Our Crowdfunding Groups
Arizona Lacrosse Alumni,
As the current Board of Directors for the Friends of Arizona Lacrosse charitable booster organization (“Friends”), we are asking all of you to consider a tax-deductible donation to the Arizona Lacrosse Program to help us fund the Program that played such an integral part of our college experience. Neither Friends, nor the Arizona Lacrosse Program have solicited the alumni group for many years now. In fact, generous donors like John and Kristi Lai have funded two Hall of Fame Induction weekends and the team has held other events such as our annual alumni games at no cost to the alumni. Program funding was also supplemented in recent years through the generosity of Richard and Joan Merryman during their son, Casey’s time with the Program (2018-2022). The Merryman’s donated tens of thousands of dollars to the program annually, including money to start our streaming broadcasts, fund team operations and team dinners.
We contact you at this time to kick-off an initiative to raise $50,000 annually through our alumni group to support the operation of the Arizona Lacrosse Program. By our count, there are more than 600 alums of the Program. If we can count on an average donation of $100 per alum per year, we make our goal (less than $10 per month). We hope we can count on each of you for at least that level of commitment. We know everyone's financial situation is different, but it is our hope that we will receive donations, both big and small, from the alumni community. Every dollar helps. A recurring monthly donation of as little as $10 will make all the difference for the program.
Why now?
As many of you know, after years of success, the Program fell into “disrepair” in the mid-2010’s. In 2017-2018, the team’s player Executive Board and a group of alumni worked together to select a new coach, repair relationships with the University and put a backoffice infrastructure in place to provide the Program with a stable operational platform. Our hope was that the program would rise to the prominence it once held. It has been more than 6 years since that action was taken. The Program has had been led on the field by Head Coach Matt Blamey for the past 6 years. The program has returned to consistently being ranked in the top 25 in the MCLA. We come to you at this time because we feel we have restored the Program to a level that we can all be very proud of and a Program that is deserving of your financial support.
Raising funds this year is of particular importance to close a budgetary shortfall that we expect to occur. The cause for the shortfall is multi-faceted. Inflation has hit the Program hard this year, with the rising cost of hotels, buses and food on road trips. The Program has also expanded this year, with the launch of a MCLA D2 program in addition to our D1 program. We have over 65 players participating at the two levels this year. Each player pays $3,600 in dues to participate in the program. It is important to the program that we hold the line on player dues.
What will your donation be used for?
Alumni donations will be applied to offset the team’s travel costs, including any post season travel, should the team qualify. Please note that this is NOT luxury travel. The team continues to stay 4 players to a room and uses middle tier hotels costing between $100 and $200 per night per room depending on the location. The team travels with a 54 passenger coach, with every seat taken. While many of us remember the days of car and van pool road trips, liability concerns have made chartered bus travel a requirement for a program of our size. Meals normally consist of pizza, sub sandwiches or other such fare. Our point being that your donations are not funding meals at 4 or 5 star restaurants. The team is committed to being a responsible steward of your generous donations.
We also intend to channel 10% of all donations into the Brian Etheredge Memorial Scholarship Fund. The fund balance currently sits at more than $130,000. The income generated by the fund pays for a scholarship for the senior player who most embodies the leadership and love of lacrosse of Brian Etheredge (2004-2006). We again thank the Etheredge Family for their generous donations of more than $100,000 to the fund.
As the Alumni Board, we do not approach you empty handed. Between the 6 of us on the board, we are starting this Crowd Funding campaign off with personal donations of more than $5,000.
We are hopeful that all of you men across the decades will step up now and commit to a minimum of a one time $100 donation and preferably a minimum of $10/month recurring donation to the program. Of course, we know that many of you can and will donate more. We thank you all for anything you can do to help and recognize the program.
Please use the convenient buttons in this request to make your donation today.
To set up a monthly gift, please visit: https://give.uafoundation.org/menslacrosse.
Sincerely,
2023 Arizona Alumni Lacrosse Board
Bill Small (’85), President
Kurt Veitch (’85), Vice President
Mike Kopy (’83), Alumni Engagement
JB Bassett (’88), Treasurer
Dave Lyons (’84), Member
Bake Shaffer, Member
Christian Schaefer (’12), Member
