Booster Club wraps up school year

JOHN WHITE/special to the VW independent

With the 2022-2023 school year now in the history books, the Cougar Pride Athletic Booster Club would like to thank everyone in the community who supported our efforts. This includes individuals, families, volunteers, and business sponsors who made it all possible. Whether it was through our annual membership drive, our Cougar Cash and Reverse raffle events, our 50/50 drawings, or our many other fundraising events, Cougar Nation made it possible to accomplish many important projects for Van Wert athletics.

The mission of the Cougar Pride Booster Club is to inspire and promote Cougar Pride in every Cougar athlete. It’s the primary reason for changing our name to the Cougar Pride Booster Club. This commitment to excellence has been achieved through fundraising providing the means to support individual athletes, teams, facilities, and training. It is also achieved by spiritual support given to our athletic participants.

This past year has been very successful with many groundbreaking and important accomplishments in support of Cougar athletics. Some of these include:

• Provided thousands of dollars in direct athlete and team support.
• Established an endowment fund at the Van Wert County Foundation for future athlete and facilities support.
• Collaborated with the VW County Tennis Association, Van Wert Schools, and the Van Wert County Foundation in establishing a fund to maintain the VWCF Tennis Complex in perpetuity.
• Increased our club membership by more than 70 percent.
• Provided our sports community with a robust printed athletic program for Fall, Winter, and Spring sports.
• Finished the high school and middle school gym floors.
• Funded our 2023 Cougar Pride Scholarship Award winners Sofie Houg and Aidan Pratt.
• Provided over $50,000 for the future weight room renovation.
• Provided over $10,000 for the pole vault landing pad system.
• Cougar Pawing athlete and community member homes to promote Cougar Pride.
• Established and coordinated ‘Meet the Teams’ events.
• Provided team meals to our student athletes.

The Cougar Pride Booster Club would also like to take a moment to congratulate all of our student athletes that competed this past year. Our athletes’ accomplishments were many to the delight of the fans who supported them.

Looking ahead, our 2023-2024 membership drive is just around the corner. You, our community members, make what we do possible. Thank you! There are many important projects ahead and we again need the community to help with these efforts. If you are not a member and would like to join the Cougar Pride team, please contact one of our executive officers: John White, Andy Gearhart, Mitch Gearhart, Bre Sudduth, or Ashley Metzger.

Let’s continue to make the future bright for Van Wert Athletics!

Editor’s note: John White is the President of the Cougar Pride Athletic Booster Club.