Episode 7 - Introducing the Lakewood Athletic Association!

Send us a text

Welcome to a special Viking Coaches Corner Podcast! Kurt sits down with members of the Lakewood Athletic Association at Buddies on the Beach and learns about how they support the Lakewood Public Schools.

The LAA is a registered non-profit that returns 100% of the proceeds back into the Lakewood sporting program. The LAA is made up of board members and trustees. But, if you have donated to the LAA, consider yourself part of the bigger picture and the support behind this amazing program!

You'll get an inside "heard it here first" announcement about the next Car Party and enjoy a little Go Blue/Go Green elbowing along the way. 

So, sit back and enjoy some history on the LAA and find out how much money they have put back into the Viking sports program.  Thank you LAA for being on the show and for your dedication to the Lakewood Vikings.

Episode Transcript

SPEAKER_00 (00:04):
Welcome to a special edition of the Viking Coach's
Corner.
Today Kurt sits down withrepresentation from the Lakewood
Athletic Association to discusswho they are and what their role
is with the Lakewood AthleticDepartment.
I personally think back to 1992when the LAA sponsored my high
school team with Kurt and EntryMoney to play summer baseball in
Grand Rapids to further ourabilities.

(00:24):
We appreciate the dedication ofthe LAA and want to formally
introduce them to you.
So grab your favorite coffee andenjoy the interview.

SPEAKER_02 (00:32):
Hello, welcome to the Viking Coach's Corner.
I'm your host, Kurt Ackerson,and tonight I'm sitting down
with members of the LakewoodAthletic Association.
With us tonight, we have RickBump, President.

SPEAKER_01 (00:46):
Carrie Carter, Vice President, Tom Ricer, Treasurer.

SPEAKER_03 (00:51):
How long has the LAA been in existence?
Since March of 1982 is when itwas formed.
So what's that?
42 years?

SPEAKER_05 (01:05):
43 years.

SPEAKER_02 (01:06):
I went to Grand Ledge by mass.
Yeah, we can't.
A little bit off.

SPEAKER_03 (01:09):
Go green.
And I've been on the board since1997, and I can't remember how
long I've been the president.
It seems like a long time.

SPEAKER_02 (01:19):
1997, that's the year Michigan won the national
championship in football.
Anyway, who were some of theoriginal members, Mr.
Riser?

SPEAKER_04 (01:30):
Well, when Tim Wood came to Lakewood and he was
here, he was the one thatspearheaded forming our group
and to fundraise.
So Tim Wood, we had, I think,Bob Cobb's the second.
Bob Corp from Sunfield.

(01:50):
Mr.
Knapp from Sunfield.
Denny Cook was a localpharmacist in Lake Odessa.
Denny served.
Joel Pepper was a localinsurance agent in Lake Odessa.
He was one of the foundingmembers.
I believe Jay Kimball.

(02:11):
And there was quite a few.
I believe there was 12, thefirst board.
There was actually 12 people.
Was Phil McClellan one of them?
No, Phil was not one of theoriginals.

(02:33):
I got on in 19, in the fall of1983, I started my term.
And probably within the nextthree, four years, most all the
probably half or more of theoriginal board members stepped
down.
They just wanted to be on it fora short term, get it rolling.

(02:55):
Then they they stepped down, andit's kind of been a for quite a
few years we had a prettyconsistent turnover of board
members at the at the firstprobably oh ten years or so.

SPEAKER_02 (03:10):
So you've been on it pretty much since you got out of
high school now?

SPEAKER_04 (03:15):
Well, I graduated in 80, so I was out three years.
But so I was 21 years old when Igot on the board.

SPEAKER_03 (03:23):
He's the longest board member currently on the
then I think it's Evie, Sharon,and myself that drops down that
far.

SPEAKER_02 (03:31):
Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 (03:32):
Why was the LAA formed in the first place?
Well, it was formed to promoteathletics among the you know the
general citizens, you know, thatfor sports for Lakewood to buy
things they needed, extrabraces, things like that, ankle
bracels, helmets, pads,softballs, baseballs, wrestling

(03:54):
stuff for the weight room.

SPEAKER_02 (03:56):
Golf bags.

