Here at Gates we try our best to keep fees down. Fundraising is one way we are able to do it. Football is expensive to start as we have the latest up to date helmets. Every two years we get all of our helmets recondition for player safety which cost us about $22.00 a helmet. Every year we have to purchase new helmets based on the size we may not have enough of. Shoulder pads is another expense and we will need to purchase more this year.
Fundraising helped us with the purchase of the New Scoreboard at Ironbridge Park. We will also need to purchase new pads for the sleds and new dummies as we have gotten away without buying any for at least 6 years. We also started to lose space and were able to purchase the two storage containers one at Gates and the other at Ironbridge.
These costs are never put into the registration fees as it would be too high for us to even play. Fundraising helps to keep the cost down and is much easier to do as I know a lot of folks will support the kids.
We also have held three Golf Tournaments the last three years and we need to get more support as this is a big fundraiser for our Gates Athletes. The more support and teams we can get to play Golf will also help in not doing as much fundraisers per sport as the Golf Tournament could take on a lot of our expenses.
The Sheehy Ford is another Big One! We fell short last year in meeting our target. Which resulted in less fundraiser funds.
So this year we will need to go back to the individual Fundraising per sport. We will still try the other Fundraisers in hopes to get a stronger turnout.