Every year the Jonathan Alder Athletic Boosters holds a Booster Bash fundraiser to raise money for the athletic programs at the high school. This is one of several sources of income for our high school athletic programs.
Booster President Rebekah Kennedy says, “Annually we have our Booster Bash where the teams and the Boosters contribute items that are silent and live auctioned off. The teams get the profit for every item they donate for auction. The bash is paid for by sponsor donations and event ticket purchases.”
Each sport has its own funding from the boosters to help pay for equipment and other necessities. The school district pays for the coaching and transportation, while the boosters help out each department based on a request.
Kennedy says, “The Boosters exist to support, promote, and encourage education through the financial support of the athletic programs at Jonathan Alder. We support the entire Athletic Program by providing platforms for fundraising for each team and providing opportunities for all teams to earn donations through our fundraising efforts (concession stands, booster bash)
Every sport is very unique and different in terms of what kind of funding they need. There is equipment, uniforms, referees, entry fees, and technology needed to run most sports.
Athletic director Scott Reule says, “It costs more to run some sports than others. So some sports have more funding than others because they might have more needs to run the sport on a basic level. You can’t fund every sport on the same line because that’s not what it takes to run those sports. There is a balance trying to be made between all sports.”
If any sport wants to do something extra, that is out of the basic range they fundraise money to pay. The athletic department does not pay for all we see that sports teams do.
Reule says, “Each sport can have a fundraiser through the athletic boosters and raise money for what they might like to have or do. For example, team camps are all through fundraising. If they want to do something like that they get the money to do it.”
If any sport is in need of money they can request to get help from the boosters. The team, boosters, and school will work together to accommodate what they might need or would like to do. The boosters and school recognize that it’s important for sports to have team bonding times and other opportunities to improve their skill, like team camps.
“We work to help out whenever and however the teams need,” says Kennedy. “Can be anything simple from sharing communication on socials about the team’s achievements or schedule to financial requests for equipment, fees for athletes to compete, and uniforms. The process for support requests goes through the Athletic Department prior to coming to the Boosters to ensure that the Athletic Department doesn’t have the funds needed for that in their approved budget and to verify the need request.”
This year’s Booster Bash had a gross profit of $115,380.10. “This gross amount includes all Sponsors, Ticket Sales, Raffles, and Auction Items,” wrote Kennedy via email. “The Boosters use the sponsors and ticket sales income to pay for the event so that anything earned with raffle and auction items can be given to the individual teams and the Boosters account. This year, the total earned for all teams combined is a gross of $45,891.00.”