SPEAKER_04 (03:58):
The problem back then was the cost of having
sports was getting so expensive.
Yeah.
Equipment was getting soexpensive.
They needed help.
The state was giving less moneyto the schools.
The federal government had beencutting budgets that went to

(04:19):
schools.
So the athletic directors weregiven less money from the
school's budget to run athleticswith.
Then that's when they had tostart, they wanted to start
fundraising and helping out toget, and we what we what we were
supposed to be was for theextras.

(04:41):
You know, we were we were tothey could buy the cake and we'd
frost it.
But it's it's becoming more andmore to where now we're buying
big ticket items.
We're buying the cake.
Yeah, and frosting it.
There's not much frosting inthere.

SPEAKER_02 (04:56):
So what are some of the bigger ticket items that you
guys have purchased over theyears?

SPEAKER_01 (05:01):
Well, we donated to Unity Field, the weight room,
ball fields, tennis courts, themarquee in front of the high
school, Jordan Lake Trail.

SPEAKER_02 (05:12):
Oh, really?
The Jordan Lake Trail?
I did not know that.

SPEAKER_01 (05:15):
Well, we knew the athletes over the years.
Thank God no one has ever beenhit running down the road, and
we thought the trail would be agreat place for cross-country
track people to run on.

SPEAKER_03 (05:30):
So we were told that the sports would use that track
or that trail.

SPEAKER_04 (05:36):
What's done has helped.
What you know, the amount of thetrail that's there has helped.
But yeah, there was years uh,you know, we had a lot of
coaches that instead of havingthe kids go out and run the
cross-country course to get inshape, they run them up and down
the road.
That way they could buzz by themon their in their car and get
down to the next mile.

(05:57):
Oh, and they could time how longit was taking them to run a mile
because they could run a mile,they could drive a mile up the
road and sit there in their carwith the stopwatch.
And so we felt that the JordanLake Trail was a very worthy
cause.
And uh but yeah, the Unity Fieldwas our big first or our first
big where we we gave them$30,000because they had no money, and

(06:22):
they came to us first and said,We need to put some bait in, and
we got to be able to show someof these other people that we've
got monies coming in.
So we promised$30,000, and uh wegot to make three ten thousand
dollar payments to them.
And uh so that's when we startedour uh we had to start our

(06:46):
second fundraiser, which at thattime was our LAA Raffle, to
generate part of the extra tenthousand.
But but then then uh we did oneof our big projects has always
been the weight room.
We always when when we startedthey had a weight machine called

(07:06):
the Universal Gym.
I remember that.
It was in the balcony of thegymnasium.
That's the only weights theschool had.
So we started purchasing weightmachines.
And you know, now we've youknow, this last weight room was
part of the bond that passedyears ago.

(07:30):
And you know, it's nice, but alot of that equipment is
equipment we furnished, and thenwe've we've paid for a lot of
things in the new weight roomalso.
So uh the weight room's beenvery important to us, and uh
because it kind of covers allsports.
Well, all the sports use it.
All the sports use it.
Girls, boys, you name it.

(07:51):
There's there's so it's a wordweight because uh the we donated
probably our second biggestdonation at once was for uh the
baseball fields when they redidthe the varsity baseball field,

(08:13):
and those were old like polebarn style dugouts.
Uh they tore them down, they putthe nice uh cement block dugouts
in, and built the press box, putup a new backstop, new fencing,
redid the field, seeded it.
Uh but anyways, that was thatwas quite a bit of money, and we

(08:37):
we we donated money to that.
And then and then the rest ofthe money they needed they
fundraised, and it was allvolunteer work.
Uh a lot of guys in the areathat worked in the trades came
and and donated their skill setto make that all happen.
Um but then word got out that wehad done that, and so then there

(09:03):
was a Title IX claim filed thatnow we had to spend that money
equally.
Equally.
So that then so we we had toroll up our sleeves and figure
out okay, how are we gonna getwe just gave all our money away,
and now we gotta pay it for thesoftball dines.

(09:26):
Well, we we did.
And uh, you know, we made itwork out to where we could make
installments.
So, but anyways, uh those werebig, those were big purchases,
and then the yeah, the Carriementioned the sign in front of
the high school, the schoolsign.

