Community members with a vision of developing and improving the athletic facilities in LaRue County approached the LaRue County School Board several months ago with their plan to raise money to install turf on the high school football field.
The now “C.H.A.M.P. committee” says the need is there and it’s time for this to happen.
This is not a school system-driven program, this is a community project. The members are represented across athletic programs, including soccer, track and field, football and the band program, along with youth sports.
Jay Edlin is one of those community members.
“The high school facility is heavily used, and it cannot sustain the traffic and the abuse it gets year around,” Edlin said of the grass field. “Improving the facilities will be extremely beneficial in the long run for students.”
The school board has worked one-on-one with the community group to work in accordance with the state laws concerning the funds since it related to school property.
Edlin shared that as a community project, it will not be tax dollar funded.
In order to formally begin this process, the school board voted unanimously at its July 17 regularly scheduled board meeting to approve the BG1 CHAMP facility improvement plan. With this approval, the community member group along with the school board can legally start the process of the partnership.
The committee has commitments to create a public-private partnership program to make the dreams of better athletic facilities a reality in LaRue County.
The money needed for the project is expected to be near the $1.8 to $2 million dollar mark and will be handled by the Central Kentucky Community Foundation, with the community’s help needed to make this a reality.
The funding of this project met its first goal on Monday with a $150,000 donation to kick start the partnership program.
Brian and Denise Martin of Magnolia have confirmed the donation and are pleased to help the project begin.
The Martins made the donation after a LaRue County student they know personally spoke of the condition of the track, in turn helping them realize the need for improvements.
The track and field teams are unable to adequately practice on the track and were unable to host meets at home because of the conditions.
“The substandard condition of the facilities is preventing kids of the school district to reach their highest potential,” Denise Martin said. “We want to help, and we hope others will step up and do the same for all the athletic facilities.”
The Martins do not have and never have had any children in the school system. Moving to the county in 2003 from out of state has proven to be a blessing for them, the Martins said, and this donation is a means of giving back.
“The student-athletes of LaRue County deserve to have the best facilities to reach their potential,” a statement from the Martins said.
Student Molli Jo Wooldridge said the lack of facilities is an obstacle and prevents them from being recognized regionally as much as they should be.
Even though 22 students advanced to the state level, training at home and being host for events would bring pride and revenue to their program if the track was improved.
With donations from the community being managed by the foundation for the initial construction, a planned foundation philanthropy fund will be used to sustain the repairs and upkeep and future athletic program investments.
The Martins’ commitment is to give $50,000 to start that fund in 2024, which will be seed money for the effort.
LaRue County Schools started an escrow account for facilities in 2019. With a nest egg of $400,000, the schools have initiated the first phase of the process by soliciting architectural services for work associated with the renovation, upgrades and modernization of the football field and track and field surfaces.
The plan for facility improvements is part of the LaRue County Schools District Facility Plan.
Facilities work will be handled internally by the district, but the support of fundraising is being handled solely by the community group.
“We will be working directly with the architect while this very competent and positive group of folks drives the program forward,” board chairwoman Joanna Hinton said.
The initial stages of the upgrades will be to place turf on the football field, with the improvements needed to the track happening simultaneously.
The hope of the committee is to create on ongoing effort to improve facilities. An athletic facility committee was formed by the Board of Education in June.
Creating opportunities by providing facilities for students in LaRue County is the No. 1 goal of the committee.
“The look to the future with this project is exciting because it has so much community interest,” LaRue County Superintendent David Raleigh said.
Hinton acknowledged this is an non-traditional way of upgrading facilities, but community partnerships are something that will become more common in the future.
“We are setting a standard of how things can work here and can be a model for other school districts like us that don’t have a large tax base to provide opportunities for our kids,” Hinton said. “So how do we do that? I think this community partnership is the way we are attempting to tackle that.”
To learn more about how to donate go to larue.kyschools.us/champ and the “would you like to help?” section has a “give here button” which links with the Central Kentucky Community Foundation.
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