Tourney draws wounded families together

WEST SENECA, N.Y. (WIVB) - A softball tournament is helping promote an important cause: stopping drivers from getting behind the wheel after drinking.

Battle cries were heard loud and clear in West Seneca. Hundreds were drafted for an annual softball tournament that aims to raise awareness and wage war on drunk driving. It's a crusade led by Deanna Russo, whose sister Karen was killed by a drunk driver in 1998.

Russo said, "She had a huge heart and she was the kind of person that would do anything and everything for her friends. She was a great softball player, too."

Russo created this fundraiser in her sister's honor. Others played in memory of a friend or a loved one.

"It goes beyond just one family," Russo noted. "And it's really a matter of everyone coming together."

The Buchholz family was devastated by a drunk driver in May. Fourteen-year-old Bryce was killed, while riding his bike in Lancaster.

His grandmother, Jane Buchholz, said, "It's one of the most difficult things I've ever had to live with. I don't think there's anything that can hurt me any more than losing my grandson."

This year's event comes at a pivotal moment in western New York. In the coming days, we're expected to learn if Dr. James Corasanti will be sent to jail after being convicted of misdemeanor DWI more than a year after he hit and killed Alix Rice, while she was skateboarding home from work on Heim Road in Amherst.

Alix's father, Richard Rice, was there as a sign of solidarity.

"It's just sad to be under these auspices. We're all being dragged into a fraternity that we don't want to belong to... no one wants to be long to," Rice sighed. "But sadly, here we are making the best of it, trying to turn a very tragic situation into a positive."

And while the mood is light, Russo says her heart is still heavy - but it's also full of hope.

"I know that my sister is hopefully very proud of what I'm doing today," Russo said.