Fundraising for Fort Lee High School has had a “banner” year. With several community members donating their time and effort, the Fort Lee High School athletic programs have reaped the benefits.
Unfortunately, the Fort Lee Board of Education budget is insufficient to provide uniforms, new equipment, and other necessities for our athletic teams. While there are many people in the community who fail to understand the budget restrictions, there are others who have taken the initiative to remedy the situation. To the best of my knowledge, almost every community has fundraising programs to supplement the athletic budgets. For years, Fort Lee has badly trailed in these efforts.
The Fort Lee Board of Education has not been totally supportive in some of these fundraising efforts. In past years, Board member Joseph Surace, the resident curmudgeon, stonewalled the donation of an ice machine for the middle school field for use by the student athletes. Finally, after one year of delays, after the BOE finally established a new protocol to accept donations, the ice machine project was approved and the students have benefited for the last few years. In the fall of 2013, the Board rejected a potential deal for thousands of dollars when a local educational company wanted to place an advertisement on the middle school scoreboard. The ridiculous excuse tendered was that the Board (bored) Attorney was concerned about an “undesirable” company offering to place an advertisement on the scoreboard in the future. My answer remains that if “Hooters” wants to pay substantial money to advertise, I can live with its sign. Since many local communities use this form of advertising to raise funds, this excuse was particularly offensive, showing a small-minded, non-progressive type of thinking. At the most recent meeting on June 9, 2014, I brought this issue up again and received the usual “we have to talk about it” from President Yusang Park. Hopefully, the Board will eventually wake up and put 100% of its support behind these initiatives. If they would work half as hard at supporting fundraising efforts as they do handing out certificates of achievement (pure PR, while killing trees unnecessarily), we might actually have a bona fide fundraising program in Fort Lee.
The most recent fundraising effort yielded approximately $ 6,000, but will clearly improve next year in learning from the experience. Athletes from all the high school sports teams were requested to sell raffle tickets to community members at $ 10 per ticket. For those individuals still using an abacus, approximately 600 tickets were sold by these athletes, the coaches, and a select few community members that volunteered their services. That is an excellent beginning for a first year endeavor.
The prizes were accessed through the generosity of many local restaurants in Bergen County, New Jersey, who graciously donated gift certificates for the raffle. Additional prizes, e.g. Yankee tickets; Six Flag Great Adventure passes; a Cooperstown trip, Broadway Show tickets; Marriott/Fairway Inn free overnight stay gift certificates, etc. were donated by several local community members who should be acknowledged for their largesse:
The Tsoullis Family: Adam Cross; Ray Ruiz; Delia Maldonado; the Arnone Family.
Alan Keller, President of the Fort Lee Soccer League has been a major supporter and contributor to these fundraising efforts, offering his time and energy to every fundraiser. Tricia McKenna, President of the Fort Lee High School Athletic Booster Club, has encouraged these projects and has graciously allowed our independent fundraising group to use the resources of the Booster Club. Amber Flaim, a Fort Lee High School Alumnus, worked on designing the raffle tickets and printing them for the fundraiser.
Michael Raftery, Fort Lee High School Athletic Director, has worked with the community to coordinate these fundraisers and his efforts and support are greatly appreciated. Many high school coaches were instrumental in this fundraiser, not only in selling tickets but in soliciting prizes for the raffle. The success of this endeavor was in no small part due to the behind the scenes efforts of these exceptional coaches who continue to work hard to produce quality Fort Lee High School programs in women’s and men’s sports.
After fifteen years of coaching, I have established one fact clearly regarding Fort Lee. We have the greatest kids here, kids of whom we can be proud. They deserve only the best and it is our obligation to see that they get the best. Depending on our school board is futile; they will never have the resources available to fund all the extracurricular programs that enhance the existence of our children including but not limited to: sports; band; cheerleaders; color guard; Fanatics.
That leaves it up to community members to work together to make a difference, to pick up the slack. Unfortunately, there are too few community members willing to work on these projects. A second fact is that there are so many splinter groups competing with each other, instead of working together, that most of the fundraising has been trivial and ineffective. Every athletic program does independent fundraising instead of working as a “team”. If these programs are to truly succeed, there has to be a united effort. It is time to “cease and desist” on the dependency of “bake sales”; “candy sales” (note: the athletes mostly sell the candy to each other, i.e. really healthy); and tin cup sit-ins by athletes to collect pennies in front of Shop-Rite and A&P. Note: Clothing sales only return 10% to 15%, but they do build school spirit.
For the School Year 2014-2015, I propose a new era for Fort Lee High School fundraising, one where our sports programs and other extracurricular activities work together with a united front to create a program that is effective. Volunteers are needed, students and community members. Work is currently surging forward on the 2014-2015 Sports Journal. In you are interested in contributing to this effort, please contact Michael Raftery, Athletic director at FLHS.
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