(09:46):
Uh that was always a big thing.
Uh one of our current principalswas really pushed for that, and
he worked on it a long time, andwe finally we were able to uh
give them quite a bit of moneytowards that.
I don't know, I don't recall ifwe paid for the whole thing.
I don't think we had to pay forall of it, but we probably paid

(10:08):
for 75% of it to make it happenbecause, like I said earlier,
the the school doesn't have thefunds for stuff like that.
So we've been trying the best wecan.

SPEAKER_02 (10:21):
Well, those are very nice, very nice donations, and
I'm sure the community reallyappreciates all of it.

SPEAKER_03 (10:28):
They support us very well at all our functions and
our one fundraiser every year inMarch.
So we have a huge turnout forthat, a lot of donations for the
party.
That's where we raise most ofour money for our one year.

SPEAKER_04 (10:43):
Well, all our funds come from one fundraiser now.
We used to have two, but uh theraffle tickets are.
The raffle, the trying to get araffle license to the state of
Michigan.
Uh because it became harder.
It just became harder becausethey wanted they wanted to see

(11:07):
proof of all our monies, and Ibut then they they wouldn't
accept like uh bank statementsthat shows everything.
And they said no, we can'taccept that, and it just became
such a hassle to try to get thelicense that we decided that we

(11:28):
just weren't gonna go that routeanymore.
We'll figure out another onehere that we don't have to go
through the state gaming anddivision and lottery division to
get to to be able to do it.

SPEAKER_02 (11:39):
So how does one get a car party ticket from the LA?
They can they're pretty tough tocome by, I'm hearing.

SPEAKER_03 (11:47):
They have sold out fast in years past.

SPEAKER_04 (11:49):
Um, you know, I guess it's just word of mouth,
if you want a ticket, you knowthe way our tickets are sold is
is we have a mailing list.
Yeah.
Okay, back in '86, I believe, uhis about when that's when Evie
David came on board.
And Evie liked working withcomputers, and she came to some

(12:12):
meetings and she says, you know,you guys are working way too
hard at getting rid of thesetickets.
Because we used to have uh 12board members with tickets in
their pockets trying to sellthem.
And uh she says, You we need tomake a mailing list and send out
mailers to people.
And so Evy said, I would gladlyI'd like to do that for you.

(12:34):
In fact, I think she volunteeredto do that the year before she
came on the board.
And she did that for us, andthen she she's done it ever
since.
She's done it ever since and afabulous job.
And the problem, the thing is,it's a it's it's a fabulous
problem to have when you sendyour letters out, and four days

(12:57):
later your 300 tickets are gone.
So um, you know, that's that'sreally a really great problem to
have.

SPEAKER_01 (13:07):
Um but if you've never been to the party and you
want a ticket, you can get anyof the members of LAA, and we
can direct you to the rightplace.
We can have Ebbie send you aninvite.

SPEAKER_02 (13:21):
So when is the car party this year?

SPEAKER_01 (13:24):
It's the first Saturday in March, always.

SPEAKER_02 (13:27):
Every year.

SPEAKER_04 (13:28):
Every year, it's the first Saturday of March in the
great state of Ohio.

SPEAKER_03 (13:32):
Yep.
The great state, right.

SPEAKER_02 (13:36):
Well, I'm looking at some of the prizes here for the
car party.
There's$500 cash.
A couple of them, a couplehundred dollars,$100 car wash,
one hour massage, a whole bunchof great.
Those are just door prizes.
And you don't even have to be anattendance to win either.
No, right?

SPEAKER_03 (13:55):
No.
You can buy a ticket and havesomeone else be in charge of it,
and anything you win, they bringback to you.
So you uh don't have to bepresent.
Yep.
And if they want to know moreabout us, we meet the second
Wednesday of every month, um,August through April, 7 o'clock
at the high school in the mediacenter.

(14:15):
Media center, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 (14:17):
And also, if someone wants to donate to the LA, they
can write a check too.
Yep, show up at the meeting andthey can specify.

SPEAKER_04 (14:26):
Right.
And we've had when people havelost loved ones and they've had
memorials, they've made theLakewood Athletic Association
their their memorial.

SPEAKER_02 (14:35):
Eddie Salazar comes to mind.

