UNIVERSITY PARK — On Sunday morning, the State College Boys’ Basketball Booster Club is holding a fundraiser at Beaver Stadium. Volunteers will help take down over 3,000 seatbacks that the players and families set up in August.
Before the start of the Nittany Lions’ football season, nearly 40 volunteers arrived at the stadium to put the seatbacks up, earning the program a dollar for each one.
“We’ve done this a couple of years now,” said booster club treasurer Andy Friberg, who is coordinating the activity. “You get a routine, the kids run the seatbacks to the locations, then another crew comes along and puts the hardware on them, and then another crew that has the drills and everything go ahead and fasten them tight.”
The boys’ basketball program will receive another dollar for every seatback taken down on Sunday.
With how many seatbacks need to be taken down, the Boys’ Basketball Booster Club is looking for volunteers to help out the process.
“Anybody who’s interested in helping out the booster club, we accept any participation,” said Friberg. “Anyone that would like to come and help would be greatly appreciated.”
Volunteers are asked to meet at Beaver Stadium gate C around 8:45 a.m. in order to be ready to start work at nine. The bolts on the seatbacks are sized at 13 millimeters or ½ inch.
Volunteers willing to bring their own drills, wrenches or ratchets are greatly appreciated. Outlets aren’t readily available in the stands, so electric drills should be powered by batteries.
At the time this article was written, the weather on Sunday is expected to be partly cloudy, with a high of 32 degrees. Though snow is not expected, volunteers are asked to dress warmly.
“We try to do this fundraiser instead of doing other things during the year, like selling hoagies or other fundraisers,” said Friberg. “One-day event, a couple hours, and hopefully we can make some money for the booster club and help support the team throughout the season.”
For updates and more information, visit the State College Boys Basketball page on Facebook.
BOYS’ BASKETBALL BOOSTER CLUB
The State College Boys’ Basketball Booster Club supports boys’ basketball teams across the State College Area School District from seventh grade up.
The money from fundraisers like this help to pay for dinner for the players traveling to other schools for games.
“(This fundraiser) is phenomenal, it raises several thousands of dollars,” said Friberg. “The high school does not pay for any food, except when they hit postseason play. We have to support close to 90 players (across the booster club’s reach) every time they go on the road and go to an away game.
“We’ll feed them prior to going and then, on the way back after the game, we’ll feed them again because most of our games once you hit the ninth grade are in the Mid Penn. Most away games are an hour and a half to two hours away.”
The money the booster club makes through this fundraiser and others each year helps to pay the expenses of two seventh-grade and eighth-grade teams, one for each grade at both Mount Nittany and Park Forrest middle school.
As well as the middle schools, the funds support the ninth-grade, junior varsity and varsity boys’ basketball teams at the high school.
