For the second year in a row, community donations have covered the cost of sending students to state competition.
After the school board announced in late 2023 that the district could no longer afford to cover the cost of state travel expenses for students, volunteers established the Wrangell Athletic Club to take on the task of fundraising enough every year to reimburse the school district.
The district in July presented the nonprofit with an invoice for $24,455 for travel expenses during the 2024-2025 school year, which the group planned to pay last week, after its Oct. 2 board meeting.
Last year, the Wrangell Athletic Club reimbursed the district $25,042 for 2023-2024 school year travel.
The district pays the bills during the year and asks for reimbursement at the end.
The costs will vary each year, depending on which sports teams and other student activity groups go to state competition. The school district covers regular season and Southeast championship events out of its operating budget.
“It is a struggle,” said Chris Johnson, Wrangell Athletic Club board president. “We’re getting a little more innovative” in fundraising.
In addition to asking for donations, the nonprofit is considering fundraising dinners. But there is a limit to how much people can eat, even for a good cause, he said. “There have been a lot of dinners. The community really gets saturated.”
Competition for fundraising dollars is increasing, Johnson noted. “There is an inordinate amount of groups in town,” all worthy, which are trying to raise money for their causes.
The Wrangell Athletic Club hopes for a profitable sale of a 20-foot aluminum skiff, now under construction at the high school shop class as a senior project of Brody Knecht, who will donate the skiff when it is finished. The nonprofit plans to sell the vessel, pay back the school district for the material, and then put the proceeds into its treasury for next year’s invoice for state travel expenses.
“It should be done by December,” Johnson said of the skiff. He estimates the material costs will take the first $6,000 of the sale proceeds.
Now through the spring — when student activities are fully underway — is the main money-raising season for the group.
Anyone willing to donate to the support organization can mail a check to PO Box 248, Wrangell 99929, or email wrangellathleticclub@gmail.com for more information.