In anticipation of Kingston High School opening next fall, booster groups for the Buccaneer bands and athletic teams have already formed and taken the first steps in getting ready to lend support.
Greg Wright is heading up the KHS Athletic Boosters and Colette Wilson is leading the Band Boosters.
“These two folks have been invaluable and have contributed untold hours toward getting the band and athletic programs off the ground,” said KHS Principal Christy Cole.
Athletic Boosters
up and running
Wright, whose son Robbie will be a junior and plays baseball, took the initiative to get the Athletic Boosters incorporated, and has already filed for non-profit status and received a business license. Jeff Tapp will serve as vice president. Wright is looking for a treasurer and secretary to round out the boosters’ board of directors.
“It’s such a huge process,” Wright said, and hopes to get a robust membership and pool of volunteers in place before next fall.
He has also designed an impressive Web site for the KHS Boosters at www.khsboosters.org. The site has information on volunteering, membership, and ‘spirit gear’ such as sweatshirts and t-shirts that can be ordered with the boosters receiving 10 percent of proceeds.
Annual membership cost for the Athletic Boosters is $25 per person, $40 per family or $100 for businesses. All funds will go directly to support KHS athletic teams, Wright said. He hopes to hold the first meeting of the KHS Athletic Boosters this month. Details will be available on the Web site.
“This is the vehicle to earn money to be spent in athletics at KHS,” Wright said. “Things are going to crop up.”
The KHS Athletic Boosters will also partner with North Kitsap High School Boosters to run concession stands during football games that will be played at the NKHS stadium.
Right now, funding lights for the fields is a top priority for the community and the KHS administration has already begun strategizing a cooperative effort. Wright met with the Kingston Chamber of Commerce to garner support as well.
Other needs, Wright said, include surfacing tennis courts and putting in dugouts on the varsity baseball field.
He anticipates supplementing uniform and equipment purchases and storage. The boosters also hope to fund athletic scholarships for graduating seniors.
Ellen Anderson, whose son Bernie will be a senior and participates on football, basketball and track teams, is on the parent advisory board of KHS. She’s working to get a program in place to provide athletes with prepared meals that can be taken when teams travel for games. She’s looking for a nearby commercial kitchen where meals can be assembled and will work with the athletic director and coaches to find out what the teams will need.
“This is going to something for our little town,” she said of the school’s opening and increase of students and staff circulating through Kingston. “I really hope that people will get excited about this – they already are.”
Band Boosters
on the march
KHS Band Booster Chair Colette Wilson, who’s served as president of the Kingston Junior High Boosters, like Wright, is looking to gather interest in the group and get a board of directors lined up for June elections. She’s filing incorporation papers for non-profit status and fueling momentum for a strong booster organization. Other members of the board of directors include Sue Burke and Joanne Bartlett.
A Web site to facilitate communication between the boosters, students and parents will be up in the near future at www.khsbb.org.
“We’ll have an organization with a full slate of officers in September,” Wilson said, “but it will take a bit of arm twisting, recruiting and getting parents to volunteer.”
She anticipates that the KHS and Kingston Middle School boosters will work closely together to raise funds and support the music programs. But “the focus of the band boosters is going to shift somewhat at the high school,” she said. “At the junior high there is very little difference between programming and administration.” The junior high boosters focus on helping to plan and execute trips to parades and competitions from California to Canada.
“Christy (Cole) is mindful of programming and the booster organization and how they should be interrelated and function. Not so much as an extension of programming,” but as more of a fund-raising group to support the bands, Wilson explained. “It’s very easy to have confidence in her – she has a clear vision.
“With a new band program, you want to develop your own personality and identity and not necessarily what you were at North (Kitsap High School), and it takes time to figure out what that identity will be. We expect to, as always, do fund raising to ensure money is available as financial assistance to students.”
Marching uniforms for the band are already on order, but initial needs may include football jerseys for students to wear when playing at pep rallies, equipment racks, additional instruments and cleaning uniforms. Scholarships will also be offered.
“Everything we can do as parents and boosters in the next year or two, we’ll do, until everything settles out,” Wilson said.
Jeff Haag teaches band at the junior high and may take on some of the music program at KHS, though staff positions have not been finalized. The district is busy crunching numbers from recent student registrations for middle and high school students, he said, and so far, the high school band registration is large and may require additional classes.
He hopes the KHS band program can create its own traditions with the same family feeling at KJH.
Haag is currently working on a new fight song for KHS, based on one used at Washington State University, rearranging music and lyrics. “But that’s just number 312 of the 500 things I have in front of me.”
He welcomes having the band boosters at both schools working under a larger umbrella together to fund the programs for grades 6 through 12.
“What a blessing the boosters have been,” Haag said. “They are the backbone of what we do.”
Kingston High School points of contact
For information on KHS, go to www.nksd.wednet.edu/khs. The school’s newsletter, the Buccaneer Broadcast, is available there as well as course listings and staffing and meeting announcements. It also links to the KHS Athletic Boosters site, www.khsboosters.com with information on membership, activities and ‘spirit gear.’ Donations to the KHS Athletic Boosters are tax deductible and can be mailed to P.O. Box 1448, Kingston, WA, 98346. Contact KHS Athletic Boosters President Greg Wright at president@khsboosters.com and Athletic Booster Ellen Anderson at (360) 860-1380 or workboatengineering@msn.com.
Contact KHS Band Boosters Chair Colette Wilson at (360) 697-5487 or colette@cwwilson.com. The KHS Band Booster site is still in the works at www.khsbb.org. Contact Terry Darrow, KHS office manager, at (360) 394-4985. The address of Kingston High School is 26201 Siyaya Avenue NE, Kingston, WA 98346.
