By JENNIFER BAILEY / Staff Writer

COLUMBIANA – The Dixie Flyers Flyball Club, based out of Bessemer, is hosting a tournament named “The Rescue Run” to raise funds and collect items for the Shelby County Humane Society.

Lee Short, a member the Dixie Flyers, described flyball as “a team dog sport, sort of like relay racing mixed with drag racing.”

Short went on to explain that each team consists of four dogs that race over four hurdles, to a spring-loaded box that releases a ball. The dogs then have to return over the jumps with the ball, while the next dog is released. The team that completes the course cleanly and in the fastest time wins.

“Some dogs run fast, some run slow, but they all have a blast playing the game,” Short wrote in an email.

Thirty-nine teams from all over Alabama, Georgia, Florida and Tennessee will be competing in The Rescue Run. Ten of the teams are part of the Dixie Flyers.

The Dixie Flyers decided to give the proceeds from The Rescue Run to the Shelby County Humane Society because they “feel that giving back to the community is important and one way that is easy for us to do so is to use tournaments to help us raise money,” Short wrote.

Many of the dogs playing flyball in the Southeast are rescues and because of this, Short said that the members of The Dixie Flyers wanted to sponsor a tournament benefiting a local rescue. Short said, “many of us live in or near Shelby County and know the good work that Shelby County Humane Society does in rescue.”

The tournament will take place on June 6 and 7 at the Clanton Performing Arts Center on the Jeff State campus in Clanton. The event is open to the public and there is no charge for parking or admission.