full size throwback helmet, a Clay Matthews autographed jersey, and many more of your past and present Browns. 

We will have a 50 / 50 drawing and a percentage of all Buffalo Wild Wings sales for the day will go back to the Big Four Foundation. With the proceeds from our tailgate party we will be helping the family of Austin Owens. If you don't know who Austin is, please read back through our news updates, as we helped the Owens family with our proceeds from the Hacker Classic Golf Outing in August. 

You will also be able to purchase your own #giveback shirt designed for the Tailgate party. We will donate the proceeds from all shirts sold back to the Owens family!

Please come and join us, Browns fan or not, and help us raise money for a family in need!

The 2014 Hacker Classic has come and gone, and once again the Big Four Foundation has been able to raise awareness for a local family in need. We stopped by to visit one of our favorite people, and a great family and help provide them with assistance. 

With a record number of 32 teams in this year's outing we were able max out our capacity at Shelby Oaks Golf Club. There was a four way tie for first place and we had to have another first in our 8 year history; a putt off to determine the winner. Andy Boyd and his team were able to fend off the other teams to capture the scramble title. 

We have to thank all of our sponsors who helped make this possible. Plastipak Packaging in Jackson Center was once again a huge sponsor and help for us. Gay Smith and Associates right here in Sidney was another business that stepped up huge to help our efforts. Mitsubishi Automation became a sponsor for the first time, and we loved having their support this year. Buffalo Wild Wings was once again a great help and we always appreciate their support as well. TEK Systems was also a new sponsor who helped out tremendously. We even had a ton of new sponsors this year, from The Village Salon & Spa, Botkins Paint Company, Biggins Small Engine Repair, Sidney Auto Tech, Crescent Electric Supply Company, JT's Auto, Primecare Physicians (Doctors Boslett & Justice), Riverside Carryout, everyone came through to make this outing great this year. We have to also say a big thank you to those businesses who have continued to support us year after year. Checkered Flag Drive Thru, Oakley Chiropractic, The Heidout, Vondenhuevel Auctioneers, Rolling Hills Skate, Area Energy & Electric, Area Wireless, and Rob Fridely and everyone out at the Shelby Oaks Golf Club; we could not have done this without you.

This Saturday, August 9th will be the 8th Annual Hacker Classic Golf Outing. We are raising money this year for the family of Austin Owens. If you haven't seen his story feel free to look through our website and find the story about Austin and his fight with ALD. In great news, Austin will be coming home that day, so we won't have him or his parent's in attendance. Two of Austin's aunts will be there to share their thanks for all the help you golfers are providing for this family.

We will be having our silent auction of sports memorabilia as usual, and this will be going on during dinner, so be sure to bring your credit cards and checkbook. 

This will be the biggest Hacker Classic event yet, as we have sold out Shelby Oaks and have 32 TEAMS registered to play, breaking our record of 26 teams from last year! This is set to be the greatest Hacker Classic event on record. If you missed out on it this year, don't hesitate to get yourself registered early for next year!! 

Austin Owens is a young man from right here in Sidney, Ohio. Austin was a normal happy kid until the day he found himself in Children's Medical Center, being diagnosed with Adrenoleukodystrophy. This is an aggressive disease that attacks the white matter of the brain and the adrenal glands. Austin is currently going through his bone marrow transplant is working his way back to a what will prayerfully be a full recovery. 

The Big Four Foundation is going blue, to bring awareness to this disease. We will be donating all the proceeds from this years Hacker Classic Golf Outing on August 9th to the Owens family. Austin has been undergoing treatment for a long time, and his family has been by his side as much as they can. We can help this family by offsetting costs and providing some bit of comfort during their fight.

Please join us for the Hacker Classic Golf Outing and get involved. If you would like to know more about sponsorship please feel free to contact Michael Mitchell at mmitchell@bigfourfoundation.org, or by calling 937-726-8524.

The 8th Annual Hacker Classic Golf Outing will be taking place on August 9, 2014. The tee time has been moved up to 11:00 am this year, and all festivities, including dinner and silent auction will be held at the Oaks Club at the Shelby Oaks Golf Club.

This year we will be raising money to help the family of Austin Owens. Austin is an 8 year old, right here in Sidney, who was diagnosed with X-Linked ALD (Adrenoluekodistrophy) this past fall and has been undergoing treatments for several months. You can see more by visiting the Austin's Mighty Angels Facebook page.

We are proud to put on a quality golf outing, and donate to a family in our community that needs our help. 

Please join us on August 9 by getting your foursome information to Michael Mitchell at mmtichell@bigfourfoundation.org. If you are interested in hole sponsorship, or even other sponsorship opportunities, please feel free to email Michael Mitchell about that as well. We will be providing more details as the days get closer to the outing. 

Make sure that you are at Buffalo Wild Wings in Sidney on September 28th, from 2:00 to 8:00. We will be having the first annual Buffalo Wild Wings / Big Four Foundation Tailgate Party before the Buckeyes take on Wisconsin. 

The band Pearl Street will be playing live on the patio and we will have David Shields Auctioneering on hand to live auction some Ohio State sports memorabilia. We have an autographed Jack Tatum jersey in white, which is a very rare piece that will be our largest offering and the bidding will start at $200. We also have an Archie Griffin football, a Braxton Miller footbal, as well as a Urban Meyer autographed mini helmet!

Buffalo Wild Wings will be donating 10% of the food sales to the Big Four Foundation from 2:00 to 8:00 that day, and we even have the Jersey Raffle going on as well. Please come out and support a great cause that is helping families in our community.

The college football season is quickly approaching and that means the Buffalo Wild Wings / Big Four Foundation tailgate party is right around the corner. September 28 will be the tailgate party at Buffalo Wild Wings when the Ohio State Buckeyes will be playing the Wisconsin Badgers. I know that many of you will be heading over to "The Shoe" to watch the game live, but I hope the rest of you will come out to Buffalo Wild Wings for some live music, and live auction of Ohio State autographed memorabilia. We have already lined up a Braxton Miller autographed football, an Urban Meyer autographed mini helmet, and we are working on getting an autographed Jack Tatum jersey, and likely something autographed from Jim Tressel. Please come out and have dinner enjoy the music and bid on some awesome items that can help the Big Four Foundation become the source for those in need in Shelby County.