SPEAKER_04 (14:37):
Well, Eddie's one of many.
Yes.
Eddie Richardson.
We have a we have a plaque, wehave what we call our memorial
board, it's hanging in thetrophy cases out by the new gym
at the high school, and anyanytime we've somebody's made
the LAA their memorialbeneficiary, we put their their

(15:03):
name on a uh on our plaque inthe in the high school.
So um, but we've yeah, we've hadlots of that.
You know, anybody can donate tous, and we would love that
because like I say, we're alwaystrying to think of new things to
do at the car party to help addto our income down there, um to

(15:27):
our bottom, or to our you know,our bottom line, because every
year, you know, if you if youjust go down there and keep
making the same amount of moneywith the way inflation's been
going, um, pretty soon we'rebuying less and less all the
time with it.
But uh, you know, our first fewyears of of the car party, we

(15:51):
made five to seven thousanddollars for the first quite a
few years going down there.
And you know, it's it took us awhile to get up to where we were
above ten thousand, and thenpretty soon we hit twenty
thousand, and then then uhbefore we hit thirty thousand,
COVID hit.

(16:13):
And uh that year we didn'tweren't we were not able to have
the car park.
And uh so that next thatfollowing year was kind of you
know, there wasn't a lot wecould do to help, but because of
COVID, sports were shut down,school was shut down, so we
didn't get asked for a lot.

(16:35):
So uh we made it through thatyear.
But then the next year, peoplereally missed not being able to
go to the car party that year.
So the next year when they came,they were ready to go.
They were ready to go, they wereready to go, and the tickets
went fast, uh and people camedown and donated their money,

(16:57):
and we made like$40,000.
And so now we're been hitting$40,000,$41,000,$42,000 uh the
last three.
So we're making nice money downthere, but what forty thousand
dollars does now, you know, backin '82, when the you know, you

(17:20):
could have done the same thingin '82 with about eighteen
thousand.

SPEAKER_02 (17:24):
So the LAA is great financial support for Lakewood
Public Schools, but you guys aremore than that.
To me, I always see you guys atall the athletic events, and you
guys are just as big a fan aseveryone else.
And Gary, you're a girls' tenniscoach in the spring?

SPEAKER_01 (17:41):
Yep.

SPEAKER_02 (17:42):
What other special events does LAA provide strictly
for the students?

SPEAKER_01 (17:48):
Um, we contribute every year to project
graduation.
We give out a Stan CourtneyAward, and we participate in
many community activities, andwe also give out two athletic
scholarships.

SPEAKER_02 (18:01):
So, what's the criteria you're looking for for
candidates for those athleticscholarships?

SPEAKER_01 (18:07):
Well, there's an application that they fill out
just like any other umapplications for scholarships,
right at the counseling officeat the high school.
I believe you have toparticipate in two varsity
sports and have a GPA of 3.25.

SPEAKER_04 (18:27):
I I don't recall exactly what it is.
I don't have that paperwork withme, but um it's it's you know,
it's it it is what it is.
It's it's supposed to be, youknow, you gotta you you gotta
work at it and you gotta earn itas a student.
And uh, you know, now the waythings are nowadays, it's it's

(18:51):
kind of important for kids toearn it.

SPEAKER_02 (18:53):
Yes.

SPEAKER_01 (18:53):
And we love it if kids apply for it.
We really do.

SPEAKER_02 (18:57):
We usually get quite a few that apply every year.

SPEAKER_01 (19:00):
Some years not.

SPEAKER_03 (19:01):
Some years not.

SPEAKER_02 (19:02):
So do you pick uh male and female, or does it
really matter?

SPEAKER_01 (19:05):
Not necessarily.

SPEAKER_02 (19:06):
Okay.

SPEAKER_04 (19:06):
We used to try to go one male and one female, but if
if we yes, we always had a maleand a female, and now it there
was years where there wasn't anymales that applied.
Or there was a year where noneof the girls applied.
Um, we don't know why.
They just, you know, I don'tknow.
But so there was there was yearswhere two guys got it because we

(19:31):
didn't have a girl that applied.
And because we have two$1,000scholarships to hand out every
year.
So but you know, and uh, butthey have to meet the criteria,
and uh sometimes I I don't know,I think the community service is

(19:51):
a big that's a big thing, too,on on our application, you know,
and I don't know if it's kidsaren't sure what they're if
they've done any communityservice.

SPEAKER_03 (20:07):
We just don't want to hand them the money and say,
here for doing nothing.

SPEAKER_04 (20:10):
Right.
Well, we you you're not teachingthem anything.

