Six months after Ryan passed away Ryan's brother David came up with an idea. He wanted to keep Ryan's memory alive and he also wanted to raise money to help local youth organizations. He decided that he should hold an event in Ryan’s memory and give all of the proceeds to the children of Somerville.  David knew immediately that he wanted this to be something other than a wiffle ball or softball tournament, and wanted everything to be done just right for his little brother whom he missed so much.  The last game that Ryan had played was corn toss at David’s house the Labor Day before he died, so that was it, a corn toss tournament.  The family realized that in order to raise a lot of funds they would have to set up a 501c3 charitable foundation, so they set up the Ryan Harrington Foundation in loving memory of Ryan. The Harrington's then began planning their first tournament.  A lot of work went into setting up a corn toss tournament of the size they were planning. You need many sets of corn toss boards. All of the boards were built by David.  David's wife Sue would project the images onto the boards and hand trace them on to the boards.  Every image on the boards had a personal meaning to Ryan's family.  The boards were then painted by Sue with help from Ryan's sister, Eileen and many of Ryans' cousins.  It was definitely a labor of love.  Everyone worked tirelessly to make the first tournament a huge success.

The Foundation was officially formed on August 15, 2012 and the first tournament was held on September 15, 2012.  The Foundation raised approximately $13,000 with their first tournament.  The decision was made to give to the community organizations that have a big positive impact on the youth of Somerville.  The foundation ultimately decided to donate $5,000 to the Somerville YMCA and $5,000 to Somerville Recreation for their summer camp programs so that all children would be able to attend no matter what their financial status.  Over the next three years, the tournament grew and the Foundation was able to reach out to more youth organizations in the City of Somerville. 

As of today, thanks to the participation of our community and generous local businesses, the Ryan Harrington Foundation has donated ~ $100,000 to the youth to local communities through a wide variety of local youth organizations.  

The beginning....

As we’ve grown....