Blind Brook Booster Club Could Save Titans Ice Hockey

In a unanimous decision, the Blind Brook-Rye Union Free Board of Education voted to approve booster club protocols, clearing the last hurdle for the ice hockey team to raise funding needed to avoid elimination of the sports program.

Students and parents of the ice hockey team showed support for the formation of the booster club at a packed Board of Education meeting at Blind Brook High School Monday night.

With budget cuts proposed by Blind Brook Superintendent William Stark all but ensuring an elimination of the Rye Town/Harrison merged ice hockey program, the booster club could save the program by providing the majority of funding for the team.  

James Spano, Blind Brook Athletic Director, presented the booster club protocols to the Board for approval.

These protocols include: the clear distinction that there is no pay-to-play in the Blind Brook School District, that all donations are completely confidential, that a booster club cannot guarantee the addition of a program, and that a booster club has to communicate and coordinate with existing fundraising groups such as the Blind Brook Enrichment Program (BBEP) or Blind Brook Parent Teacher Association.

Board member Lawrence Engle expressed his concern for multiple fundraising groups asking too much from one community.

"We're a small district and cannot be everything to everybody," Engle said.

During the public discussion parents took issue over the strict language in the booster club protocols, specifically that the booster club could not hold a major fundraiser within thirty days of a major fundraising event by the BBEP.  With the approaching June 2010 deadline for the Rye Town-Harrison ice hockey team to raise the bulk of their operating costs, parents were concerned that a BBEP fundraiser already scheduled for May 2010 would preclude the booster club from holding their own fundraiser.

Spano and the board clarified their position, saying that the protocols should not be seen as dictating a hard and fast rule about the amount of time the booster club had to wait after a BBEP fundraiser.  Instead, Spano and the board emphasized that the fundraising groups should communicate with each other and with Spano to decide each event on a case-by-case basis.  

The board's approval of the protocol clears the path for the formation of a booster club, which many hope will save the ice hockey team for next season.