CONNEAUT – Long before a member of the Conneaut High School Marching Band dons their blue and gold uniform, they often participate in youth sports at the CLYO complex. Between the two organizations, Conneaut’s children get an entire youth full of lessons and enjoyment.
It only made sense for the Conneaut Music Boosters and the CLYO board to link up for the Sportsman’s Bash, a raffle benefitting both organizations.
“(The collaboration is) very important because a lot of our band kids also play ball down here,” Missy Arcaro, with the Conneaut Music Boosters, said. “Our band kids play baseball. They play softball. They play soccer. They’ve started out here when they were little, so the collaboration between the two is wonderful.”
“CLYO is always looking to improve the facilities here, so we collaborated,” Arcaro continued. “There’s different parts of the raffle that support the boosters, and then there’s different parts that support CLYO, but we’re all doing it together.”
The CLYO board understands that the children who enter their programs will eventually participate in the programs at the high school.
“I think it’s amazing (that we work together) because the kids grow up here (at CLYO),” CLYO Secretary Booke McFadden said. “They start at age 4. We offer T-ball and soccer, and they just grow up through here before aging out at age 16. They go to the middle school and then they move on to the high-school band and different sports. I think it’s amazing that we can cooperate with them and work together. I think it’s amazing and I’m hoping we do it next year.”
Each organization sold tickets for raffle items which benefited their group. They then teamed up to supply items for the Chinese auction and split those proceeds along with the 50/50 proceeds.
“It’s been amazing,” McFadden said. “This is our second year doing it, and it just gets better and better every year. This year we partnered with the music boosters to do the Chinese auction and the 50/50 drawing, as well, so it’s been great. We had a great turnout last year and an even better one this year. It’s amazing to see all the groups of people who came out for the music boosters while supporting the kids that play here.”
More than 25 outdoors-related items raffled included an AR-15; Colt 1911; Mossberg 500; Springfield 9 mm; Smith & Wesson .380; Ruger American; .450 Bushmaster; Ruger 9 mm; Savage .22; Henry Youth .22; ATI Bulldog 12-gauge; Winchester 20-gauge; kayak; Blacksmith gun safe; electric bicycle; golf package; Yeti cooler; paddleboard; fishing charter; wagon of whiskey; fishing gear; Byrna launcher; and $500 cash.
The event also included a Chinese auction, 50/50 raffle, food truck, concessions, beer, music, a dunk tank and cornhole.
The music boosters are looking to send the Conneaut High School Marching Band to Ohio University.
“We want to take the band to Band Day at Ohio University,” Arcaro said. “They’ll get to march on the field with the Marching 110.”
“The buses to get the kids to Band Day is $7,100, and that doesn’t include the cost of water and snacks and stuff like that,” Arcaro continued. “We can’t take school busses to Athens, so we have to get charters. We’ve sold $5,500 in tickets, so that’s good, but we’ve also got money tied up in prizes. We’re giving away 28 main prizes.”
CLYO is in the midst of transforming one of its fields so more athletes can benefit from using it.
“We won’t know how much we raise until the end of the day because we’re currently still selling tickets,” McFadden said. “Our goal was, hopefully, to make $5,000. We are currently turning Field 4 into a multipurpose field. It’s a $20,000 project. We want to make that a multipurpose field for softball, baseball and Challengers to play on it. We’re digging out the mound and making it all dirt so it can be used for all of that. We’re very excited. We’re actually supposed to start that project in August. We’re trying to make it more wheelchair accessible for the Challenger teams that play here.”
The Sportsman’s Bash is one of two big fundraisers for CLYO.
“This is great,” McFadden said. “We only do one other big event for CLYO. We do a spring soccer tournament in April. This is later in our season, which helps offset and helps raise costs, but it also brings out different groups of people. Our spring soccer tournament is mostly just soccer parents. This is all different kinds of people, which is so nice. We appreciate the community coming out and supporting us. It’s great.”
The Music Boosters were thankful to have the community’s support for the event.
“We’re extremely grateful for the community support because we ask the community for a lot and it always comes out in droves,” Arcaro said. “The community supports everything.”
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