The Viking Coaches Corner
The Viking Coaches Corner originates out of Lake Odessa, Michigan. Join the voice of the Lakewood Vikings, Kurt Ackerson, as he sits down with our sports teams and gets the latest from coaches and athletes.
This podcast is recorded at Buddy's on the Beach located at 1223 Lakeview Dr., Lake Odessa, MI. We will be meeting every Tuesday night at 6 p.m. to record the next session. Come join us as we talk sports with coaches and players.
We hope you enjoy the podcast.
The Viking Coaches Corner
Episode 7 - Introducing the Lakewood Athletic Association!
Welcome to a special Viking Coaches Corner Podcast! Kurt sits down with members of the Lakewood Athletic Association at Buddies on the Beach and learns about how they support the Lakewood Public Schools.
The LAA is a registered non-profit that returns 100% of the proceeds back into the Lakewood sporting program. The LAA is made up of board members and trustees. But, if you have donated to the LAA, consider yourself part of the bigger picture and the support behind this amazing program!
You'll get an inside "heard it here first" announcement about the next Car Party and enjoy a little Go Blue/Go Green elbowing along the way.
So, sit back and enjoy some history on the LAA and find out how much money they have put back into the Viking sports program. Thank you LAA for being on the show and for your dedication to the Lakewood Vikings.
Welcome to a special edition of the Viking Coach's Corner. Today Kurt sits down with representation from the Lakewood Athletic Association to discuss who they are and what their role is with the Lakewood Athletic Department. I personally think back to 1992 when the LAA sponsored my high school team with Kurt and Entry Money to play summer baseball in Grand Rapids to further our abilities. We appreciate the dedication of the LAA and want to formally introduce them to you. So grab your favorite coffee and enjoy the interview.
SPEAKER_02:Hello, welcome to the Viking Coach's Corner. I'm your host, Kurt Ackerson, and tonight I'm sitting down with members of the Lakewood Athletic Association. With us tonight, we have Rick Bump, President.
SPEAKER_01:Carrie Carter, Vice President, Tom Ricer, Treasurer.
SPEAKER_03:How long has the LAA been in existence? Since March of 1982 is when it was formed. So what's that? 42 years?
SPEAKER_05:43 years.
SPEAKER_02:I went to Grand Ledge by mass. Yeah, we can't. A little bit off.
SPEAKER_03:Go green. And I've been on the board since 1997, and I can't remember how long I've been the president. It seems like a long time.
SPEAKER_02:1997, that's the year Michigan won the national championship in football. Anyway, who were some of the original members, Mr. Riser?
SPEAKER_04:Well, when Tim Wood came to Lakewood and he was here, he was the one that spearheaded forming our group and to fundraise. So Tim Wood, we had, I think, Bob Cobb's the second. Bob Corp from Sunfield. Mr. Knapp from Sunfield. Denny Cook was a local pharmacist in Lake Odessa. Denny served. Joel Pepper was a local insurance agent in Lake Odessa. He was one of the founding members. I believe Jay Kimball. And there was quite a few. I believe there was 12, the first board. There was actually 12 people. Was Phil McClellan one of them? No, Phil was not one of the originals. I got on in 19, in the fall of 1983, I started my term. And probably within the next three, four years, most all the probably half or more of the original board members stepped down. They just wanted to be on it for a short term, get it rolling. Then they they stepped down, and it's kind of been a for quite a few years we had a pretty consistent turnover of board members at the at the first probably oh ten years or so.
SPEAKER_02:So you've been on it pretty much since you got out of high school now?
SPEAKER_04:Well, I graduated in 80, so I was out three years. But so I was 21 years old when I got on the board.
SPEAKER_03:He's the longest board member currently on the then I think it's Evie, Sharon, and myself that drops down that far.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah.
SPEAKER_03:Why was the LAA formed in the first place? Well, it was formed to promote athletics among the you know the general citizens, you know, that for sports for Lakewood to buy things they needed, extra braces, things like that, ankle bracels, helmets, pads, softballs, baseballs, wrestling stuff for the weight room.
SPEAKER_02:Golf bags.
