Field turf is coming to Mt. Pleasant’s Community Memorial Stadium.
Fundraising for the Pillars of the Community Stadium Improvement Project officially kicked off with an hour-long presentation by standing committee member Josh Wheaton Wednesday morning at Hunter’s Ale House in Mt. Pleasant.
Over the course of the next six months the goal is to raise $750,000 for new synthetic field turf at Community Memorial Stadium, located adjacent to Mt. Pleasant High School and home to both the Oilers and Sacred Heart Academy football teams.
Cost targets also include a new scoreboard, track and field updates to the pole vault pit, long jump and high jump areas and an update to the entrance on the northwest side of the facility.
“It’s our first event to create awareness for the project,” said Wheaton. “There will be more events coming, but this is the first one. We want to get the fundraising done by April 1 (2015) so they can break ground by May 1. We want the entire project to be funded by the community and any in-kind work to be done by local businesses. That’s how the original stadium was built (in 1965) and that’s how we want to do it again.”
Besides the Mt. Pleasant and Sacred Heart varsity teams, Community Memorial Stadium plays host to the junior high and Rocket football teams.
The sheer volume of games played on the field year-in and year-out has been a topic of discussion for years and is an issue the new project seeks to address and correct.
Wheaton said $102,000 has already been verbally committed to the project and the plan is to raise additional funds by selling bricks that would go towards a donor wall on the northwest side of the field.
Cost for a 4-inch by 8-inch brick is $250 and includes three lines of text while an 8 x 8 brick with five lines of text would cost $1,000. Additionally there would be 10 short connecting pillars available for purchase at $10,000 per pillar.
If the initial sale of bricks and pillars goes as planned Wheaton said it would raise $527,000 towards the project which is a great head start.
No school district financial contributions will go towards this project as it will be strictly funded through the Mt. Pleasant community and alumni and friends, including football teams ranging from Rocket up to the varsity programs, soccer and track and field teams as well as the Mt. Pleasant band.
With new field turf Mt. Pleasant would save $15,000 to $20,000 per year in maintenance cost and open the possibility of hosting more postseason football games and soccer matches.
From: http://www.themorningsun.com/general-news/20140924/fundraiser-aims-for-field-turf-at-mt-pleasant-stadium
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