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Youth dart player qualifies for nationals

A Williams Lake youth dart player, Dustin Sarnowski, has qualified for the Youth National Dart Tournament May 15-19 in St. John’s, Nfld.
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Williams Lake’s Dustin Sarnowski (back right) stands alongside his teammates on the youth provincial dart team.

A Williams Lake youth dart player, Dustin Sarnowski, has qualified for the Youth National Dart Tournament May 15-19 in St. John’s, Nfld.

Sarnowski finished first in the junior boys division at the B.C. Youth Provincial Dart Championships to earn his spot.

Now, his Darts BC coach, Williams Lake’s Wayne O’Neil, is hoping to help fundraise enough money so both can attend the championships.

“We’re fundraising throughout the community trying to raise enough money so we can go,” said O’Neil, who has also started up a youth dart league in the lakecity.

Sarnowski began playing darts while visiting O’Neil with his mom when O’Neil was recovering from paralysis as a result of a brain injury.

“He was coming over to visit with his mom, and I’d been doing darts on my own for physiotherapy and Dustin, one day, started playing alongside me and he put up a dart board beside my board,” O’Neil said. “I asked him once he started getting better if he wanted to go to provincials and he said, ‘Well, sure.’”

To travel to nationals O’Neil and Sarnowski are hoping to raise $3,500 and are asking for $2 donations. O’Neil said Mount Polley Mine has already kicked in a significant $500 donation to their cause, and added he’s grateful for the donation.

“Any amount of money people can give us will help these kids,” he said. “I’ve raised $520 through people I know in the community already, but we still need to make $2,500.”

If interested in helping out O’Neil and Sarnowski contact O’Neil at 778-412-4010.



Greg Sabatino

About the Author: Greg Sabatino

Greg Sabatino graduated from Thompson Rivers University in Kamloops with a Bachelor of Journalism degree in 2008.
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