Exploring Life & Business with Jesse Haws of Tossin’ Away ALS

Today we’d like to introduce you to Jesse Haws.

Hi Jesse, thanks for sharing your story with us. To start, maybe you can tell our readers some of your backstories.
My grandfather passed away from ALS in July 2000 when I was 13 years old. Every time he came down from the White Mountains to visit, he would take us to some type of sporting event. Sometimes it was to watch professional teams play and other times it was to watch high school or college teams play. The level of competition didn’t matter…

The sport didn’t even matter… I just liked getting to spend time with my grandpa and most of my memories with him were created at those games.

I didn’t really understand what ALS was like as a teenager. I just knew it made grandpa lose control of all the muscles in his body. When he passed away, I remember feeling grateful for the many memories we did share, but I was also sad that we wouldn’t get to create any new memories together.

In 2014, I decided to raise some money in honor of my grandpa and wanted the money we raised to be used for research purposes to help find a cure for the terrible disease that took him away. My family enjoyed cornhole and it was an up-and-coming game that people were starting to hear more about in Arizona, so with the help of family and friends, we held our first official cornhole tournament in November 2014. I begged and pleaded with people for months, and we eventually got 32 teams to sign up and participate. I think we raised a grand total of $2,708 that year. This summer we expanded and held our first event in Eagar, AZ where grandpa was from and we will be holding our ninth tournament here in the valley this coming November.

What started as a way to honor my grandpa has turned into a wonderful way to help families create and enjoy positive memories with their loved ones.

Would you say it’s been a smooth road, and if not what are some of the biggest challenges you’ve faced along the way?
It definitely has not been a smooth road. I laugh when I think about all the work that went into the first tournament and how naïve I was about the whole thing. I figured it would be super easy to get people on board and excited about a charity cornhole tournament. As I alluded to in the previous question, I begged so many people to come and play with us and felt so lucky to get 32 teams at that first tournament.

Tossin’ Away ALS was originally created to be a charity cornhole tournament. It wasn’t supposed to be an actual non-profit organization when this all started. We literally started from scratch with everything. Our first website looked like a 5th grader built it because we didn’t have any type of professional experience with anything. It’s been a huge struggle handing over some of the reins and letting board members and professionals do the work, but it’s been so much better with all their help.

Finding participants, supporters and sponsors have all been difficult. Even finding ALS families to help has been harder than I thought it would be. But we’ve created a good community that really loves and cares for each other and helps each other and I’m very proud of that!

Alright, so let’s switch gears a bit and talk business. What should we know?
We are a non-profit organization that uses charity cornhole tournaments to raise money for ALS patients so they can create positive memories with their families and friends. ALS is a terrible disease and is 100% fatal. There are naturally a lot of tough/negative memories that accompany an ALS diagnosis, so we try to change that for brief periods of time. Whether it’s dinner with family, a night out at the ballgame, a trip to the movies, or a family vacation, we want these families to create happy, positive memories together with the time they have left.

I’m most proud of how much our group loves and cares for those we help. One of my favorite things to do at our events is watching the families who have already walked their ALS journey visit and mingle with those who are currently going through it. It’s therapeutic for everybody and creates such a feeling of unity and love and many people have told me it’s their favorite part about coming.

I know it’s cliché but I just want everybody to know how much we care. The families we help are like my own family and I really mean that. Nobody involved with our organization gets paid… We all do it because we know how much it would have meant to our families to have some good memories to look back on and we want the families fighting ALS now to have something that we didn’t.

Pricing:

• Entry into our tournaments is usually around $100 per team of two players.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.tossinawayals.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/tossinawayals/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/TossinAwayALS

Image Credits
Tossin’ Away ALS