THE WEST LIBERTY ATHLETIC BOOSTERS IS GIVING $100,000 TO THE WEST LIBERTY COMMUNITY SCHOOL DISTRICT FOR THE NEW ATHLETIC COMPLEX
The Booster Club steps up with major donation.
WEST LIBERTY, IA – The West Liberty School District is receiving a major gift from the Athletic Booster Club. Booster Club officers met with Superintendent, Shaun Kruger, and Activities Director, Adam Loria to inform them of the decision to give $100,000 to help build the new athletic complex which will be located south of the high school. The Booster Club is going to sponsor the track which will be only the second universal track in the River Valley Conference. A universal track will have many advantages for the district including the ability to host much larger meets and conference and state qualifying events. The current track has buckled and needs total replacement. All the 2022 and 2023 meets have been moved to other schools.
“Currently we cannot host any track meets due to the condition of the track. Even if the track was functional, we could not host large track events which means we lose that revenue to other schools in our conference,” said Activities Director Adam Loria. “A million thanks to the club for making this possible for our district.”
The officers said they are giving money to help with the matching requirements for the West Liberty Foods donation and thought the track was the best fit for their organization.
“We picked the track because it impacts both boys’ and girls’ sports as well as high school and junior high students,” said Booster Club Vice President, Mandi Wulf. “We wanted something with broad impact.”
Club officers, which includes President, Trish Hall, Vice President Mandi Wulf, Apparel Coordinator Josie Gingerich, Secretary Jackie Buysse, Treasurer Michele McMichael, and several volunteers, meets August through May on the first Wednesday of each month to discuss fundraising, events, volunteer needs, and support for the athletic department. The club pays for everything from uniforms to the weightlifting program and relies solely on fundraising for revenue.
“I cannot express how great the Athletic Booster Club has been to me,” said Activities Director, Adam Loria. “The Booster Club covers a ton of athletic expenses, recruits volunteers, and takes care of things I don’t have to worry about.”
President, Trish Hall, said the club has had some successful fundraising efforts over the last ten years pushing their funds to higher than typical levels, and that giving money to the athletic complex is a no brainer.
“We are thrilled to see this project coming to life,” said Hall, who has four daughters in the school district. “My family has traveled all over the Midwest with our daughters for softball and basketball programs. It’s easy to see the difference in performance when student athletes have access to top notch training facilities and athletic fields. This is a smart investment for the club.”
What is the Athletic Booster Club?
The West Liberty Athletic Booster Club was formed over 40 years ago when several parents and stakeholders recognized the need to provide additional funding for West Liberty High School sports programs. Booster clubs in general have been around for decades, with some of the earliest clubs forming in the 40’s and 50’s. The trend took off as communities noticed that schools with healthy booster clubs fared much better with athletic performance.
“There’s only so much a school district can do with state and federal funding,” said Superintended Shaun Kruger. “Booster clubs provide a critical supplement that helps take athletic and fine arts programs much farther than the school district can alone. The West Liberty booster clubs are some of the best functioning clubs I’ve seen. We are thankful for this extremely generous gift and for everything the Athletic Booster Club does for our students.”
Over the years, the West Liberty Athletic Booster Club has helped fund programs such as the construction of the safe room and weight room, uniforms for teams, the weight training program put on by Feldman Performance, banners, equipment and capital expenditures, scores tables, and more. Upon signing their most recent agreement with Pepsi, the club received new scoreboards for the gym.
How Do They Make Money?
The West Liberty Athletic Booster Club is a 501c3 certified non-profit organization. This means all donations to the club are tax deductible. While this seems like a given, studies show only 12-15% of booster clubs go through the time, paperwork, and legal work to establish non-profit status. This speaks to the professionalism of the West Liberty club.
“We want our members and donors to trust us,” said Michele McMichael, who was involved in setting up the status with attorney Jim Keele. “Our program support depends on donations, so we need donors to trust that we are fiscally responsible and have their best interests in mind.”
The club makes money in several ways, one being an annual membership drive. Community members join the booster club at various levels. The club also works concession stands at multiple sporting events throughout the year and receives all of the proceeds or splits them with other school organizations depending on the event.
“Membership and concession sales are critical for our funding,” said Secretary, Jackie Buysse. “And not just concession sales, but volunteers to staff the concession stand. It takes a lot of people to keep the stands open and we are always in desperate need of volunteers.
Game Changers
Although traditionally the club has made money off memberships and concessions, about ten years ago they enhanced their apparel offering and that has been a major boost to revenue. Apparel Coordinator, Josie Gingerich, manages the apparel stores with Classical Graphics, a company in Davenport, IA, and said the sales have made a big impact.
“We have made quite a bit of money selling apparel,” said Gingerich. “It takes a lot of time to manage the design process, orders, and deliveries, but I like designing the clothes and enjoy seeing the finished product.”
Classical Graphics owner, Derek Dlouhy, said the West Liberty Booster Club is one of their largest customers and has some of the trendiest apparel in the Quad City area.
“We work with booster clubs all over the Quad Cities, some from very large schools,” said Dlouhy. “The West Liberty apparel sells more than anyone else and a lot of it is Josie working with us to design looks that people want to buy. They also have a very loyal following in their fans.”
Comet apparel is very popular in the community, and 100% of the proceeds from sales through the Booster Club go back to the organization. In the past year, the club partnered with West Elle Salon in downtown West Liberty to put their merchandise in the store. West Elle is owned by Rachel Morrison, and she gives the space to the club free of charge.
“Rachel Morrison has been very generous to us,” said Josie. “The Booster Club only gets money from apparel sold through our organization and having a store front has made it easier for people to shop our product.”
Another major event, the Rotary Gala, hosted in 2016 brought in over $35,000 in revenue. The West Liberty Rotary Club has been hosting the gala bi-annually for several years and each time selects a partner organization to help with planning and execution in return for splitting the proceeds. This was a one-time opportunity and is the main reason why the club can give such a generous gift to the athletic complex.
“The gala was major,” said Michele, who was on the planning committee. “We were beyond excited when Rotary selected us. It was a lot of work, but there’s no other event that can produce that type of revenue in one night. We’ve been waiting for the right opportunity to use the funds, and this project is a perfect fit.”
How Can You Support the Boosters
The Booster Club encourages all community members to join their organization. They do a membership drive each summer and are getting ready to mail out registrations and renewals. The more members the club has the more they can provide for student-athletes. It also increases the volunteer network, which is a critical driver of their success.
“We need members and volunteers,” said Trish Hall. “It doesn't need to be a big commitment, but we are constantly petitioning people to help staff concession stands. Even working one shift a season helps.”
Another way to support the club is by eating at concession stands and buying their apparel. These will be the largest contributors to revenue moving forward.
“Every time you buy a t-shirt or a hot dog, you are helping our student athletes,” said Jackie Buysse. “We always welcome financial donations, but even purchasing something from our club goes a long way. I’m a teacher and I love seeing all my students decked out in our Comet apparel.”
For more information on how you can support the West Liberty Athletic Boosters or help as a volunteer, contact the school administration office and Adam Loria will connect you to the club officers.
Contacts:
Shaun Kruger, West Liberty Superintendent 319-627-2116
Adam Loria, West Liberty Activities Director 319-627-2116