HHS Booster Club auction set for Friday
HUNTLEY — The Huntley Athletic Booster Club will host a fund-raising silent auction event April 21 at Huntley American Legion, 11712 Coral Street.
Doors open for bidding at 6 p.m. and the event runs until 9 p.m. Raffle winners will be drawn about 8:45 p.m.
“The auction is our primary source of fundraising for spring,” HHS Booster Club President Shannon Corso said. “Every ounce of funds raised will go directly back to our student athletes in one form or another.”
Auction items that could draw interest, club officials said, include several “basket” prizes: golf course prizes for foursomes packages to six different area golf courses; reserved student parking spots; BBQ baskets; gym memberships; sporting events and museums; many baskets with gift cards to local establishments. Raffle tickets may be purchased for jewelry items, spin the wheel, spoon pull, and a 50-50 raffle.
HHS Athletic Director Glen Wilson commented on the support from the Athletic Booster Club.
“We are extremely grateful of the terrific support generated by the HHS Athletic Boosters Club,” Wilson said. “Their support of our student athletes and dedication to the club and their signature event is incredible.”
There have been many recent Athletic Booster Club contributions in recent years.
“Our recent contributions have been to our boys and girls wrestling teams, who were in desperate need of a new, full-sized wrestling mat for almost $11,000,” Corso said. “The basketball teams asked for help purchasing HUDL system which captures video to analyze and learn from that data. We will be helping the lacrosse teams purchase their achievement-goals banners they would like to place in the weight room.”
Also, a five-person football practice sled, weight room upgrade; track and field team warm-ups; mirrors for the dance team; swimming record boards; golf bags and a softball scoreboard.
“The best news is we have purchased a concession stand golf cart,” Corso said. “This will enable us to access the other fields, like frosh-soph soccer and lacrosse, baseball and softball fields, even the tennis courts. We will be able to bring hot chocolate to the frozen fingers of the spring sports fans outside of the stadium fences.”
There is one hurdle, though, to all the help from the HHS Athletic Booster Club – the need for more parent involvement.
“I can’t stress this enough,” Corso said. “We are a school of more than 3,200 students with over half of them being involved in the athletic program in some way. At our meetings, which are the first Wednesday of each month at 7 p.m. Typically it is the board members, our chair-people and perhaps three to four parents.”
She added, “I think a lot of the parents don’t know that your student’s sport needs to be represented at our meetings if they would like to come to us with a request for help. If soccer and-or lacrosse would like cement for their benches, they need to have representative at most of our meetings. As an example, the head wrestling coach (BJ Bertelsman) was present at many of our meetings or had a parent there to represent the sport, so when they came to ask for a new full-sized wrestling mat, it was a no brainer and we funded the whole expense. They did not need to do fundraising on their own, as a team, to replace it. That is what we are here for and that is what parents need to know.”
In addition to Corso as president, current 2022-23 school year Athletic Booster Club officers are, Vice President Carrie Padgett; Treasurer Katrina Tdouksls Heitkemper; Secretary-Special Events Melanie Ottaciano; Concessions Chair Jay Baedke; Social Media Karen Gajnewski and for spirit wear, Ana Winger and Heather Carter.
