McDonald alumni asked to raise funds for complex

By Mary Smith

A ‘class challenge’ is asking each graduating class to raise $12,000.

McDONALD — The McDonald Alumni Association, which has been meeting for four months to develop a plan and committees to raise funds for a new stadium complex, will have a second facilities forum at the high school auditorium Jan. 5.

The fund-raising project has been dubbed “Project Blue” by the association. Although turnout was light for the first forum Monday, with some 30 residents attending, all of those who came had “good things to say” about the project and alumni fund-raising plans, school board member Jeffrey Hughes said.

Hughes said Wednesday that before the association can really start to build steam for the fund-raising campaign, the school board has to act to place an issue on the May 2009 ballot for a sports stadium complex.

He said the school board will have to come up with a plan by the end of January or early February for the levy.

Two previous ballot requests, for 4.9 mills in November 2005 and 4.5 mills in May 2006, failed by slim margins. Each issue would have raised $248,000 annually on a continuous basis.

The alumni association has committed to making a $500,000 donation to the sports complex project to help fund a portion of the cost of Project Blue.

Meanwhile, a push to enlist committee members is a priority for the association.

A “class challenge” has been made by the committee, and each graduating class from 1939 to 2008 is being asked to come up with $12,000 each toward the association’s commitment of funds.

The committee is still seeking class representatives, and those interested can contact president John Saganich at (216) 479-6120 or by logging on to the alumni association Web site: www.friendsofmhs.com.

The committee is especially working on locating alumni who live out of town, and is looking for volunteers to help with the fund-raising efforts.

Plans also include getting pupils involved, and to meet with the PTA group at Roosevelt Elementary, as well as the band boosters and other school organizations.

Committees already formed include a committee for corporate sponsors and a committee for building blocks, or “pavers” for a walkway into the complex, which will be sold at different levels of sponsorship. Details of this project are to be completed by the end of this month, when a decision on selling blocks or choosing pavers will be made.

Plans for the stadium complex include a new stadium, a six-lane all-weather track, concessions, and a collapsible band shell which will go over a high jump pit.

Committee meetings are held the first Monday of every month at 7 p.m. in the high school library, and are open to the public.