An auction fundraiser in La Center will be one of the first actions a new La Center Little League (LCLL) board and president make toward facility improvements in the next year.
The fundraiser will take place from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m. Saturday, Nov. 23, at Podunk Pizza Company, 630 E. Birch Ave., La Center.
Because the pandemic created financial issues, in part because of refunds to participants after the season was shut down in 2020, new LCLL President Kori Burke is hoping to replenish savings and raise funds for maintenance and facility upgrades, she said.
“I got on the board last year and ran the concessions, did all the marketing. We had record numbers and everything, and we weren’t very organized, and we didn’t have enough money to completely redo what we needed to do,” Burke said. “So, my goal this year was to run for president and get on and make some changes. My dad used to run Cascade Little League in Vancouver and they did auctions to raise money, and that was one thing that brought in a lot of money.”
Burke, who became the Little League president in October, said she set the vision for a fundraiser in August and in September, and she told the board she wanted to have an auction by the end of the year to provide a financial cushion for the upcoming spring season.
“I would like the community to know that we have a brand new board this year,” Burke said. “There’s a lot of people on the board from last year that stepped down, and we are looking to make it bigger and better and make things more organized and hoping to get more kids involved in the community because the more kids involved in sports, the less ruckus around here, right?”
With the funds raised from the auction fundraiser, Burke said organizers want to add drainage pipes underneath the infields, add lighting in the coming years for night games and redo rotted wood around the park, including at the snack shack.
“We have some big goals … We’re trying to improve our infrastructure and our fields and whatnot,” Burke said. “So the biggest thing is right now, our fields are built on water, and they flood, and so we’ve got a great person on our board that does excavation and he’s got a bunch of people that are willing to donate their time and energy into redoing our fields to make them even better and so they’re going to tear them up and fix the drainage issues and whatnot, but we need some funds in order to do that.”
Burke said her funding goal has been set for $30,000, but the board believes they will hit roughly $10,000.
For the fundraiser, the LCLL has arranged both silent and live auctions for various items, such as guided fishing trips, a TV, a hot tub and more. One of the biggest items, a cut and wrapped Wagyu-Angus finished steer raised by Crown R Land and Cattle farm, slaughtered by Moran Kemper on Nov. 26, and finished with cut and wrap services by McPhee’s Butcher Block packs an estimated value of $7,690.
“So we have the live auction and then we have a silent auction. Silent auction options are smaller things, like we got some botox donated. We’ve got photography sessions donated. We’ve got some baskets that people have donated,” Burke said, adding Exit 16 is donating some beer and Podunk has donated a lot of time and energy to help, as well.”
For more information and ways to donate to the LCLL, visit clubs.bluesombrero.com/Default.aspx?tabid.