SPEAKER_03 (20:13):
We want them to show that they're out there trying to
do something.

SPEAKER_02 (20:15):
So you guys also have a GPA pizza party too.
Could you talk about that?

SPEAKER_03 (20:20):
Go ahead.
Sharon Krause usually followsthat up.

SPEAKER_01 (20:24):
Well, she every year we have a GPA according to your
grade point average.
If you I don't even know forsure what it is, I think it's
3.0 on the first semester ofschool.
Uh you make that.
We we come out to the schoolduring all the lunches and hand

(20:44):
out pizza, water, thecertificate.
Yep.
The kids really appreciate it,they're so nice, and they always
say thank you and polite and butkid doesn't like pizza.

SPEAKER_02 (20:54):
I know, really.
They'll be eating pizza tomorrownight at the volleyball match,
too.
Probably.
So has the community beenwilling to assist in your
fundraising?
Oh yeah.

SPEAKER_04 (21:05):
Oh yeah, the community is tremendous.
Um, all the door prices at ourcar party, things get donated to
us for the car party.
By the merchants.
And, you know, we go around, weask, you know, we knock on their
doors.
Uh and they, even though theirdoors are getting knocked on
probably weekly by some group,they still give to us.

(21:30):
But they've been giving to usfor 40-some years, and it's just
incredible.
Uh, we have a lot of people inthe community that donate items
that we can auction because inour car party we have an
auction.
So we stop halfway through thedrawing and we hold an auction.
And uh Bill Wilson, he uh himand his father owned an

(21:54):
auctioneering service for years,and Bill has comes to our car
party every year, and hevolunteer he he does our auction
for us.
And uh we auction items off, andwe've been making I'm gonna off
the top of my head, we've weaverage around six to eight
thousand dollars a year downthere on items that are donated

(22:18):
to us that we can auction off.
And that's just a big that's abig thing, and that's everybody
in the community.
That's not just our businesses.
We have people that come down tothe car party every year, and
sometimes we don't know they'rebringing something.
They show up and they carry itout to us and they say, Here,

(22:40):
auction this off, and you guystake the money.
Okay, you know, so the yeah, theour community the community is
great, you know.
Um and we for being a smallschool district and with four
small rural communities, youknow, uh, I think we do well.

(23:03):
And I know that we couldn't beas successful as we are without
our local our local people anduh the merchants and the just
the community, the people thatcome and buy the tickets and
come to our party.
And they know it's for the kids,it's not for you know, none of

(23:23):
the board members have a salary,you know.
We're just we donate our timeand our efforts to making sure
that this stuff goes down.

SPEAKER_02 (23:33):
Carrie, how do LAA members become personally
involved in the athleticprograms?
I know one way, you're thegirls' tennis coach, and Evie's
a used to be a golf coach.
What are some other ways?

SPEAKER_01 (23:48):
Well, we do take tickets at all the boys'
basketball games, the home ones,and now football.
And now we do football too.

SPEAKER_02 (23:57):
Yes, because who used to do the football?
They don't lions club.

SPEAKER_04 (24:01):
Well, the Lions Club, but the like all local
support groups, they're gettingold.
They're the the young peopledon't think of joining those
things, and uh they they don't,they don't get involved in the
community, and uh the Lions Clubmembers are aging, and uh it's

(24:25):
hard to get volunteers to comeout and stand in the cold on a
Friday night and sell tickets toget into the football games.
So they came to us this year andasked if we would do it.
So um, Matt Aldrich, we'reexcited that you know we we're
getting to work with a newathletic director, and that's

(24:48):
not saying anything bad againstthe the previous ones.

SPEAKER_02 (24:52):
Well, we have an athletic director that has
family roots deep lot of yearsin Lincoln School District,
right?

SPEAKER_04 (24:59):
But it's nice though that I mean he came to us and
says, Hey, I I I need I need tobe bailed out here, I need a
hand.
And we said, okay, give us theschedule and we'll we'll put our
we'll fill it for you.
So that's we're we're doingfootball games.

(25:20):
I don't know if it's gonna becontinued.
Hopefully, maybe another groupwill step up and take that on in
the in the future.
So anybody listening to thispodcast, if you've got a support
group and you want to help uhnext fall, contact the AD this
year, anytime.
You can call them tomorrow andsay starting next fall, we'd

(25:42):
like to take the tickets at thefootball games.