SPEAKER_04:The problem back then was the cost of having sports was getting so expensive. Yeah. Equipment was getting so expensive. They needed help. The state was giving less money to the schools. The federal government had been cutting budgets that went to schools. So the athletic directors were given less money from the school's budget to run athletics with. Then that's when they had to start, they wanted to start fundraising and helping out to get, and we what we what we were supposed to be was for the extras. You know, we were we were to they could buy the cake and we'd frost it. But it's it's becoming more and more to where now we're buying big ticket items. We're buying the cake. Yeah, and frosting it. There's not much frosting in there.
SPEAKER_02:So what are some of the bigger ticket items that you guys have purchased over the years?
SPEAKER_01:Well, we donated to Unity Field, the weight room, ball fields, tennis courts, the marquee in front of the high school, Jordan Lake Trail.
SPEAKER_02:Oh, really? The Jordan Lake Trail? I did not know that.
SPEAKER_01:Well, we knew the athletes over the years. Thank God no one has ever been hit running down the road, and we thought the trail would be a great place for cross-country track people to run on.
SPEAKER_03:So we were told that the sports would use that track or that trail.
SPEAKER_04:What's done has helped. What you know, the amount of the trail that's there has helped. But yeah, there was years uh, you know, we had a lot of coaches that instead of having the kids go out and run the cross-country course to get in shape, they run them up and down the road. That way they could buzz by them on their in their car and get down to the next mile. Oh, and they could time how long it was taking them to run a mile because they could run a mile, they could drive a mile up the road and sit there in their car with the stopwatch. And so we felt that the Jordan Lake Trail was a very worthy cause. And uh but yeah, the Unity Field was our big first or our first big where we we gave them$30,000 because they had no money, and they came to us first and said, We need to put some bait in, and we got to be able to show some of these other people that we've got monies coming in. So we promised$30,000, and uh we got to make three ten thousand dollar payments to them. And uh so that's when we started our uh we had to start our second fundraiser, which at that time was our LAA Raffle, to generate part of the extra ten thousand. But but then then uh we did one of our big projects has always been the weight room. We always when when we started they had a weight machine called the Universal Gym. I remember that. It was in the balcony of the gymnasium. That's the only weights the school had. So we started purchasing weight machines. And you know, now we've you know, this last weight room was part of the bond that passed years ago. And you know, it's nice, but a lot of that equipment is equipment we furnished, and then we've we've paid for a lot of things in the new weight room also. So uh the weight room's been very important to us, and uh because it kind of covers all sports. Well, all the sports use it. All the sports use it. Girls, boys, you name it. There's there's so it's a word weight because uh the we donated probably our second biggest donation at once was for uh the baseball fields when they redid the the varsity baseball field, and those were old like pole barn style dugouts. Uh they tore them down, they put the nice uh cement block dugouts in, and built the press box, put up a new backstop, new fencing, redid the field, seeded it. Uh but anyways, that was that was quite a bit of money, and we we we donated money to that. And then and then the rest of the money they needed they fundraised, and it was all volunteer work. Uh a lot of guys in the area that worked in the trades came and and donated their skill set to make that all happen. Um but then word got out that we had done that, and so then there was a Title IX claim filed that now we had to spend that money equally. Equally. So that then so we we had to roll up our sleeves and figure out okay, how are we gonna get we just gave all our money away, and now we gotta pay it for the softball dines. Well, we we did. And uh, you know, we made it work out to where we could make installments. So, but anyways, uh those were big, those were big purchases, and then the yeah, the Carrie mentioned the sign in front of the high school, the school sign. Uh that was always a big thing. Uh one of our current principals was really pushed for that, and he worked on it a long time, and we finally we were able to uh give them quite a bit of money towards that. I don't know, I don't recall if we paid for the whole thing. I don't think we had to pay for all of it, but we probably paid for 75% of it to make it happen because, like I said earlier, the the school doesn't have the funds for stuff like that. So we've been trying the best we can.
SPEAKER_02:Well, those are very nice, very nice donations, and I'm sure the community really appreciates all of it.
SPEAKER_03:They support us very well at all our functions and our one fundraiser every year in March. So we have a huge turnout for that, a lot of donations for the party. That's where we raise most of our money for our one year.
