The eighth annual Jack Alviti Memorial Cornhole tournament will take place Saturday at Byllye Lanes.

The event, which is a two-person team, double-elimination competition, raises money to help local athletes.

Created in memory of Jack Alviti, who was one of the founders of Bradford Youth Basketball League (BYBL) in 1965, the event originally raised money to support the BYBL and later expanded to provide financial assistance to the GYBL as well.

Alviti’s daughter, Allison Ambrose, explained the event has been able to raise over $25,000 to support local student athletes in the past seven years.

“At first we only raised enough to support BYBL in a small way, but as the years went on we added in GYBL as we didn’t want to leave out the girls,” she explained.

However, in 2021, a scholarship was established to further support local athletes.

“After my mom passed in 2021 we decided to establish the Jack and Norma Alviti Scholarship. This gets awarded to local seniors in the spring at the BAHS awards ceremony. It’s one of the scholarships through the school that graduating seniors can apply for. My mom, Norma, was a big supporter of my dad and we wanted to honor both of them,” Ambrose said. “The first year it was established we only were able to give money to one senior. The past two years we awarded three scholarships each of those years. What we give away depends on how much we bring in. We keep expenses as low as we can to give away as much as possible. Some businesses do in-kind donations to pay for tee shirts, printing, music etc. We added it up this year during our prep time and in the last 7 years we were able to give away just over $25,000 to local students/athletes.”

The event is one that the family rallies around, as grandchildren donate gift cards for local businesses and tickets are sold for a raffle to win a wreath. The event also includes a basket auction and has local musicians that play. This year, Jim Ronan will be playing from 2 to 5 p.m.

The event is also well-attended by teams from outside the area.

“Depending on the year, we have had up to 25 teams, the farthest coming from Indiana and New York City,” Ambrose said.