Jeff Caso has watched a lot of children benefit over the last two years from the Thunderbird Community Sports Foundation supported by Seattle Thunderbirds hockey fans.
From Kent School District students who need help to pay athletic fees to new equipment for the Kent Valley Hockey Association, the nonprofit foundation has awarded 30 grants worth a total of $64,700 during its initial two years of operation after the Thunderbirds moved to the ShoWare Center in Kent from KeyArena in Seattle.
“We’ve exceeded what we thought we would be able to do,” said Caso, president of the Thunderbird Community Sports Foundation and a hockey operations assistant for the T-Birds.
Seattle opens the 2011-12 Western Hockey League season Sept. 24 at the ShoWare Center.
A 50/50 drawing and jersey raffle at T-Birds home games serves as the primary fundraiser for the foundation. Fans can buy a $2 drawing ticket with $1 going to the winner’s pot and $1 to the foundation.
Tickets for the 50/50 are sold until the end of the second intermission. Winners are drawn at the 10-minute mark of the third period. Volunteers, many from the Kent-Meridian Key Club, run the 50/50 drawing.
Only 200 jersey raffle tickets are sold at each game to give fans a 1 in 200 shot at winning. Jersey raffle tickets cost $5. One jersey is given away each game.
“The last 10 to 15 home games we sold out (200 raffle tickets) before the first period was over,” Caso said of the 2010-11 season that wrapped up in March.
The Kent School District has received more than $15,000 from the foundation to help students pay for fees the district charges to participate in middle school and high school sports. The foundation has given $9,000 to the Kent Valley Hockey Association to help pay for beginner equipment as well as fees of players who cannot afford to pay.
“Our focus is the Kent area but we are not limited to that,” Caso said.
Other groups that have received funds include the Auburn Little League, the Auburn Specialized Recreational Program, the city of Kent Parks program for elementary children, the Western Washington Female Hockey Association and the Kent Community Foundation.
“Our mission is to help all amateur athletics and athletes,” Caso said. “We’ve helped everyone from minor hockey to Special Olympics to club basketball and the Kent School District.”
The foundation is run by a three-person board of directors and 16 voting members. Subcommittees review grant applications and work on fundraising ideas.
In fact, partly because 50/50 sales have gone so well, the foundation is working on coming up with an annual fundraising event as another way to raise money because the Washington State Gambling Commission limits how much a nonprofit group can bring in through drawings and raffles.
“We’re bumping up against the gambling limit,” Caso said. “We need to figure out how to get more money coming in so we can get more money going out. But that’s a good problem to have.”
The Thunderbirds started the foundation after they decided to move to Kent from Seattle. The Sno-King Amateur Hockey Association ran the 50/50 drawings at KeyArena but did not continue that fundraiser after the T-Birds move. That opened the door for the T-Birds to go a new direction with the formation of the Thunderbirds Community Sports Foundation.
Not every group that applies for grants receives funds.
“We do get more (applications) than we can fund each year,” Caso said. “That’s another reason we’re looking for new ways to raise money.”
Youth and amateur sports associations, schools, teams and individuals can apply twice a year for grants from the foundation at www.thunderbirdsfoundation.com.
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