At Jackson-Reed, sports and club teams constantly hold fundraisers to generate revenue partnerships with local businesses. Fundraisers are an effective way to bolster financial support while building camaraderie and school pride amongst the players and coaches.
Why are these fundraisers necessary for most of our school’s sport and club teams?
The DCPS Parent Teacher Student Organization (PTSO) are a group of parents and a select few school faculty members, who meet regularly to support the school’s goals and interests. The DCPS PTSO contributes funding towards a handful of team sports at JR, on top of funding non-athletic programs.
Despite important PTSO contributions to the school football team, “it is too much money for them alone,” said junior varsity football player Scott Messiah. Athletes and their parents are then tasked with raising money to supply equipment repairs, travel expenses, and team merchandise. To do so, parents of football and soccer players contribute money at the beginning of the season as their team dues.
Although the PTSO provides some money to Jackson-Reed’s DCPS organized sports, club sports receive no funding from the organization.
Girls lacrosse head coach Rosa Fuentes shared the importance of fundraisers for her team: “Without them we wouldn’t have a team at JR. Very few teams at JR receive money from DCPS/DCIAA; the rest need the funds to have a team.”
When prompted about her experience with external funding in comparison to other sports, senior captain of the girls varsity lacrosse team Phoebe Bradburn mentioned, “Some teams, like basketball and soccer … are heavily funded by the school itself. For lacrosse, we wouldn’t even have a bus to go to an away game without fundraisers.”
Restaurants nearby like Chipotle and Nandos in Tenleytown are willing to hold fundraisers to promote school sports with the use of a special order code or mentioning JR sports when checking out. Nandos does however receive a large margin of the profits gained in the fundraisers. Students enjoy working with local storefronts, as they can enjoy time eating with the team while raise money to promote and provide for future games and seasons.
While athletes and coaches would love to have more money (or any money) provided by PTSO to support their teams, students enjoy holding fundraisers. Recent successful sport team fundraisers included a popcorn fundraiser for football, two separate car wash fundraisers for girls lacrosse and boys varsity basketball, and crew’s holiday wreath fundraisers. Fundraisers play a crucial role at our school, they help bridge the financial gap for sports teams and strengthen our community.
