STANFIELD — The community is breathing new life into the Stanfield Booster Club, and so far the results have been positive.

“My goal was to get it up and running by January 2023, but we stumbled into some great alumni,” Stanfield Athletic Director Lorena Woods said. “They wanted to put on a golf tournament during the school reunion (in July). It was positive and people had a good time.”

Matt Ellis, a 2008 Stanfield graduate, along with his wife, Erica, were the driving force behind getting everything started.

“My parents ran the booster club when I was in high school,” said Ellis, who is the club president. “We didn’t think we’d be in it this early, but we will be in it for the long haul. Our daughter is in kindergarten and we have a 3-year-old son. Stanfield has always had a lot of good support. COVID hampered them on fundraising.”

Ellis’ first thought with the golf tournament was to help the local Little League programs, but felt they could do more.

“We were trying to help any way we could,” Ellis said. “I reached out to Devin Bailey to see what youth programs we have. He told me they hadn’t had a booster club for a while. We reached out to (Superintendent) Beth Burton and we pitched a golf tournament. We then decided to run it through the booster club. We have had so much support.”

Supporting school and community events is the focus of the group.

“We went from having $2,000 in our bank account to having $20,000,” Woods said of the success of the golf tournament. “They are supporting all programs in our community, not just the school athletic teams.”

Last year, the Stanfield School District finished the year with 498 students. As school began this fall, Woods said there are 550 students enrolled.

“Our school is growing,” she said. “You always have that year when everyone comes, and it will be nice to have the booster club help out for things that will be necessities. It’s good to be fiscally responsible.”

The booster club is looking for more members, and will hold a membership drive during homecoming week. It will have a signup table Thursday, Sept. 8, at the community pep rally, and at the football game Sept. 9 against McLoughlin.

“We want to grow the booster club to what it used to be,” Woods said. “We have a bunch of go-getters. They are young and think outside the box.”

A basic booster club membership is $50. There are different levels, and each level has its perks.

The booster club also is planning the Booster Bash, a fundraiser for Feb. 11, 2023, at Eastern Oregon Trade and Event Center, Hermiston. Tickets will go on sale in November and will be $30 each. There will be a steak dinner with all the trimmings, and silent and live auctions.

“We are getting our beef from Painted Hills Natural Beef in Fossil, and we are starting to get our auction items together,” Woods said. “We are taking donations for auction items. I’m hopeful we will be able to double our money. We are only selling 300 tickets.”

The rejuvenation of the program is long overdue, according to Woods.

“They haven’t had a booster club fundraiser since before COVID,” she said. “The last year they really did something was 2016 when they handed out rings to the state championship baseball team.”

Among the projects the booster club will help out with in the near future involve the volleyball team.

“Crane and St. Paul are coming out Sept. 16-17 to play us and Echo,” Woods said. “We will feed St. Paul before they go. Crane will spend the night in our gym and we will feed them breakfast on Saturday before we play them.”

“We went from having $2,000 in our bank account to having $20,000. They are supporting all programs in our community, not just the school athletic teams.”

— Lorena Woods, Stanfield athletic director