Republicans, Democrats play kickball to raise money for youth league

Chemung County Republicans and Democrats took their rivalry onto a kickball field in Elmira and came away with a modest but useful payoff: $300 for the Chemung County Youth Football League. The game was held Saturday, July 12, at Willie H. Owens Field of Fathers, where the politics stayed in the background and the old-school game did the smoothing.

The fundraiser worked because kickball asks very little from its players and almost nothing from the crowd. It is a familiar, low-stakes game, the kind that lets people show up, compete for an inning or two and still leave looking like neighbors instead of opponents. That tone mattered here, because the event was built around two local party organizations that spend most of their time on opposite sides of a ballot, not on the same side of a box score.

It was the second year for the matchup, and last year the Republicans took the win. This year’s result mattered less than the fact that both sides came back for another round, using the game as a clean way to support a youth sports program with a very specific payoff. The money went to the Chemung County Youth Football League, which is set to begin play in August and will offer both tackle and flag football across multiple age groups.

That gives the fundraiser a sharper purpose than a one-off photo op. The league is not just a concept on a flyer; it is part of Chemung County’s youth sports landscape and is listed through the county’s Sport League Guide, which groups local league options for families looking for organized play. In practical terms, the kickball game helped give a new football outlet a small financial runway before registration and the season begin.

The bipartisan format also fit the moment. Instead of asking Republicans and Democrats to agree on policy, it asked them to agree on something easier to see and measure: show up, play, and help fund a youth league that will serve kids in the county. For one afternoon in Elmira, that was enough to produce a result on the field and a little money for the next generation of players.