08:22 AM CST on Wednesday, December 29, 2004

By Rachel Hunter / The Galveston County Daily News

FRIENDSWOOD — It happens every year. Parents put off confirming a baby-sitter until the night before New Year’s Eve, and end up ringing in the New Year with a bowl of popcorn and hours of Disney films.

This year, however, the Texas Eclipse girls softball team is helping parents welcome the New Year with friends and partygoers by offering baby-sitting from 6 p.m. Dec. 31 to 1 a.m. Jan. 1.

The girls softball team is based in Friendswood, but players come from all over Galveston County. Each year, the team holds a fund-raiser to help pay for travel expenses and registration fees to enter softball tournaments across the United States.

“Sometimes we host tournaments and garage sales,” said Robert Flores, team manager and father of one of the players. “This is our first time baby-sitting.”

Flores said the team is raising money to go to a national softball tournament in Denver, Colo., on July 4.

“At first we thought about baby-sitting for Christmas shoppers, but we couldn’t pull it together quick enough,” he said. “Then we thought maybe New Year’s. I called around and none of your day care-type places are even considering being open on New Year’s Eve, so I thought this might work.”

Baby-sitting will be provided for children 3 to 12 at Jones Hangar in Friendswood. The old airplane hangar is located in a neighborhood park, said Flores, and will be heated and has bathrooms and a kitchen.

“We’re going to have movies, games, drinks and snacks for the children,” Floes said. “There will be about six girls (from the team) and 10 parents to help baby-sit. The girls are all 13- and 14-years-old, so at that age it’s marginal to whether they’d really be going out on New Year’s Eve. This will give them an opportunity to be with a bunch of kids.”

The team will accept 30 to 35 children and are about halfway to meeting that goal. The price for the seven hours of baby-sitting is $50 dollars, but parents with more than one child will receive a $5 dollar discount for each additional child.