Fundraising critical aspect for Wooster athletes

brian questel
August 29, 2012
419

082012 sportsfundraising Promo: Many are doing their part to help fund WHS athletic programs Fundraising critical aspect for Wooster athletes By Brian Questel Money is an issue in any business and education is no different. Certainly what is different is that it contains so many different programs looking for support. Athletics is no different, but what is different are the many ways that the department and the athletes themselves are working to support themselves noted Wooster athletic director Andy Kellar. There are a number of fundraisers we use, such as the recent golf outing we had, said Kellar. There are fundraisers for the programs themselves such as the (girls) soccer classic. Jen Snowbarger and her staff hosted a volleyball tournament over the summer and her staff and kids worked it to raise funds. The WooRun is another example, said Kellar about a recent August run for youth and adults recently put on by the Wooster cross country teams. There are a bunch of ways that our teams fundraise, from selling discount cards, coupon books or golf books. Lacrosse sells and installs mulch. They get out into the community and for older adults who cant put it down, they pay our teams to do it. Concessions – our teams sign up to work dates and get money to put into their team accounts based on how many people work. Our wrestling team does a Night at the Races where they have videotaped races with an unknown outcome and they play these races at an event. There is no program -- you place a bet randomly and name your horse, and you get paid if your horse wins. Its usually very successful. People come and have fun and raise money for our athletes. Our girls basketball team does its annual car wash, he added. Our football moms sell (Wooster) apparel and that money goes into the football account. (Baseball coach) Derek Boyd last winter got USA Baseball and we hosted a camp in the winter. We hosted this camp six Sundays, which was open to everyone to come. His staff puts it on and we had kids from all over (several counties) come to the camp to learn skills – its a win-win situation. Kellar said thats an ongoing effort, which is revealed by the slogan Every athlete, every year. Weve been talking the past six months about how we let the community know how hard we are working, he said. Im not sure our community understands how hard the (Wooster All-Sports) Booster Club works to raise money to support our athletic teams and Im not sure it understands the amount of time our booster volunteers and our other volunteers and parents put in. Its usually the same people, but thats starting to change a little. A good example of that is our football community and our fans recently stepped up to sponsor kids to go to the Ohio Northern football camp. Im thankful for that community support and we want to find a way to support our program. The impact the booster club has on the total program is immense. Our booster club actually helps athletes with our pay to participate, said Kellar. Kids who are in our free and reduced lunch program only pay half of the $120 and the booster club pays the other half. Our district is at 53 percent free and reduced lunch, which shocked me. People like me outside Wooster have this perception, because of the history of money in Wooster, but now we are a district with over half (its students) on free and reduced lunch. When someone told me that, I was shocked. The district where I came from, Cloverleaf, is poorer, but we had fewer people on free and reduced lunches. I couldnt believe that number, but if thats 53 percent of our athletes – and its close to that – that turns out to be $9-10,000. And, were supporting Edgewood athletes. Im not sure if the community knows that. Our booster club does a great service to help those athletes and I think our community needs to know how much our athletes and their parents work to subsidize the needs of our programs and our athletic budget. That help comes from the business community, too. One such recent boost came when Joe Benden purchased a pair of weight stations for the Dean Davis Building, and he just gave another $5,000 for help on another facility. Does he go to booster club meetings? No, but you dont have to come to meetings to be a booster, said Kellar, who thanked Benden for his phenomenal support to the school, especially given the realization with the economic downturn over the past decade. Thats why much of Kellars focus in his first year as AD was to look to augment ways to support the program. Our first Wooster golf scramble at the Wooster Country Club raised $5,000, said Kellar. Our Beat Orrville Party is another booster fundraiser. We have silent auctions, we feed everyone and we have a band – that raised another $4,000. We do lots of things to get people involved and lots of time you dont have to do anything except show up and buy a ticket. Our programs, all of them, are financially supported primary with the support of our football gate receipts and boys and girls basketball receipts. Our community supports our kids by watching them participate and those gate receipts in turn support our entire program. But as Wooster cross country and track head coach Doug Bennett said, its important for the athletes to give back as well. Knowing what I know, an athletic budget cannot exceed 1 percent of a districts total budget – thats law, said Bennett. We field 22 sports, so we have to help. Football helps a lot with gate receipts and we benefit from a successful football team and program. Im grateful for the positive things football teams help us out with, but they cant do it all. The WooRun was a positive return, said Bennett. I think we do get a nice mix and in particular its a really good gathering for little kids, said Bennett of the WooRun, which began in 2009. They get a 900-meter run and I think we have some grateful parents who are happy there is some place for their kids to develop an interest in running and get an award and have an appropriate distance for a young kid. But, the cross country team also does a unique fundraiser that Bennett said arose out of a so off the cuff moment. One summer the boys were running in Freedlander Park and doing their regular summer run when (then-Parks and Recreation summer swim coach) Larry Smucker came out and introduced himself to me and made a proposal, said Bennett. He said they were having problems with parking and we would get paid of we would organize and do the parking for the Freedlander and Mid-Ohio swim meets. The rest is history. I cant remember how many years weve done this, but it makes money. It isnt a lot and it gets spread across the cross country and track teams but every little bit helps. That little bit buys stuff.

Fundraising critical aspect for Wooster athletes

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