Bad News Beers win Parsons softball tournament for Alzheimer’s Tennessee

A co-ed softball tournament at Parsons Community Regional Park ended with the Bad News Beers taking the championship, but the bigger result was charitable support for Alzheimer’s Tennessee and the families the nonprofit serves across West Tennessee. Led locally by Amanda Barlow Leitch, the event tied a summer recreation night in Parsons to a growing public health need: help for people living with Alzheimer’s disease and related dementias.

Alzheimer’s Tennessee says its mission is to serve those facing Alzheimer’s disease and related dementias, promote brain health through education, and support research, prevention and treatment efforts. Its West Tennessee office is in Jackson, and the organization works with families, caregivers and patients who are dealing with memory loss and the burden that often comes with it. In a county where many households know that reality firsthand, a fundraiser like the Parsons tournament does more than fill an afternoon schedule. It helps keep a local support network visible.

The setting also mattered. Parsons Community Regional Park is more than a ballfield complex; the City of Parsons describes it as a planned multiuse recreation site that includes a baseball and softball complex, playground areas, pavilions, a walking trail and regulation-size soccer fields. City records show the park has remained an active community investment, with a sidewalk project marked complete in March 2024 and later plans, noted in August 2025, for a new pavilion.

That makes the tournament part of a larger civic pattern in Parsons, where the park doubles as a gathering place, a family venue and, now, a fundraiser for a disease that reaches far beyond the diamond. The Bad News Beers may have taken home the championship, but the event’s lasting value was in the money and awareness directed toward Alzheimer’s Tennessee, the kind of support that can matter to caregivers trying to manage appointments, planning and day-to-day care.

Families seeking information or assistance can reach Alzheimer’s Tennessee’s West Tennessee Regional Office at 38 Old Hickory Cove, Suite E250, in Jackson, or call 731-694-8065.