SPEAKER_03 (25:43):
And if they take tickets at games, I don't know
how many they have to do, theyget free tickets for a pass to
get in.

SPEAKER_02 (25:49):
Yes, I think you have to work six events or six
games, I think.
Don't quote me on that.

SPEAKER_03 (25:54):
Yeah, and that's all Lakewood sports that they can
get into.
So yeah.

SPEAKER_02 (25:58):
What is the typical average expenditure for the last
five years?
What is the income for the LAA?

SPEAKER_01 (26:08):
Well, we normally, well not normally, but in the
last five years as prices havegone up for everything, we have
spent almost$38,000 a year toour coaches and sports teams.
That includes also, like I said,our scholarships that we do, uh
project graduation.

SPEAKER_02 (26:29):
Over the course of your history, how much money
would you say the LAA is givento Lakewood Public Schools?

SPEAKER_04 (26:37):
Well, we we did the we did the uh adding.
We got pulled out the old dustyadding machine the other day,
and we added stuff up, and uhwe're up to about one one point
one nine million.
Wow.
I'll say that again one pointone million one hundred and
ninety thousand dollars.

(26:58):
That's awesome.

SPEAKER_03 (26:59):
Uh in 23 we hit a million dollars for the LIA.
That was when we had the articlein the paper, and that was our
one million.

SPEAKER_04 (27:08):
We've uh yeah, we've we've worked hard over the
years.
It doesn't get easier.
You know, we have a lot ofpeople out there that like I
say, it's been when you go tothe car party, there's people
that have been there for 40 ofthem.
You know, I mean 40 years, somehave never missed one.
Right, and yeah, that's just agreat thing.

SPEAKER_01 (27:28):
But we would really like to see some of the younger
kids get involved.
Correct.
Some of the parents that are gothigh school students or even
middle school students get moreinvolved with it, even coaches
too.
We realize the first Saturday ofMarch usually is during
wrestling and cheerleading.
However, other coaches we wouldlove to have down there, or if
they would just like to donateitems that we could put in our

(27:51):
auction, um, we would love that.

SPEAKER_02 (27:54):
So, would it be possible to expand the number of
tickets that you could sell asto the party?
Well, or is seating limited?

SPEAKER_04 (28:04):
It seating is fairly limited, it's a big place.
Um and you know, it's it's ait's a beautiful facility.
We call it the party room, wherewe have it, and you're right in
a hotel, so if you want to goback to your room, you can go
back to your room.
And uh, you know, so it's a it'sa beautiful facility for what

(28:24):
we're doing.
They do it so cheap for us downthere.
Uh years ago we looked at doingit in Michigan, and there was
not a place in Michigan thatcould hold the vent that big or
that would do it for the perhead cost that we pay to have it

(28:45):
down there.
Uh everybody else here, this wasprobably around the 1990, right
around 1990, that we werelooking to see about trying to
find a place in Grand Rapids orLansing or someplace closer.
But the Mount Pelier location,Mount Pelier, Ohio, it's it

(29:06):
takes two hours to get there.
It's not a long drive, it's aneasy drive to get there.
And you can spend the night.
A lot of our people, theyprobably I'm gonna say 70% of
our people come down on Friday.
Spend the night Friday night.
The party is Saturday, theyspend the night Saturday night,

(29:28):
and they come home on Sunday.
So it's it's a nice littlegetaway on the first Saturday of
March.

SPEAKER_02 (29:36):
Now there's a place to have a pool and a hot tub,
and yes, a whole nine yards.
Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_03 (29:41):
It's got an indoor, restaurant, a bar.
Yeah.
And your ticket price gets ameal.
I mean, they serve food theentire time the auction and the
party's going on, and yourdrinks and you know, pop and
whatever.

SPEAKER_01 (29:53):
So that's included in on your ticket.

SPEAKER_04 (29:56):
Right.
This year, our our our ourticket price.
You know, I'm letting it out ofthe bag right now, but uh our
ticket prices have been uh$150since 2000.
Something like that.
From since the year 2000, and weraised the prices of the tickets

(30:17):
this year$25.
So our car party ticket is$175.
We still offer the$50 guestpass.
And so for your$150 ticket, youhave a chance of winning.
Plus, it's open bar, it's afood.

