The Roundtown Ultra Club was formed by a group of Pickaway County residents in mid-2018 with the intention of providing exciting drug-free activities for kids, adults, and families. Their first event will be a Nerf Rival tournament to be held at the Pickaway County YMCA on November 18th. Nerf Rival is a series of Nerf branded markers which propel foam balls instead of darts. They’re ideal for sport play, as the balls travel further and straighter than darts.
Roundtown has purchased enough markers to hold 10 versus 10 contests. They are planning more events for after the November tournament. In addition to tournaments and league play, they also intend to make the markers available for other family and kid-oriented non-profits so they can hold their own Nerf events.
The founding members of the club are Sage Sill Brandum, Greg Hawkins, Carrie Hogue, Jonathan Hogue, Luke Pollock, and Jake Queen. The initial tournament will be for 8-17 year old children whose parents pre-register for the event. There is no cost for the tournament and all equipment will be provided. Future matches could include adults or whole families.
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Funding for the event has come from several individual contributions, donations, and sponsorships. WillowWood, based out of Mount Sterling, Ohio provided $1500 in seed money to hold the event and help with organizing the club. HER Realtors in Chillicothe was the first to make a donation of $200 in Nerf equipment. Snyder Family Chiropractic in Circleville also made an early $100 contribution. Roundtown Roller Derby is supporting the club by helping with fundraising, organizational paperwork, and volunteering team members to help with the November 18th tournament.
“WillowWood is proud to support the Roundtown Ultra Club, and their efforts to alleviate the pain and suffering caused by a problem that touches us all,” commented Ryan Arbogast, WilllowWood’s CEO. “It is exciting to see a home-grown approach to making our communities healthier and happier, and we are looking forward to seeing what the Club has in store for the local community!”
The Ultra Club will begin with Nerf-based events in 2018, but plans on adding other adrenaline inducing activities in 2019. The club was partly inspired by a 2017 article titled, “Iceland knows how to stop teen substance abuse but the rest of the world isn’t listening,” by Emma Young. Young says, “Why not orchestrate a social movement around natural highs: around people getting high on their own brain chemistry – because it seems obvious to me that people want to change their consciousness – without the deleterious effects of drugs?”
You can reach the club’s organizers by emailing roundtownultraclub@gmail.com or visiting them on Facebook @ RoundtownUltraClub.