motoman432

Here's the only kicker. My farm is zoned ARL which is for agricutural use only. A sports field does not conform to the use rules so I starting a sod farm... and I'll have to sell off 1 field per year to conform with agricultural use. So since it's a gray area, we're not going to go public on our practice facility but we can go very public on supporting sponsors on our facebook page, website, live broadcasts, etc.

I hope that helps with some ideas. If you have any leads on sponsor help, I am happy to set up meetings with our board to discusss them.

Thank you for stepping up. I really appreciate it!

Gibby
aka Dale Gibbon, or as I am better known, Jackson's dad LOL!

Our team does have sponsorship opportunities so potential supporters do get a little back and we are all about loyalty. Our familes do support our sponsors with their dollars.

I am very interested in hearing what you may be able to help us out with which is why I gave you some details about what we are doing. None of our coaches or board members are paid a dime and we all sacrafice our time and money for these young kids. If we can get these fields built our kids will have a place to call home for practice and we can continue to develop our program. We also have a need for lighting. Practice go until November and it's dark early. Whether it be temporary lighting or permanent lighting, we are interested in anything.

I decided to donate to the teams use 5 acres of my farm for practice fields. I purchased some used equipment to do the work and our president has excavators from an old demolition company that he used to own. Purchasing the equipment tapped out my cash reserves! We have to raise money to cover the cost of seed (about $1500) and potentially irrigation. I might have access to an existing well from a neighbor and if I do, I need to get the well working and pipe in a sprinkler system. I haven't even priced this out yet. We are also going to need a good chunk of change for diesel. Todd, estimates that each field will require at least 40 hours of equipment time (not including the irrigation system). I roughly figure about 200 gallons of diesel per field!

The fields are going to be on private property. My farm is in Buckley, right near Maris Farms on Sumner Buckley Highway. The football organization is called the White River Raptors www.whiteriverraptors.com.

The club was started last season to provide a place for boys in the Bonney Lake/Buckley area to get well trainied in football and to become better mean through learning sportsmanship, team play and hard work. We have teamed up with the Green River Raptors from Green River Community College. This past season we did very well with every team making the playoffs. Currently another team has moved from Enumclaw, that had more money and influence and bumped us out of White River. We still have access to game fields but are struggling to confirm practice facilities. As a new team, we obviously have little money.