Email  Print

You can save middle school sports for $10

Valley forum

This is directed to all friends of Sonoma athletes:

  Can you imagine a community whose middle-school gyms are vacant and competitive athletics are available only to the elite few who can afford to pay to play?

  In response to a persistent and continued decline in state funding, our school district has been forced to cut all middle school sports for the coming school year. We now need everyone’s help to fill this funding gap.

  Each year, more than 360 girls and boys participate in soccer, basketball, volleyball, wrestling and track at Adele Harrison and Altimira middle schools. Sports at the middle school level are the essential source for a strong, spirited, high school athletics program. Without community support, our gyms will be empty and there will be no players, no mascots, no team managers, no fans, no coaches and no families cheering in the stands for Sonoma’s Hornets and Wolves. While the students are still eager to play and cheer, they need our help to restore middle-school sports for next year.

  Our need is $55,000 for the year, to reinstate all sports programs at both schools. We raised more than $26,000 at the May 12 fundraiser at Larson Winery, so we’re halfway there. Please help us raise the balance for the 2012-13 school year by June 30. Join our fan club by donating any amount – every dollar counts.

  Super fans who sponsor at or above the $500 donation level will receive recognition on a banner in each school gym. A “diamond” fan donor of $5,000 or more will get to sponsor an entire team for the season – you pick the school and team.

  Anyone who has participated as a student athlete, and any family with a student athlete, knows the importance of an athletics program for the children of our community.

  Through athletics, students learn important life skills, including good sportsmanship, commitment, goal setting and teamwork. School sports are an equalizer, enabling students from all backgrounds to work together to achieve one goal. Please help us restore our middle-school athletic programs by generously supporting our fundraising efforts and becoming a member of our fan club.

  Go to adeleharrison.org and click the “Donate” button to make a secure, online, tax-deductible contribution to be shared by both middle schools. You’ll also find an optional hard copy donation form on the site you can print, complete and mail in. There are also answers to frequently asked questions about SOS and our middle-school sports programs.

  Save Our Sports Committee, for Adele Harrison and Altimira middle schools, is an all-volunteer, non-political grassroots committee formed to raise the funds needed to restore athletics at Altimira and Adele. Sponsorship donations are 100 percent tax deductible through the umbrella of the 501(c)(3) middle school Parent Teacher Organizations. For more details, contact Kate Eagles at 888-9322, or email eagles11@mindspring.com.

Imagine if every household in Sonoma, every person reading the paper today, donated just $10. It would surely seal the deal.