Marion’s Nov. 7 Battle of the Badges softball fundraiser: the announced plans
The Nov. 7 event listing paired police-versus-fire softball with scholarship fundraising. This archived preview does not establish the game result or money raised.
By PorchBuzz Editorial · Marion, IL · · Updated
Illustrative photo, not the ballpark. Photo: Tony Webster, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons
Original image and attribution · CC BY-SA 2.0. Cropped and resized for this page.
Archive note, Nov. 11, 2026: This article described plans for Nov. 7, an event date now past. It is not an announcement of a game this coming Saturday. We have not verified the final score, attendance or amount raised.
Marion's police officers and firefighters were scheduled to take their rivalry to the softball field on Nov. 7.
The event listing advertised the 2nd Annual Battle of the Badges softball game for Saturday, Nov. 7 at 5:30 p.m. at Mountain Dew Park.
What's happening?
It's the Marion Police Department against the Marion Fire Department, for bragging rights.
According to the Mtn Dew Park event listing reproduced by HappeningNext:
- Gates open at 4 p.m.
- The game is 7 innings, played with Banana Ball rules
- There will be K-9 demos, raffles, giveaways and vendors
Where does the money go?
The announced beneficiaries were scholarship funds. The event listing names the Marion Police Department Scholarship Fund.
The park listing also names the Marion Professional Firefighters Local 2977 Scholarship Fund.
Tickets are listed through Etix on the park's event listing.
Reading the event listing after the date
The listing identified Mountain Dew Park at 1000 Miners Drive and named both the Marion Police Department Scholarship Fund and Marion Professional Firefighters Local 2977 Scholarship Fund as beneficiaries. These are the announced fundraising purposes, not an independently audited distribution of proceeds.
Gates opening and first pitch were separate times: 4 p.m. and 5:30 p.m., respectively, in Marion local time. The entertainment and fundraising activities above were advertised components, not a statement that PorchBuzz witnessed each one.
Anyone looking for a score or a fundraising total should seek a later announcement from the participating departments or park. The source used for this update is the public event listing, which does not provide those outcomes. Do not use the old ticket information as evidence of a future event.
Update, Nov. 11, 2026: Headline and description changed to make the past event date explicit; linked the archived event listing, removed a prior scholarship-amount claim that was not established in that listing, and clarified that results and proceeds have not been verified. The original URL and publication date are preserved.
Sources
- Mtn Dew Park event listing, reproduced by HappeningNext (happeningnext.com)
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