SPEAKER_04:Well, all our funds come from one fundraiser now. We used to have two, but uh the raffle tickets are. The raffle, the trying to get a raffle license to the state of Michigan. Uh because it became harder. It just became harder because they wanted they wanted to see proof of all our monies, and I but then they they wouldn't accept like uh bank statements that shows everything. And they said no, we can't accept that, and it just became such a hassle to try to get the license that we decided that we just weren't gonna go that route anymore. We'll figure out another one here that we don't have to go through the state gaming and division and lottery division to get to to be able to do it.
SPEAKER_02:So how does one get a car party ticket from the LA? They can they're pretty tough to come by, I'm hearing.
SPEAKER_03:They have sold out fast in years past.
SPEAKER_04:Um, you know, I guess it's just word of mouth, if you want a ticket, you know the way our tickets are sold is is we have a mailing list. Yeah. Okay, back in '86, I believe, uh is about when that's when Evie David came on board. And Evie liked working with computers, and she came to some meetings and she says, you know, you guys are working way too hard at getting rid of these tickets. Because we used to have uh 12 board members with tickets in their pockets trying to sell them. And uh she says, You we need to make a mailing list and send out mailers to people. And so Evy said, I would gladly I'd like to do that for you. In fact, I think she volunteered to do that the year before she came on the board. And she did that for us, and then she she's done it ever since. She's done it ever since and a fabulous job. And the problem, the thing is, it's a it's it's a fabulous problem to have when you send your letters out, and four days later your 300 tickets are gone. So um, you know, that's that's really a really great problem to have.
SPEAKER_01:Um but if you've never been to the party and you want a ticket, you can get any of the members of LAA, and we can direct you to the right place. We can have Ebbie send you an invite.
SPEAKER_02:So when is the car party this year?
SPEAKER_01:It's the first Saturday in March, always.
SPEAKER_02:Every year.
SPEAKER_04:Every year, it's the first Saturday of March in the great state of Ohio.
SPEAKER_03:Yep. The great state, right.
SPEAKER_02:Well, I'm looking at some of the prizes here for the car party. There's$500 cash. A couple of them, a couple hundred dollars,$100 car wash, one hour massage, a whole bunch of great. Those are just door prizes. And you don't even have to be an attendance to win either. No, right?
SPEAKER_03:No. You can buy a ticket and have someone else be in charge of it, and anything you win, they bring back to you. So you uh don't have to be present. Yep. And if they want to know more about us, we meet the second Wednesday of every month, um, August through April, 7 o'clock at the high school in the media center. Media center, yeah.
SPEAKER_02:And also, if someone wants to donate to the LA, they can write a check too. Yep, show up at the meeting and they can specify.
SPEAKER_04:Right. And we've had when people have lost loved ones and they've had memorials, they've made the Lakewood Athletic Association their their memorial.
SPEAKER_02:Eddie Salazar comes to mind.
SPEAKER_04:Well, Eddie's one of many. Yes. Eddie Richardson. We have a we have a plaque, we have what we call our memorial board, it's hanging in the trophy cases out by the new gym at the high school, and any anytime we've somebody's made the LAA their memorial beneficiary, we put their their name on a uh on our plaque in the in the high school. So um, but we've yeah, we've had lots of that. You know, anybody can donate to us, and we would love that because like I say, we're always trying to think of new things to do at the car party to help add to our income down there, um to our bottom, or to our you know, our bottom line, because every year, you know, if you if you just go down there and keep making the same amount of money with the way inflation's been going, um, pretty soon we're buying less and less all the time with it. But uh, you know, our first few years of of the car party, we made five to seven thousand dollars for the first quite a few years going down there. And you know, it's it took us a while to get up to where we were above ten thousand, and then pretty soon we hit twenty thousand, and then then uh before we hit thirty thousand, COVID hit. And uh that year we didn't weren't we were not able to have the car park. And uh so that next that following year was kind of you know, there wasn't a lot we could do to help, but because of COVID, sports were shut down, school was shut down, so we didn't get asked for a lot. So uh we made it through that year. But then the next year, people really missed not being able to go to the car party that year. So the next year when they came, they were ready to go. They were ready to go, they were ready to go, and the tickets went fast, uh and people came down and donated their money, and we made like$40,000. And so now we're been hitting$40,000,$41,000,$42,000 uh the last three. So we're making nice money down there, but what forty thousand dollars does now, you know, back in '82, when the you know, you could have done the same thing in '82 with about eighteen thousand.
