EDITORIAL: BOOSTER CLUB BROADER OUTLOOK NOTEWORTHY

Given the breadth of athletic success and community engagement Freeman Public has enjoyed over the years and decades, it’s shocking that a long-standing booster club isn’t a central part of the Freeman Flyers tradition.

But it is not.

For one reason or another, the constituency that supports the Freeman Public School District in so many other ways has not stepped forward to introduce and develop an organization whose sole intent is to support the students and the organizations of which they are a part. Booster clubs simply come with the territory in so many other schools and communities, including those in Freeman’s own backyard.

That just hasn’t been the case here — until now.

Thanks to Becca Schultz and a handful of other parents with students in the school system (and no doubt an abundance of Flyer Pride), the Freeman Booster Club has finally been organized.

Its formal kick-off event is set for Friday night at Canistota/Freeman’s football game here in town, and beginning at 6:30 p.m. just outside the football field, parents and other supporters of the Flyers are invited to sign up to be part of the club. There are no expectations, necessarily, other than the idea of supporting something larger than one’s self, and possibly being asked to sling hot dogs or fill sloppy joes at a fundraiser somewhere along the way.

“We just have to get a little more force behind our organization,” Schultz told The Courier in this week’s 5-Minute Interview — the very idea behind Friday’s launch party.

To the credit of Schultz and others who have been working closely with the organizational effort, they are not limiting the Freeman Booster Club to strictly athletics. On the contrary, they have been intentional about making sure the public understands that the organization supports other activities too — namely, the fine arts.

Freeman is every bit as well-known for music, theater and other creative-building mechanisms as it is for athletics — maybe even more so — and the booster club’s recognition of this speaks loudly as to just how important it is. Raising funds in support of sports is low-hanging fruit; it’s the broader approach that could really help spell success for the Freeman Booster Club.

And, once things really get rolling, there’s no telling what kind of reach this could have. The trickledown effect could very easily move from basketball to band, from football to FFA, and from drama on the stage to drama on the volleyball court. And who knows what else.

It’s high time the Freeman Booster Club gets organized, and Schultz and Company deserve big credit for finally bringing Freeman Public into the fold, and doing so while looking forward with peripheral vision.

Now, public support is key. Parents, alumni, friends of the district and even those who have nothing to do with Freeman Public could help support our next generation of movers and shakers by moving and shaking themselves.

A tent will be set up just past the ticket booth at Freeman’s football field Friday night. Stop by, sign up and get a free hot dog, bag of chips, water and button in the process, not because free is good, but because acknowledging and supporting a broader effort is better.

Jeremy Waltner  |  Editor & Publisher