It’s a grand slam of a fundraiser as Benefit the Badge teams up with Miken to release the 2022 Benefit the Badge Maxload USSSA Bat.

The story below is by Tim Church of the Branson Tri-Lakes News:

The limited edition bat was created in honor of the men and women in law enforcement. The bat is engineered from premium aerospace grade fiber and is constructed with a 12-inch E-Flex 360 barrel. Fogle Family Foundation/Benefit the Badge President and Fogle Enterprises Inc. President Nolan Fogle shared Miken Worth Sports, which is owned by Rawlings, produced the bat for Benefit the Badge.

“Rawlings is based out of St. Louis, but Miken Worth, which is the biggest name in the softball world, they are based out of Minnesota. They have been the No.1 bat manufacture for years and years. They make the best products. Everybody knows it’s the best quality product with their bats,” Fogle said. “They also make all of the helmets for Major League Baseball actually. It’s kind of interesting. They work with them on all that technology to make sure if somebody gets hit with the pitch and all that stuff.”

Fogle said he was approached by Miken about making a bat to honor law enforcement and give exposure to Benefit the Badge and its cause.

“They said, ‘Look, we want to make 1,500 of these, which will make it limited.’ When they do a limited bat, normally they do 500 or 1,000. But they thought this would be a really popular thing, so they offered to make 1,500 of them and to give a portion of every bat sale to Benefit the Badge and also bring more exposure to the cause. It’s been great.”

Fogle added when they first released the bat back in February, something usual happened.

“They came within a couple hundred bats of selling out within five or six weeks. Now that’s selling out to dealers and now the dealers will have them for sale. But the dealers believed in it so much that they bought them and committed to buy them from Miken. That just doesn’t happen,” Fogle said. “They said typically when they do a special run on a bat with something that’s not their normal bats that they do…usually at the end of the first year, they still have bats left over like after a full year. I think it’s just a great example of how much people really do want to help law enforcement.”

As a professional softball player, Fogle shared he has been working with Miken for several years now, which made this team-up even more special.

“We play in what is called the USSSA conference and travel all over the United States all season long playing. The name of it is Nightmare/Benefit the Badge/Miken Worth and Miken for at least the last 10 years has been good to us and provided us with all the bats we need and batting gloves and bat bags and backpacks all for free for years now,” Fogle said. “They’ve sponsored me personally, by giving me lots of stuff. They’ve just been really good to us for a long time and this is just something over the top that really talks and shows about how great they are and how great they’ve been.”

While the organization has received lots of attention since its founding, Fogle shared since the debut of the Benefit the Badge bat, they have reaching new people all over the world. 

“Miken products are sold all over, so as soon as they released it, we were immediately given exposure all over the United States, coast to coast. Anybody that didn’t know about our cause started to know about it almost immediately,” Fogle said. “That exposure alone has been amazing and really opened up a lot of doors for us. Even for Branson, something else based out of Branson that has a good cause and a good message is getting the word out there all over the United States has also been a great thing for us.”

The limited edition Benefit the Badge USSSA Bat is available for purchase from select dealers. However, Fogle shared they have approximately 50 bats already in Branson that can be purchased directly from Benefit the Badge for around $240 a piece. To purchase a bat, contact Fogle by sending a message to the Benefit the Badge Facebook page. 

The Branson headquartered Benefit the Badge was launched in 2017. Through a variety of fundraiser held throughout the last four years, they’ve raise more than $370,000 for area law enforcement agencies. 

The funds raised benefit the Stone County Sheriff’s Department, Taney County Sheriff’s Department, Branson Police Department, Hollister Police Department, Merriam Woods Police Department, Kimberling City Police Department and the Branson West Police Department.

“That money has been given to them for things that they need, like protection devices, things to help them do their job better, safer and more efficiently. Some of it has been used to help spread the news about all the amazing positive things that law enforcement does,” Fogle said. “The funds get dispersed amongst them, according to the number of commissioned officers that they have. It’s just been a great cause.”

With Benefit the Badge, Fogle also shared another one of their goals is to raise funds without adding additional responsibilities to law enforcement.

“We try to do it with very little effort of the officers. We try to do it by volunteers in the community and organizations that already support the departments and by doing that, it puts very little strain, stress or work on the officers. Our whole point is we want them to keep doing their job, focus on their job, be appreciated and have the things that they need to be able to do their job and be safe, because they’re out there putting their life on the line, every second of everyday for us,” Fogle said. “They have families and they do normal things. Then they put their uniform on and it’s just like putting on a target, but they do it and they keep doing it.”

On the topic of volunteers, Fogle added they are always looking for new folks looking to lend a hand.

“We’ve got a couple of projects that we hope will raise a lot of money, but we need some more volunteers to help us get going. So if anybody reads this and is interested in volunteering, we’d love to have them to reach out to us on Benefit the Badge on Facebook and send a message,” Fogle said. “It can be as little as once a year to once a month and anything in between really. We’d love to have some more help if anybody’s interested.”

Visit the ‘Benefit the Badge’ page on Facebook.