Battling cancer with paintball wars.
SPLAT! Cassandra Giusti fires on her opponents during a capture the flag match on Sunday.
Roland Cilliers
BRACEBRIDGE - The war might be for fun, but the cause is deadly serious.
Ontario Defensive Strike Team Paintball (ODST) held a civil war in Bala Sunday.
The event raised money to support the cancer treatment for Erin Morin, the wife of fellow paintballer Serge Morin.
This was just one of many events the paintball community plans to hold in support of their comrade-in-arms.
Joshua Doth, the event organizer said the paintball community has really gotten behind the cause.
“Serge and Erin are the most selfless good people I’ve ever met,” said Doth. “In the paintball community we are really trying to do everything we can for them. They’re great people, and if anyone could do that finger touch thing and make them fine it would be them who deserve it.”
While the proceeds from the event went to a serious cause the mood on the paintball field was all about fun.
Located at Bush’s Sports Centre in Bala the field owners have designed a series of locations which each present the paintballers with a different set of challenges.
The field at Bala has a diverse range of natural and unnatural obstacles including machine gun nests, trenches and hills. They are currently in the process of building an underground bunker.
The terrain features are all designed to let the players take part in military style combat scenarios.
“I’m a military-simulation player,” said Doth. “That means we use military looking weapons, paint grenades, medics on the field, so it’s basically a real-life scenario.”
The theme for Sunday’s event was civil war, and that meant for several of the games the players were restricted to that era’s combat tactics.
Jim Moffat, one of the players at the event, said the paintballers had to make use of civil war era tactics in order to succeed.
“We have the two armies, and the generals lead them – it’s just like they would in the civil war. They come and when they think they’re in range they order them to fire. The guys in front kneel down, and the guys in the back can fire over them. You’re only able to muzzle load the paintballs,” said Moffat.
The group is planning three more fundraising events this summer each with a different combat theme.
For more information on ODST or Erin’s Army visit their respective websites at www.facebook.com/MuskokaPaintball and www.erinsarmy.com.