Each team gets around $400 per year for their trips, significantly
less than the roughly $800 it costs for each trip. Fundraising
activities during the year include car washes, bottle drive,
raffles, selling Fruits of the Earth, bake sales and having a
table at Christmas bazaars.
Then, there are the teams that play at provincial levels.
The Senior Boys did fund raise, but that still wasn't enough
when it cost close to $6,000 to go to the provincials. Since
it is so expensive for a team to play at such an elite level,
why isn't there a fund set aside so that they are not trying
to fund raise and practice at the same time? In the future, the
school plans to write a letter to the board, proposing that a
fund be set aside for a team at an elite or provincial level.
Teams don't rely only on the school board for funds though,
they also receive money from the students at the Port Hardy Secondary
School. When they plunk their money into the vending machines
in the front foyer, 70% of the money goes to the athletics department
and the other 30% goes to leadership programs. The 70% from the
machines covers things such as equipment, registration for tournaments
and paying the referees, but none of the money is allowed to
go towards the cost of travel.
Unfortunately, the athletics department is not receiving as
much money as it has in past years. In previous years, it has
received as much as $1,200 per month. Now we are down to as little
as $200 per month due to vandalism and the cafeteria.
"Our isolation is what hurts us," said Mr. Tinney,
"if all we had to do was play NISS, then our fund pot would
be massive."
For a team to travel and cover the cost of a teacher, transportation,
ferry cost, rentals, meals and accommodation. If the teams are
paying all this money to play away games, then why aren't there
more home games? It is more beneficial for students from our
school to travel to other communities because they can play more
than one team. But when a team comes to Port Hardy, there are
only two teams that they can play.
Some teams choose to do no fundraising and pay for the travel
expenses all out of their own pockets. The Junior Boys basketball
team trained extremely hard and placed in the Area 3s, but talking
to the players they said that they did no fundraising. However,
parents of the players and coach did raise money by holding a
bingo game. The students who don't have the money to pay for
are still eligible to play and travel with the team. They can
get their funds through the vending machines.
"I believe all teams should fundraise, so they can go
where want to go," says athlete, Jonny Trirogoff.
Team uniforms are among the costs to the sports teams as well.
About 3 or 4 years ago, the coaches of the basketball teams ordered
new uniforms worth $5,000. So unless the teams plan to some serious
fundraising, they can kiss their hopes of getting new uniforms
soon goodbye.The two new soccer teams from last year put in many
hours of hard work raising money for their uniforms.
"It (fundraising) is fun and it's a good experience,"
says team member, Selena George.
The school year is well underway now and all the sports teams
and clubs have to decide what they are going to do to raise money
for their activities during the season. This year, the teams
are likely to face the same problem of trying to find coaches
and the support they need to get the team up and running. Fundraising
will always be a problem for the teams. It will be great to see
how each teams does in their season and how far they go.
Caption:
Get 'em while their hot! Nathan Babcock arid Leroy Ross selling
what they can to raise money for the skate park. photo a corbel |