SPEAKER_02:So the LAA is great financial support for Lakewood Public Schools, but you guys are more than that. To me, I always see you guys at all the athletic events, and you guys are just as big a fan as everyone else. And Gary, you're a girls' tennis coach in the spring?
SPEAKER_01:Yep.
SPEAKER_02:What other special events does LAA provide strictly for the students?
SPEAKER_01:Um, we contribute every year to project graduation. We give out a Stan Courtney Award, and we participate in many community activities, and we also give out two athletic scholarships.
SPEAKER_02:So, what's the criteria you're looking for for candidates for those athletic scholarships?
SPEAKER_01:Well, there's an application that they fill out just like any other um applications for scholarships, right at the counseling office at the high school. I believe you have to participate in two varsity sports and have a GPA of 3.25.
SPEAKER_04:I I don't recall exactly what it is. I don't have that paperwork with me, but um it's it's you know, it's it it is what it is. It's it's supposed to be, you know, you gotta you you gotta work at it and you gotta earn it as a student. And uh, you know, now the way things are nowadays, it's it's kind of important for kids to earn it.
SPEAKER_02:Yes.
SPEAKER_01:And we love it if kids apply for it. We really do.
SPEAKER_02:We usually get quite a few that apply every year.
SPEAKER_01:Some years not.
SPEAKER_03:Some years not.
SPEAKER_02:So do you pick uh male and female, or does it really matter?
SPEAKER_01:Not necessarily.
SPEAKER_02:Okay.
SPEAKER_04:We used to try to go one male and one female, but if if we yes, we always had a male and a female, and now it there was years where there wasn't any males that applied. Or there was a year where none of the girls applied. Um, we don't know why. They just, you know, I don't know. But so there was there was years where two guys got it because we didn't have a girl that applied. And because we have two$1,000 scholarships to hand out every year. So but you know, and uh, but they have to meet the criteria, and uh sometimes I I don't know, I think the community service is a big that's a big thing, too, on on our application, you know, and I don't know if it's kids aren't sure what they're if they've done any community service.
SPEAKER_03:We just don't want to hand them the money and say, here for doing nothing.
SPEAKER_04:Right. Well, we you you're not teaching them anything.
SPEAKER_03:We want them to show that they're out there trying to do something.
SPEAKER_02:So you guys also have a GPA pizza party too. Could you talk about that?
SPEAKER_03:Go ahead. Sharon Krause usually follows that up.
SPEAKER_01:Well, she every year we have a GPA according to your grade point average. If you I don't even know for sure what it is, I think it's 3.0 on the first semester of school. Uh you make that. We we come out to the school during all the lunches and hand out pizza, water, the certificate. Yep. The kids really appreciate it, they're so nice, and they always say thank you and polite and but kid doesn't like pizza.
SPEAKER_02:I know, really. They'll be eating pizza tomorrow night at the volleyball match, too. Probably. So has the community been willing to assist in your fundraising? Oh yeah.
SPEAKER_04:Oh yeah, the community is tremendous. Um, all the door prices at our car party, things get donated to us for the car party. By the merchants. And, you know, we go around, we ask, you know, we knock on their doors. Uh and they, even though their doors are getting knocked on probably weekly by some group, they still give to us. But they've been giving to us for 40-some years, and it's just incredible. Uh, we have a lot of people in the community that donate items that we can auction because in our car party we have an auction. So we stop halfway through the drawing and we hold an auction. And uh Bill Wilson, he uh him and his father owned an auctioneering service for years, and Bill has comes to our car party every year, and he volunteer he he does our auction for us. And uh we auction items off, and we've been making I'm gonna off the top of my head, we've we average around six to eight thousand dollars a year down there on items that are donated to us that we can auction off. And that's just a big that's a big thing, and that's everybody in the community. That's not just our businesses. We have people that come down to the car party every year, and sometimes we don't know they're bringing something. They show up and they carry it out to us and they say, Here, auction this off, and you guys take the money. Okay, you know, so the yeah, the our community the community is great, you know. Um and we for being a small school district and with four small rural communities, you know, uh, I think we do well. And I know that we couldn't be as successful as we are without our local our local people and uh the merchants and the just the community, the people that come and buy the tickets and come to our party. And they know it's for the kids, it's not for you know, none of the board members have a salary, you know. We're just we donate our time and our efforts to making sure that this stuff goes down.
