Ethelston family donates to Brandon Minor Baseball

On Monday, Craig and April Ethelston went to Simplot Millennium Park to donate $5,000 to the Brandon Minor Baseball Association in honour of their son Ryker, who died in August 2024 from a spontaneous brain aneurysm.

“Baseball and hockey were the two major sports that (Ryker) played,” said Ryker’s father, Craig. “(It’s) for people that can’t maybe afford certain things or to help out with even just the equipment because it’s so expensive.”

The money was generated through the annual golf tournament that the Ethelstons hold as a means of celebrating and preserving Ryker’s memory.

“It sells out so fast we can barely get it open to the general public,” said Craig. “It’s generating a lot of money we can use towards donating to the sporting community, as well as we’ve done Stars (Air) Ambulance before; this year we’re going to do a donation to the PICU (pediatric intensive care unit) in Winnipeg at the Health Sciences Centre.”

This year, the Ethelstons donated $5,000 to the BMBA and local hockey teams. They also intend to send another 18k to the Pediatric Intensive Care Unit at the Health Sciences Centre in Winnipeg, where Ryker spent a few days following the aneurysm.

While generating the money is something the family is proud of, the real purpose of the gold tournament is to bring people together to celebrate Ryker’s memory. That said, the donations mean a lot to groups like the BMBA.

“The money that we get to upgrade things around here is all through team fees and grants and stuff like that,” said BMBA player development director Ryan Boguski. “It’ll go towards something that we didn’t have before.

“Seeing the (Ethelstons) and what they’re doing, you think of (Ryker) a lot … It’s nice for the family to do something like that, but at the same time it makes you really think about him and still wishing he was around for sure.”

The BMBA board still needs to make final decisions concerning the money, but Boguski says the leading uses for it include an award banquet, offering a scholarship in Ryker’s name, and replacing some of the existing equipment that is getting old.

Ryker’s impact in the sports community was larger than the family knew. Last year, the U15 Brandon Wheat Kings named him an honorary captain of the team and hung his jersey behind the bench as they battled their way to a championship. It was their way of keeping his memory alive.

In a similar vein, the BMBA renamed Diamond 1 at Simplot Millennium Park to the Ryker Ethelston Field last year.

“Out here our diamonds are 1-8 and other places we go to they actually have names … This is the last diamond I think he played on, so it was an easy choice to name Diamond 1 the Ryker Ethelston Field,” said Boguski.

After the board quickly agreed to the idea, they contacted Accent Striping and Lettering, who put together and hung the sign on the batting cage.

These gestures have meant a lot to Craig and April who get to see how much their son meant to the communities he was a part of.

“It means everything,” said Ethelston. “For us just to see his name out there and for people to remember him and talk about him just means the world to both of us.”

» rmccarthy@brandonsun.com