‘Roll On, Raiders’: Bellefonte Mayor Wants to Use Water Tower to Boost School, Community Pride

With hopes of bolstering both community and school pride, Bellefonte Mayor Buddy Johnson is working to have the Bellefonte Area School District slogan, “Roll on, Raiders,” displayed on the Bellefonte water tower. He just needs to a little more support to make it happen.

The tower, which is borough property, stands tall over Rogers Stadium, where the district hosts high school football games and other events. The total cost of the proposed approximately 22-foot-by-38-foot signage is $9,136. Thanks to a gift of $5,000 from the Class of 2022, the initiative is more than halfway there.

“When I became mayor, one of my initiatives was to try to bring school pride and community pride together. If you have ever been in Rogers Stadium and you look in the south end zone, you see the water tower,” Johnson said in a Sept. 20 BASD board meeting. “It would be really neat if we could show some school and community pride with something on that water tower.”

He added, “A lot of people agree that it would be an asset for the community and show school pride.”

Johnson said “Roll on, Raiders” is a district-wide saying that “has been said long before my time in Bellefonte. It goes back years and years and years, and it has kind of been the slogan or the saying.”

The Bellefonte Water Authority is on board with the plan, contingent with the school board’s approval. During the meeting, no objections were made; however, board President Jeff Stiener made it clear that the school budget has no room to provide the additional funds for the project at this time.

Johnson said, like the school district, the borough does not have the funds for the project currently as it is focusing on other projects.

He said he is under a bit of a time crunch, having until the end of October to gather the rest of the necessary funds for the project, or else the class gift of $5,000 would be evenly dispersed to other classes in the high school.

The school board offered several solutions for Johnson to raise the funds, such as asking for support from the many booster clubs that support the teams that utilize Rogers Stadium, as well as holding community-wide fundraisers.

“As most everyone else said, I love the idea. We talk about making the school district more of a centerpiece for the community and bolstering pride. So, I appreciate you taking this on and trying to get this done,” said Stiener, who also personally pledged $100 for the project, and encouraged others to do the same.