SPEAKER_02:Carrie, how do LAA members become personally involved in the athletic programs? I know one way, you're the girls' tennis coach, and Evie's a used to be a golf coach. What are some other ways?
SPEAKER_01:Well, we do take tickets at all the boys' basketball games, the home ones, and now football. And now we do football too.
SPEAKER_02:Yes, because who used to do the football? They don't lions club.
SPEAKER_04:Well, the Lions Club, but the like all local support groups, they're getting old. They're the the young people don't think of joining those things, and uh they they don't, they don't get involved in the community, and uh the Lions Club members are aging, and uh it's hard to get volunteers to come out and stand in the cold on a Friday night and sell tickets to get into the football games. So they came to us this year and asked if we would do it. So um, Matt Aldrich, we're excited that you know we we're getting to work with a new athletic director, and that's not saying anything bad against the the previous ones.
SPEAKER_02:Well, we have an athletic director that has family roots deep lot of years in Lincoln School District, right?
SPEAKER_04:But it's nice though that I mean he came to us and says, Hey, I I I need I need to be bailed out here, I need a hand. And we said, okay, give us the schedule and we'll we'll put our we'll fill it for you. So that's we're we're doing football games. I don't know if it's gonna be continued. Hopefully, maybe another group will step up and take that on in the in the future. So anybody listening to this podcast, if you've got a support group and you want to help uh next fall, contact the AD this year, anytime. You can call them tomorrow and say starting next fall, we'd like to take the tickets at the football games.
SPEAKER_03:And if they take tickets at games, I don't know how many they have to do, they get free tickets for a pass to get in.
SPEAKER_02:Yes, I think you have to work six events or six games, I think. Don't quote me on that.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah, and that's all Lakewood sports that they can get into. So yeah.
SPEAKER_02:What is the typical average expenditure for the last five years? What is the income for the LAA?
SPEAKER_01:Well, we normally, well not normally, but in the last five years as prices have gone up for everything, we have spent almost$38,000 a year to our coaches and sports teams. That includes also, like I said, our scholarships that we do, uh project graduation.
SPEAKER_02:Over the course of your history, how much money would you say the LAA is given to Lakewood Public Schools?
SPEAKER_04:Well, we we did the we did the uh adding. We got pulled out the old dusty adding machine the other day, and we added stuff up, and uh we're up to about one one point one nine million. Wow. I'll say that again one point one million one hundred and ninety thousand dollars. That's awesome.
SPEAKER_03:Uh in 23 we hit a million dollars for the LIA. That was when we had the article in the paper, and that was our one million.
SPEAKER_04:We've uh yeah, we've we've worked hard over the years. It doesn't get easier. You know, we have a lot of people out there that like I say, it's been when you go to the car party, there's people that have been there for 40 of them. You know, I mean 40 years, some have never missed one. Right, and yeah, that's just a great thing.
SPEAKER_01:But we would really like to see some of the younger kids get involved. Correct. Some of the parents that are got high school students or even middle school students get more involved with it, even coaches too. We realize the first Saturday of March usually is during wrestling and cheerleading. However, other coaches we would love to have down there, or if they would just like to donate items that we could put in our auction, um, we would love that.
SPEAKER_02:So, would it be possible to expand the number of tickets that you could sell as to the party? Well, or is seating limited?
SPEAKER_04:It seating is fairly limited, it's a big place. Um and you know, it's it's a it's a beautiful facility. We call it the party room, where we have it, and you're right in a hotel, so if you want to go back to your room, you can go back to your room. And uh, you know, so it's a it's a beautiful facility for what we're doing. They do it so cheap for us down there. Uh years ago we looked at doing it in Michigan, and there was not a place in Michigan that could hold the vent that big or that would do it for the per head cost that we pay to have it down there. Uh everybody else here, this was probably around the 1990, right around 1990, that we were looking to see about trying to find a place in Grand Rapids or Lansing or someplace closer. But the Mount Pelier location, Mount Pelier, Ohio, it's it takes two hours to get there. It's not a long drive, it's an easy drive to get there. And you can spend the night. A lot of our people, they probably I'm gonna say 70% of our people come down on Friday. Spend the night Friday night. The party is Saturday, they spend the night Saturday night, and they come home on Sunday. So it's it's a nice little getaway on the first Saturday of March.
