Providence Journal photo / Bob Breidenbach
Members of Schmeider's family gather and listen to a song sung for him by Frank Hurd at the start of the benefit event. Left to right are: Sue Mullen, Schmeider's Mother, Callie Champion, his niece, Raymond Flagg (hat), friend of the family, Rae-Denise Dowling, his sister, and her son David Champion (center, foreground). View the photo gallery.
- Gallery: Playing for coach Schmeider
WARWICK, R.I. -- As many as 2,000 people took part in a benefit softball tournament and "family fun day" at Warwick City Park on Saturday to benefit Warwick teacher and coach George Schmeider.
Schmeider is at Massachusetts General Hospital, where he is in a persistent vegetative state that has baffled his doctors since August.
Twenty-six teams, who paid $200 each, were playing "rag ball" (like softball, but with an even softer ball) on six fields at the park. There was also live music, food, inflatable bounce houses for children, face painting, jewelry-making, raffles.
Schmeider, 37, has been a health teacher at Gorton Junior High School in Warwick and has coached wrestling and football at Warwick Veterans High School. He and his wife, Toni, have four children, ages 5 to 17.