(30:39):
We have buffet foods, uh, theythey set up this endless nice
food buffet, and it's all youcan eat.
You can keep going back as muchas you want.
And uh, but then they also that$50 guest pass gets you that
also.

(31:00):
So you're in for the the drinksand the food.
But you you don't have a yeah,you don't have a uh plant to win
the money.
You can yep, because of ourauction.
So because yeah, that's we whatwe do too at the car party is
every 25 tickets get drawn out,we stop drawing and ask if

(31:21):
anybody wants to sell theirraffle ticket or their their car
party ticket.
And you know, we we get four,five, six tickets brought up
every time, and we we Bill comesup and he auctions them off.
Once we get halfway through thedrawing, at the 150 mark, when

(31:42):
we stop and we have that big ouruh door prize auctions.
And when we start the drawingagain, when we start up for the
second half of the drawingpulling tickets, we can stop
drawing at any time and selltickets.

SPEAKER_03 (32:00):
You can buy your own ticket back if you don't take it
back.

SPEAKER_04 (32:03):
If you don't like the price, you just pay the 10%
commission and buy it back.

SPEAKER_01 (32:07):
Or if you're not in the drawing anymore.

SPEAKER_04 (32:09):
Yeah, right.
Well, that's what happens ispeople's tickets get drawn out.
They don't pay back in, theystart buying tickets when they
come up for sale, and we make a10% commission on every ticket
sale.
So, you know, that's uh youknow, a$400 ticket makes us 40
bucks.
And uh, but it's just it's neat.

(32:32):
Uh it's a friendly, friendlyfundraiser.
Everybody's there having fun.
Nobody's mad, nobody's ornery,and it's all going to a great
cause.

SPEAKER_02 (32:43):
Right.

SPEAKER_01 (32:44):
And afterwards, there's uh DJ, there's dancing,
and if you make it to midnight,there's breakfast.
We serve you breakfast too.

SPEAKER_02 (32:52):
So how does one become a member of the LAA?

SPEAKER_04 (32:55):
Usually there's 12 board members.
We have we have an auxiliaryboard too.
So if somebody wants to be apart of the LAA, they can be on
the auxiliary board.
They can be on the auxiliaryboard, they can come, they can
listen, they've got you know,they can give input to things at
our meetings.
Um, I do not believe anauxiliary board member can vote

(33:18):
unless we're short of having aquorum.
If we don't have a quorum.
And then but they can come helpus at the car party.
Um we don't turn down any helpat the car party.

SPEAKER_03 (33:29):
We can use all the help we can get.

SPEAKER_04 (33:30):
We're blessed to that we've got family.
I mean, all of us that all theboard members, just about every
one of our spouses, help outthat when when if you're if
you're on the Lakewood AthleticAssociation board, your spouse
is on the board because yourspouse is helping, whether it's

(33:53):
they come and sit there with youand take tickets at basketball
games.
My wife has been with me.
Uh she's done.
Poor lady.
Yeah, poor lady is rightforever.
I'm sorry, Shelly.
But she uh, you know, she's beenat she's she took the last two

(34:15):
years before this year, Shellytook tickets at football games
for the Lions Club.
She volunteered to do it.
Um and it's because Shelly and Iare on, we're both uh members at
large of the Lions, the LakewoodLions Club.
So she does she's been doingtickets for two years at

(34:37):
football games.
So now this year it gets thrown,it gets we take it on, I should
say.
It's how I should say it.
But anyways, uh this year she'sdone all the home football
games.
Well, the one she didn't becausewe were up north.
But uh yeah, we we've all gotspouses that volunteer.

(34:57):
Our wives work at the party, orthe husbands work, everybody
helps out because it takes morethan the 12 people to get it
done.

SPEAKER_02 (35:05):
Lakewood fans, if you see an LAA member at a
football game, basketball game,shake their hand.
Tell them thank you for all theydo to the community, and they're
just more than that, too.
They're fans.
I mean, you all went to LakewoodHigh School, you've had kids
that graduated from LakewoodHigh School, grandkids.
Grandkids.