SPEAKER_02:Now there's a place to have a pool and a hot tub, and yes, a whole nine yards. Yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_03:It's got an indoor, restaurant, a bar. Yeah. And your ticket price gets a meal. I mean, they serve food the entire time the auction and the party's going on, and your drinks and you know, pop and whatever.
SPEAKER_01:So that's included in on your ticket.
SPEAKER_04:Right. This year, our our our our ticket price. You know, I'm letting it out of the bag right now, but uh our ticket prices have been uh$150 since 2000. Something like that. From since the year 2000, and we raised the prices of the tickets this year$25. So our car party ticket is$175. We still offer the$50 guest pass. And so for your$150 ticket, you have a chance of winning. Plus, it's open bar, it's a food. We have buffet foods, uh, they they set up this endless nice food buffet, and it's all you can eat. You can keep going back as much as you want. And uh, but then they also that$50 guest pass gets you that also. So you're in for the the drinks and the food. But you you don't have a yeah, you don't have a uh plant to win the money. You can yep, because of our auction. So because yeah, that's we what we do too at the car party is every 25 tickets get drawn out, we stop drawing and ask if anybody wants to sell their raffle ticket or their their car party ticket. And you know, we we get four, five, six tickets brought up every time, and we we Bill comes up and he auctions them off. Once we get halfway through the drawing, at the 150 mark, when we stop and we have that big our uh door prize auctions. And when we start the drawing again, when we start up for the second half of the drawing pulling tickets, we can stop drawing at any time and sell tickets.
SPEAKER_03:You can buy your own ticket back if you don't take it back.
SPEAKER_04:If you don't like the price, you just pay the 10% commission and buy it back.
SPEAKER_01:Or if you're not in the drawing anymore.
SPEAKER_04:Yeah, right. Well, that's what happens is people's tickets get drawn out. They don't pay back in, they start buying tickets when they come up for sale, and we make a 10% commission on every ticket sale. So, you know, that's uh you know, a$400 ticket makes us 40 bucks. And uh, but it's just it's neat. Uh it's a friendly, friendly fundraiser. Everybody's there having fun. Nobody's mad, nobody's ornery, and it's all going to a great cause.
SPEAKER_02:Right.
SPEAKER_01:And afterwards, there's uh DJ, there's dancing, and if you make it to midnight, there's breakfast. We serve you breakfast too.
SPEAKER_02:So how does one become a member of the LAA?
SPEAKER_04:Usually there's 12 board members. We have we have an auxiliary board too. So if somebody wants to be a part of the LAA, they can be on the auxiliary board. They can be on the auxiliary board, they can come, they can listen, they've got you know, they can give input to things at our meetings. Um, I do not believe an auxiliary board member can vote unless we're short of having a quorum. If we don't have a quorum. And then but they can come help us at the car party. Um we don't turn down any help at the car party.
SPEAKER_03:We can use all the help we can get.
SPEAKER_04:We're blessed to that we've got family. I mean, all of us that all the board members, just about every one of our spouses, help out that when when if you're if you're on the Lakewood Athletic Association board, your spouse is on the board because your spouse is helping, whether it's they come and sit there with you and take tickets at basketball games. My wife has been with me. Uh she's done. Poor lady. Yeah, poor lady is right forever. I'm sorry, Shelly. But she uh, you know, she's been at she's she took the last two years before this year, Shelly took tickets at football games for the Lions Club. She volunteered to do it. Um and it's because Shelly and I are on, we're both uh members at large of the Lions, the Lakewood Lions Club. So she does she's been doing tickets for two years at football games. So now this year it gets thrown, it gets we take it on, I should say. It's how I should say it. But anyways, uh this year she's done all the home football games. Well, the one she didn't because we were up north. But uh yeah, we we've all got spouses that volunteer. Our wives work at the party, or the husbands work, everybody helps out because it takes more than the 12 people to get it done.
