The work of the Middletown High Booster Club is so constant as to sometimes be taken for granted. The club’s hundreds of members are present at every athletics fundraiser and provide services at many games. In short, the Middletown High Booster Club is always there. However, this does not mean their efforts should be seen in this light. The parents, coaches, teachers and fans of Middletown High athletics that make up the club are the backbone of Blue Dragon sports.
Booster Club President Ray Garbowski described the club as an umbrella group consisting of the separate organizations that support specific sports. These organizations are the Friends of….” groups at MHS. The Friends of Football, Friends of Girls Swimming and Friends of Boys Tennis are examples of such organizations. There are more than 25 groups making up the Booster Club.
“Having the individual booster organizations under the same umbrella allows for complete coordination between them,” said Garbowski. “At the same time, these organizations have their own accounts which allow them to choose the fundraisers their sport does and decide how they are executed.”
The sports teams participate in a number of different fundraisers. Car washes and bake sales are particularly popular fundraisers run by their specific booster organizations. One fundraiser which has become an annual tradition is the boys swim team selling of Lyman Orchard pies each fall in anticipation of Thanksgiving. That fundraiser supports the team’s training trip to Orlando each February. The pies fundraiser for the boys swim team is an example of a major fundraiser which has to be approved by the executive committee of the Booster Club before it takes place.
The Booster Club raises money through the concession stands they run at football and basketball games and other events such as all-day track meets and community soccer games. While the Booster Club earns its most money from the Greco’s Grill stand at varsity football games, they also make a decent amount of cash at basketball games and sometimes other events. Each event, the concessions are run by a rotating team of volunteers from the Booster Club and the ‘Friends of’ organizations.
The budget earned through the Booster Club concession efforts is used to sponsor three Sports Awards Dinners which take place at the end of each athletic season and pay for the Bilsamo Scholarship and Wilderman Scholarship, which are awarded to senior Athletes at the Senior Award Assembly each spring. The scholarships average $5,000 in total.
Though the Booster Club already does on a huge amount of work, Garbowski is looking to have the organization take on new projects.
“We’ve been brainstorming about new projects we could do for a little while now,” Garbowski stated. “The club is looking at putting a marquee out in front of the school which we could use to promote big games on. We also are thinking about lining the street with flags before games or getting a storage facility for our athletic teams and fields.”
As President of the Middletown High Booster Club, Garbowski understands he is the leader of a powerful organization that has a compelling affect on the MHS sports program and the lives of its athletes.
“We can provide a variety of services to the student athletes at the high school,” he said. “We are able to develop initiatives that support both student athletes and the school.”
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