SPEAKER_04 (35:23):
Well, one of the great grandkids.
One thing you know, over theyears, we now have uh our uh
Lakewood Athletic AssociationFacebook page.
Um so usually the next morningor even the same night when Evie
gets home, she's got it on ourFacebook page what we did at

(35:46):
that meeting, how much money wespent.
Uh and when we're spendingmoney, it's for the it's for the
Lakewood sports.
It's yeah, it's for thecommunities, you know, for the
kids.
But what what we'd like to see,and I think is important,
because I know for years, I meanuh 43 years I've been on the
board.
You know, coach will come andask for you know a thousand

(36:09):
dollars for something.
Or nowadays that thousanddollars is the three thousand
dollar ask.
And you know, we give it tothem.
And I personally, as a as atreasurer, and I ask kids, hey,
coach tell you where that camefrom?
Nope.
Well, you know what?

(36:31):
I think it's high time that thecoaches at Lakewood, if you've
got the time and you want,you've got the you can take the
effort to come to our meetingand ask us for a big dollar
project for whatever, um, youneed to let your players know
where that came from.
Or send an email out.
Let your the parents and yourplayers know where that came

(36:55):
from, who paid for it, becausewhen we're out there trying to
fundraise and do things, it'simportant that people in our
community understand what whatwe do and where boy where that
new wrestling matter, where thatnew uh so if a coach wants to

(37:17):
get some money from the LAA,what's the proper protocol?

SPEAKER_02 (37:21):
They have to come to the meeting.

SPEAKER_01 (37:22):
Nope, there's a process before you even come to
the meeting.
You have to get a form from theathletic director, sit down and
talk to him about it, and he hasto sign off on it first.

SPEAKER_04 (37:33):
He has to approve it.

SPEAKER_01 (37:34):
Yep, and then you come to the meeting.
Usually people have quotes fromif they're buying equipment from
vendors and show us what theyneed, where they'll store it.
We ask them lots of questions.
We don't make it too easy onthem.
Then we vote on it.

SPEAKER_03 (37:49):
Well, you shouldn't.
I mean, no, we make them workfor their money, so well.

SPEAKER_04 (37:53):
Well, storage for years, storage was a problem,
and it still is.
You know, uh, you know, theywanted more equipment, so we we
we were buying them equipment,and the equipment was sitting
out year-round.
Um, they weren't putting itaway.
Uh, but they really didn't havea place to put it.
And uh, but now since that bondpassed years ago and they they

(38:14):
built the secondary gym, there'sa whole storage room in that
gym.
Uh, and there's each each sporthas their area.
Individual cage.
And they they put the thethere's a pole barn out by in
Unity Field that's used forstorage uh for track and for
football items.

(38:34):
It's unbelievable what trackequipment costs.
Unbelievable.
And it's bulky, you know, youall those hurdles, pads for the
high jump and for the polevault.
That stuff is big.
It takes a lot of space tostore, and it's that's you know,
they need storage spaces, andbut anyways, what I'm getting at

(38:58):
is there's those coaches have tosay, this is where we're gonna
keep it.
We've got a plan, we thought itout, you know, and uh and so
then we we vote on it, and it'snot very often that we vote no.
Not very it's done very, veryfew.

SPEAKER_01 (39:19):
And we love to hear that the coaches a lot of them
will say, I've done myfundraising, we're just a little
bit short.
Um, but we love it because theydo do their fundraising, a lot
of them do.
They really do.
And not say anything againstwhat Tom just said, but we do
have coaches that will send us athank you or a picture of the

(39:41):
item that we bought them, andthere are some that do oh right,
right.

SPEAKER_04 (39:44):
Yeah, there are, but there's there's a lot of them
out there.
I mean, you talk to the kids,there there are.
There's we get thank yous fromsome teams where every kid is
signed a thank you card.
But but you know, that happensonce a year.

SPEAKER_02 (39:59):
Yeah, and well, as a voice of Lakewood and being
involved in about every sport, Iappreciate all that you guys
have done over the years for ourstudent athletes.
Thank you.

SPEAKER_04 (40:10):
Yeah, well, thanks for having us.
Yeah, I think go green, goVikings.

SPEAKER_02 (40:16):
I think that pretty much wraps up tonight's show.
Thank you, and President RickBump, Vice President Kerry
Carter, Treasurer Tom Riser.
Thank you to Tommy and JudyScheid, owners of Buddies on the
Beach, for letting us do ourshow from here.
Go lions tonight.
Yes.