New club aims to boost Lake Roosevelt athletics

A group of people have been working this summer to start a new booster club to help with equipment and other needs for Raider athletic teams.

The LR Athletic Booster Club has a board of directors and all the legal paperwork completed, including having achieved non-profit legal status.

Now they’re in fundraising and membership-expansion mode.

President Kevin Portch says he’s been pleasantly surprised by the high level of enthusiasm he’s seen from many, “especially alumni.”

The group has already enlisted about 30 members so far, but gained about $1,800 in donations said Treasurer Tera Whitelaw. “The more members the better,” she said.

Whitelaw said a team of people have stepped up and given of their time. Sara Wapato is the organization’s secretary, Nate Krohn the vice president, and Patti Ayling and Lisa Carlson both board members at large. And former LRHS principal Brad Wilson, now principal at Chelan, was very helpful with advice for the effort, she said.

Whitelaw, an LR alumna who now has two athletic kids in the system, said she and others see a need to help “bring back some school pride.”

Toward that goal, the organization’s aim is to provide for all teams at Lake Roosevelt the funding for equipment and other sports-related expenses that the school district can’t.

That could include such items as new uniforms, for which the school currently has to rotate in the budget from year to year. Or hotel expenses when a team must travel to a district or regional tournament — from which they often have to bus home at night, only to return the next morning.

Because the club is not connected to students, as is the Associated Student Body’s booster club, it will have fewer restrictions on fundraising possibilities, such as offering raffles, Portch said.

The group is already offering those, currently for a quarter beef (donated by Egbert Cattle Co.) and a freezer (donated by Loepp Furniture and Appliance). And they just scored some Seahawks tickets for the Sept. 9 game in Seattle. Check with Portch at Loepps or Whitelaw at River’s Edge for tickets.

The organization is there to facilitate their fundraising, Portch noted, “but it’s going to have to be the parents of the teams doing it.”

He said the board will meet to decide on their next efforts soon.

The group used Parent Booster USA to smooth the transition of attaining non-profit status, a process that normally takes many months.