Calling all military ballplayers.

The local chapter of Sentinels for Freedom wants you — to come on out to Bunten Road Park on May 25, that is, for the first annual All Services Softball Tournament.

Army will play Navy at 1 p.m., said organizer Karen Love, and the Air Force will take on the Marines at 3:30. Winners will then face off for the big title at 6 p.m.

"If this thing takes off the way I expect it to," Love said, "it could be a big family event in Gwinnett that everyone looks forward to every year."

The price of a spot on a team (which includes a T-shirt) is $25. Love said she's hoping to line up 80 team members, who she hopes will bring healthy cheering sections of family and friends.

The Gwinnett chapter of Sentinels for Freedom is still in the early stages of trying to line up the resources to care for a severely disabled veteran for four years.

Nineteen servicemen qualify for the national program at the moment, Love said. Her team has laid the groundwork and is now focused on raising the funds to care for a serviceman in Gwinnett.

The group needs between $80,000 and $100,000, she said, and if housing could be subtracted out of that — if someone were to donate, or loan a house in need of repair, for instance — that would save more than half.

Love, a Duluth real estate agent, didn't serve in the military, though some of the group's team members have. She got involved last year, she said, to do more to support the post-war lives of severely wounded veterans.

The national program, based in Colorado, was created to meet all the needs of returning soldiers for four years, with housing, a job, transportation and whatever assistance was required to establish an independent life.

The Gwinnett chapter has set up a bank account at Gwinnett Community Bank and are working on a website. Email Love at sentinelsoffreedom@charter.net for additional information or to contribute. The national website is http://www.sentinelsoffreedom.org.

All Services Softball Tournament kicks off on May 25 at at 12:45 p.m. at Bunten Road Park, 3180 Bunten Road, Duluth.