As we’ve been progressing through the summer, you’ve probably seen our messages surrounding the 7-night vacation rental giveaway. But I’m sure there are questions of “why” floating around.
Our team, much like other youth athletic programs, relies on our team dues to exist. We also rely on partnerships we create within the community. The year before COVID the team was 100+ strong, and a few years before that the team had been more than 150 members strong. In the past few years, our team numbers have been around 60 members.
Each season we are responsible for paying lifeguards for hours worked (including meet hours) and our coaches. We also need to pay our share for league insurance and awards.
Rising Costs; Rising Needs
As you all have experienced, we give out ribbons for every meet. While we do our best to have an ample supply, these costs rise with every purchase. We also have to pre-purchase items like labels, ink cartridges, swim caps and more.
For those that were participants at the meet vs DCTS. You were witness to two of our lane lines breaking. While we were able to repair both we are looking at permanent replacements of all seven lane lines. These lane-lines will likely cost close to $10,000 to replace. We should be able to manage the lane-lines on the reels we have and shouldn’t need to add that as a replacement item.
This is the bulk of what we are fundraising for to increase our operational budget while also looking to replace, quite possibly, the largest expense BST has ever incurred.
We appreciate your support and hope you engage in this unique opportunity.