Could you use $3,000 cash or even $500 to spend on Christmas this year?

The Adams County Sheriff’s office and the Home for Heroes Foundation are sponsoring a golf ball drop to benefit the Southwest Area 7 Special Olympics Athletes.

The ball drop was originally planned in conjunction with the Home for Heroes Foundation Golf Tournament on Nov. 17 that had to be canceled.

The ball drop will be held at Duncan Park Golf Course at noon Saturday by the Adams County Sheriff’s Office by helicopter.

Grand prize is $3,000 cash for closest or in-the-hole golf ball and second place will be $500 cash.

Only 350 tickets will be sold for $20 each and can be purchased from any Area 7 Volunteer or Athlete.

You can also purchase your tickets at Southern Signs on Liberty Road or from me at Sango Chrysler Dodge Jeep Ram on Seargent S. Prentiss Drive. All proceeds will benefit our Area 7 Special Olympics games and sporting events held throughout the year.

Our biggest event every year is to attend the Summer Games at Keesler Air Force Base in Biloxi in May. We have to pay a certain amount per athlete to attend these games and your help will be very much appreciated.

Southwest Area 7 includes Adams, Jefferson Franklin and Wilkinson counties in Mississippi and we have over 100 athletes in our area that participate in Special Olympics.

Every year in the spring we hold our annual Golf Tournament, our only fundraiser every year, but due to circumstances we had no control over, we had to cancel this year’s tournament so this ball drop will be our fundraiser for 2018. We will be back in the Spring of 2019 with our Golf Tournament. The Miss-Lou has always been known as the most generous place in the state for helping with charitable causes such as this. If you do not want to purchase tickets for the ball drop we are also accepting donations that can be mailed to me at Special Olympics Area 7, 108 Tanglewood Rd., Natchez, MS. 39120. Make checks payable to Southwest Area 7 Special Olympics. If you want tickets and are unable to come purchase them, please call me at 601-597-4724 and I will gladly deliver them to you or email you a copy of your tickets.

Our area athletes need your continued support and appreciate all you do in the Miss-Lou are to help them as they compete for gold, silver and bronze medals in Special Olympics sporting events as they live by the Special Olympics Oath which is “Let me win but if I cannot win let me be brave in the attempt.” We as volunteers and parents of special athletes and all our Area 7 athletes thank you for your support and would like to wish each and every one of you a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.

A special thank you to the Adams County Sheriff’s Office, Sheriff Travis Patton and Mark LaFrancis president of the Home for Heroes Foundation for their help.  May God bless everyone and good luck on winning the ball drop!

Ricky Warren is an area 7 volunteer and athlete parent.