SPEAKER_02:Lakewood fans, if you see an LAA member at a football game, basketball game, shake their hand. Tell them thank you for all they do to the community, and they're just more than that, too. They're fans. I mean, you all went to Lakewood High School, you've had kids that graduated from Lakewood High School, grandkids. Grandkids.
SPEAKER_04:Well, one of the great grandkids. One thing you know, over the years, we now have uh our uh Lakewood Athletic Association Facebook page. Um so usually the next morning or even the same night when Evie gets home, she's got it on our Facebook page what we did at that meeting, how much money we spent. Uh and when we're spending money, it's for the it's for the Lakewood sports. It's yeah, it's for the communities, you know, for the kids. But what what we'd like to see, and I think is important, because I know for years, I mean uh 43 years I've been on the board. You know, coach will come and ask for you know a thousand dollars for something. Or nowadays that thousand dollars is the three thousand dollar ask. And you know, we give it to them. And I personally, as a as a treasurer, and I ask kids, hey, coach tell you where that came from? Nope. Well, you know what? I think it's high time that the coaches at Lakewood, if you've got the time and you want, you've got the you can take the effort to come to our meeting and ask us for a big dollar project for whatever, um, you need to let your players know where that came from. Or send an email out. Let your the parents and your players know where that came from, who paid for it, because when we're out there trying to fundraise and do things, it's important that people in our community understand what what we do and where boy where that new wrestling matter, where that new uh so if a coach wants to get some money from the LAA, what's the proper protocol?
SPEAKER_02:They have to come to the meeting.
SPEAKER_01:Nope, there's a process before you even come to the meeting. You have to get a form from the athletic director, sit down and talk to him about it, and he has to sign off on it first.
SPEAKER_04:He has to approve it.
SPEAKER_01:Yep, and then you come to the meeting. Usually people have quotes from if they're buying equipment from vendors and show us what they need, where they'll store it. We ask them lots of questions. We don't make it too easy on them. Then we vote on it.
SPEAKER_03:Well, you shouldn't. I mean, no, we make them work for their money, so well.
SPEAKER_04:Well, storage for years, storage was a problem, and it still is. You know, uh, you know, they wanted more equipment, so we we we were buying them equipment, and the equipment was sitting out year-round. Um, they weren't putting it away. Uh, but they really didn't have a place to put it. And uh, but now since that bond passed years ago and they they built the secondary gym, there's a whole storage room in that gym. Uh, and there's each each sport has their area. Individual cage. And they they put the the there's a pole barn out by in Unity Field that's used for storage uh for track and for football items. It's unbelievable what track equipment costs. Unbelievable. And it's bulky, you know, you all those hurdles, pads for the high jump and for the pole vault. That stuff is big. It takes a lot of space to store, and it's that's you know, they need storage spaces, and but anyways, what I'm getting at is there's those coaches have to say, this is where we're gonna keep it. We've got a plan, we thought it out, you know, and uh and so then we we vote on it, and it's not very often that we vote no. Not very it's done very, very few.
SPEAKER_01:And we love to hear that the coaches a lot of them will say, I've done my fundraising, we're just a little bit short. Um, but we love it because they do do their fundraising, a lot of them do. They really do. And not say anything against what Tom just said, but we do have coaches that will send us a thank you or a picture of the item that we bought them, and there are some that do oh right, right.
SPEAKER_04:Yeah, there are, but there's there's a lot of them out there. I mean, you talk to the kids, there there are. There's we get thank yous from some teams where every kid is signed a thank you card. But but you know, that happens once a year.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, and well, as a voice of Lakewood and being involved in about every sport, I appreciate all that you guys have done over the years for our student athletes. Thank you.
SPEAKER_04:Yeah, well, thanks for having us. Yeah, I think go green, go Vikings.
SPEAKER_02:I think that pretty much wraps up tonight's show. Thank you, and President Rick Bump, Vice President Kerry Carter, Treasurer Tom Riser. Thank you to Tommy and Judy Scheid, owners of Buddies on the Beach, for letting us do our show from here. Go lions tonight. Yes.
