Vivid Visions

LIVE OAK — Accustomed to helping out in a time of need, members of Suwannee County Fire Rescue, the Live Oak Fire Department and Live Oak Police Department will answer that call again Saturday morning.

The three local agencies are joining forces for the inaugural “Taking the Field against Domestic Violence” softball game as a fundraiser for Vivid Visions, a certified domestic violence shelter.

“They are always so helpful,” said Kathy White, the executive director at Vivid Visions. “We all work together to help with the victims of domestic violence.”

The game is scheduled to start at 10:30 a.m. at the First Federal Sportsplex, 1201 Silas Drive.

Admission is $1 and concessions will be sold at the game as well. During the game, $5 raffle tickets will be sold with a drawing for a shed/playhouse from Elite Outdoor Buildings to be held immediately following the contest.

White said the idea for the game came from one of Vivid Visions’ board members and the hope is that it will to perhaps a tournament next year involving SCFR, LOFD as well the LOPD and the Suwannee County Sheriff’s Office.

But with Vivid Visions in desperate need of funding now, it was a no-brainer to help out, according to James Sommers, public safety director for Suwannee County, and LOFD firefighter William Starling.

“Man, with all the stuff that Vivid Visions does as far as helping domestic violence victims, we wanted to do it and since we’re a public servant-type position with the fire department, anyways,” Starling said, adding that the police department and fire department are teaming up to field one team against the SCFR unit. “That’s our job to kind of help out with what we can help out with.”

“When you’re looking at what it’s going towards, as far as trying to reach out and do some good work within Suwannee County and provide people that had this setback in their life, it gives us the opportunity to reach out that much more and be part of something a little bit greater.”

Sommers completely agreed.

“We’re just trying to get some partnership within the community,” he said. “We help Vivid Visions and other non-profit agencies.

“This just happened to be a great opportunity to get some camaraderie with services in the community and try to help out some local entities and try to get some local money raised to help out individuals.”

The game and the competition, though, does provide a benefit to the agencies taking part as well

“It’s an opportunity for team-building for agencies that get involved as well,” Sommers said. “The guys are always, when they’re at work it’s a serious nature with calls and stuff like that. This gets them away from work and allows them to interact with each other and build some camaraderie.”

It also gives the public a chance to see and meet firefighters or police officers in a less stressful situation, Starling noted.

“It will give us some time to interact with them as well,” he said, adding that all the agencies really work at community outreach. “A lot of time people aren’t used to seeing us in any other situation other than a dire emergency, something that’s going on.

“This gives them the opportunity to see that we’re people and we want to get out and enjoy things too. We’re excited about it. Everybody loves a good competition anyways. That’s always fun.”

Starling also added that in addition to trying to raise funds for Vivid Visions, the shelter could also use cleaning supplies, personal hygiene items such as body wash, diapers (sizes 1, 4 and 5) and liquid laundry detergent.