By Don Murtha
If you could donate $20 to Kennedy High School’s athletic program and all you had to do is drive a new car, would you do it?
That’s the deal.
All you have to do is go to Hillyer’s Mid- City Ford dealer in Woodburn and drive a new car or pickup truck of your choosing and the Kennedy High School Boosters Club gets $20 to spend exclusively for the Kennedy High School athletic programs.
If 300 people drive a car each for five minutes, the JFK Booster Club gets $6,000. Considering the financial condition of the school’s athletic program, that is quiet a boost.
And Brandon Hillyer promises no heavy pressure to buy a car, no sales pitch, no gimmicks.
“Just get in and drive,” he said.
Hillyer is the local representative of the Ford Motor Company’s nation-wide program to help school athletic departments, most of which are in financial straits due to the economy.
Mount Angel School District Superintendent Troy Stoops reports that in the past four years the Kennedy High School athletic budget has declined by 12.5 percent from $212,003 in 2007-08 to $185,325 in the current year.
The driving fundraiser will be held Saturday, March 17 at the Hillyer parking lot in Woodburn.
“We have mapped out a route that takes five minutes so that everyone who comes can have time to drive a car,” Hillyer said. “This is absolutely not a sales event. Our goal is to introduce new Ford cars and use that as an opportunity to help the schools.”
The program came out of ideas from Ford headquarters in Detroit, Mich.
“We want people to be aware of what a good, sturdy vehicle Ford produces,” he said.
Drivers must be age 18 or older to participate in the test drives.
The program has been held at three other schools in the area: Woodburn, North Marion and St. Paul.
“We’ve had a great turn out at each one,” Hillyer said.
Kevin Moffatt, athletic director at Kennedy High School, said he will be driving a car at the event and most of the coaches will, too.
“What goes around, comes around,” he said.
He truly appreciates the support given by the Kennedy Booster Club and appreciates the club’s work in organizing the fundraiser.
“Our boosters are dedicated people. It’s unbelievable the time they put in without getting paid and their help is beyond value to us,” Moffatt said.
He said the boosters have supported each of the school’s athletic programs including football, boys and girls basketball, baseball, softball, volleyball, cross country, track, golf and cheerleading.
JFK Booster Club assistance extends to the Mount Angel Middle School sports activities also.
“The prices of equipment keep going up and our budget keeps going down,” Moffatt said. “We can’t afford the things we need, much less the things we would like.”
One item the schools must have is new baseball bats. Changes in the rules handed down by the 2A-3 Tri-River Conference say that bats now in use are no longer legal.
“That means that all schools have to buy new bats,” said Misti Faulhaber-Walker, who organized the Ford project for the Kennedy Boosters. “But it has been awhile since we replaced bats, so it’s time.”
Faulhaber-Walker said the booster club has a solid attendance at its meetings, including parents, non-members, coaches and Kennedy High School Principal Ben Merrill.
“The coaches come and tell us what they need and we try to get it for them,” Faulhaber-Walker said.
The booster club has recently purchased an automatic timing device for the schools as required by the league.
“The timing device will cost $1,500 but the conference says we have to have it for track and field events so that’s another expense that falls on the boosters,” Faulhaber-Walker said.
The club will pay for uniforms and will help cover expenses for teams that travel to state-wide meets, all items the school district budget does not cover.
The Ford fundraiser was initiated by Faulhaber-Walker and she presented the proposal to club president Tamela Unrein.
“We’re a small school, and often at a disadvantage, so we have to think outside the box for fundraisers,” Unrein said.
The Ford program suited Kennedy boosters very well.
“We have a really good booster club and they turn out for all of the sports in the schools,” she said. “Even if they’re not a member, all we have to do is call and we get a great response for anything we need help on.”
Faulhaber-Walker said about a year ago she heard about the Ford program and contacted the Hillyer dealership.
“They said they would be glad to help,” she said. “It was too late then for the fall season. We had to enroll so we couldn’t get in until spring. We were lucky to get in. The funds for the program are limited.”
To bolster the event the boosters enrolled sponsors. Among the sponsors are Northwest Behavioral Healthcare Services, Taylor Honda and Kawasaki, Mount Angel Sausage Co., The Glockenspiel Restaurant, Mount Angel NAPA and Wilco Farms.
“Some have pledge an amount for each person who drives a car, some have pledged a lump sum and some are undecided,” Faulhaber-Walker said.
In addition to the Ford fundraiser the boosters will have a “parking lot bake sale” and a car wash.
“Parents will be doing the baking and we should have a lot of goodies,” she said.
Unrein said the boosters hold a variety of fundraisers during the year and they always have a good response from parents and club members. In the spring, they will hold a Zumba exercise program in the high school gymnasium. A JFK Booster Club Golf Tournament is planned for later in the year at Evergreen Golf Course.
The club caters the Oktoberfest dinners by serving and bussing tables. They also cater the Oktoberfest Foundation dinner.
“We are trying to make as much money as possible. The athletic department needs our help and we will do what ever we can for anything that has to do with sports,” Unrein said.
