WHEATLAND – Last season, the Wheatland booster club came up with a last-minute idea for a fundraiser that would help each team raise money for their individual sport. The idea exploded into an unforeseen success.
Last Wednesday the football field was packed for the second straight year as Media Night once again helped raise money for the booster club and fans walked away with some Bulldog memorabilia.
The original idea came in 2021 with an excess of old equipment.
“I had bins and bins of old football jerseys,” said varsity football coach Cody Bohlander. “It was just a great way to make money and not have to throw the jerseys away. Kids can pick the jersey they want and then our players will autograph them.”
According to booster president Peggy Suko, it was a quick idea and it yielded more interest than she could have imagined.
“Tiffany Dean said her little boys really liked coming to the football games and they think the varsity boys are pretty cool,” Suko said. “We then wondered how we could get these kids meeting each other, and so this is how it all came about. I thought about doing something like this because we needed to get rid of some old jerseys, they can have the players sign the jerseys and we put up a sign and initiated a place where the kids could have their pictures taken with the players.”
Most sports teams had old jerseys or T-shirts that they were selling that they could make money. The spirit team which didn’t have any old jerseys were autographing spirit team megaphones and doing face painting. People could donate whatever they wanted.
“WHS Booster Club Media Night was the best idea My girls absolutely loved it,” Katy Finnerty-Marquez said. “They would not stop talking about it all the way home. From the cheerleaders painting their faces, to shirts from the volleyball team and then an autograph from their favorite football player.”
The golf team had their repeat state championship featured and the golf team was signing autographs for the kids.
“They are all making money to go back into their activity accounts,” Suko said. “And the booster club has extra stuff for sale; things like old 100-year anniversary T-shirts if a kid wants just a $5 shirt. We also have stuff to just give to kids if they didn’t have anything or didn’t bring anything to autograph.”
Suko said that she hopes that it will continue to be an annual thing and said that she was going to see if there could be a media night for the winter and spring sports teams as well. It bridges a gap between the younger kids and the older kids and acts as a two-edged sword, giving the young kids interactions with their heroes and the older kids a chance to meet and perhaps mentor young fans.
