Family, friends remember Michael Gould with softball fund-raiser
By Ken Powers Contributing Writer

Northborough - Growing up, Michael Gould loved the game of baseball - playing it, watching it, talking about it.

About two weeks after he passed away in July 2000, his sister Maureen and some friends decided to play a pickup softball game at Memorial Field as a way to remember Michael. Word quickly spread through town about the game - on the day of the game, there was no advance notice - and by the time they finished playing more than 200 people had participated.

Maureen remembers telling one of Michael's friends that day that it would be neat if they could play a softball game every year in the memory of her younger brother.

They have.

On Sunday July 29, Michael's family and friends will gather at 3 p.m. at the Marion E. Zeh School on Howard Street to play a softball game that has come to be known as the Michael Gould Memorial Scholarship Fund-raiser. The game usually runs until about 7 p.m.

The previous six years the Gould family has hosted the softball game, it has been held at Melican Middle School. This year the game had to be moved to the Zeh School because of work being done on the athletic fields at Melican Middle.

All the money raised at the softball game will go toward the scholarship the Gould family presents to Algonquin Regional High School (ARHS) students each spring.

"With these scholarships, we try to honor the unsung heroes," Maureen said, "kids who have been faced with many challenges that they have not only overcome, but have overcome in a healthy manner and have grown from. These are kids my family and I feel will make a diff erence in the world based on their experiences."

The Gould family awards three scholarships ranging in value between $500 and $1,000 each year to ARHS seniors who submit an essay in which they explain how they have overcome the hardship and adversity in their life in a healthy manner, and grown from the experience.

"Over the years we've awarded scholarships to kids who have overcome the loss of a parent or other family member or a friend," Maureen said, "and to other kids who have overcome illness and disease, and still others who have overcome an abusive childhood. It's amazing to learn what some kids have had to endure in life before they've even graduated from high school."

In addition to the softball game, the Gould family holds a raffle in which such prizes as Red Sox tickets, gift certificates to local businesses, gift baskets and Bose stereo equipment are up for grabs. Food and drinks donated by local merchants are sold at the game, and those proceeds, as well as the money raised from the raffle, all go into the scholarship fund.

Tickets to play in the game are $10 and can be purchased at the Zeh School May 29 before the event.

"The way it works is everybody who comes down and buys a ticket gets to play in the game if they want to," Maureen said. "Usually we have so many people that we have to play multiple games to get everybody a chance to participate."