Center fundraiser nets $76,000 at annual event

Approximately $90,000 was raised at this year’s Cheyenne County Community Center Foundation, Inc. Annual Fundraiser held at Buffalo Point, March 23.

According to Cheyenne County Community Center Director Michael Namuth 145 center members, staff and supporters came out to enjoy the evening and event.

The night started at 5:30 p.m. with a cocktail/social hour and silent auction before moving on to the meal, presentations and a live auction.

The meal consisted of braised beef, garlic mashed potatoes and vegetables.

“It was really good,” admitted the director.

At 7 p.m. presentations began and Supporter of the Year was announced.

“Kids Plus always makes a presentation to the center, and this year they donated $2,500 to the foundation basically for scholarships and stuff for kids,” said Namuth.

“Kids Plus is a collaborative community driven organization that provides protection, prevention and promotes family health, wellbeing and empowerment,” said Kids Plus Organization officials.

The organization helps provide these scholarships for kids at the center on an annual basis.

“They give to the part of our program that we use for offering scholarships for programs and membership for kids that can’t afford to pay,” said the center’s director.

Ironically enough, this donation coincided with the foundation’s Supporter of the Year Award.

“Our Supporter of the Year this year was our Youth Activity Club members (essentially the Kids Plus program that donates to the foundation, and local supporting businesses),” he said. “The Youth Activity Club members are a collective group of businesses in town. We currently have about 80 businesses in town that contribute to that.

“The funds raised through this additional fundraising program are used for the same purpose for offering scholarships for our sports programs and memberships to the center for youth that can’t afford to participate.”

The award went to the club and the collective group of businesses as a whole.

“The businesses donate to that program on an annual basis,” said Namuth. “They do that every year, and we have businesses that have been members for the duration of since when we first started it in 1996.

“Basically the board thought that this year it was a nice way to recognize the businesses of the community as a whole and to thank them for their support over the years.”

A live auction followed the presentations, and the donated items came from members of the community, businesses and community center board members, according to the director.

“Board members will go offer up Husker or Bronco tickets. We’ll have a board member that gets Creighton tickets all the time, and there was approximately 30 live auction items and 45 silent auction items,” he said.

Although some of the items were signed Husker baseballs, basketballs and footballs, live auction items were not restricted to sports-related paraphernalia.

A Honda rototiller, for example, was also auctioned off.

“What’s really neat about it is we have baskets that people will put together and donate,” he said. “We even had a pedicure basket. The items are a wide variety of items and I think that is what makes this event. People have a choice of anything they want.”

The event was created in 2006 by foundation members, and center members and supporters of the center’s efforts have been attending ever since.

“The community center is owned by a foundation,” said Namuth. “The reason we started this is we needed a way to try to funnel support into the foundation financially to try to build that up, because the foundation is the only thing there to support the community center.”

Namuth said that all donations to the foundation are tax deductible, including half of the event ticket that costs $75 per person.

The other half goes to meal and banquet expenses.

“Over the years we have used the money to purchase new equipment. We put a rubberized surface on the walking track upstairs and we purchased a new bus for the daycare.

“The budget is tight here at the community center so we try to keep costs down for people to join by using the donations,” he said. “So this banquet is just a way for people to support our efforts.”

Namuth said that a person does not have to be a member of the center to attend and that anyone and everyone is welcome every year.

“We’ve got people that come to the event that aren’t members but they support our efforts and what we are trying to do,” he said. “But also a lot of people are members of the center and they support it in that way but they also come and support the foundation.”

The fundraiser is usually around the same time every year, and occurs either the third or fourth weekend in March.

Next year tickets can found and purchased at the community center starting approximately March 1, and this year 920 invites were sent out to members.

Namuth said that this year’s $90,000 was donated through ticket sales, the purchasing of auction items at the event and through standard donations. The foundation took home a net profit of approximately $76,000 for community center efforts.

“That’s the most we’ve raised and each year is better and better,” said Namuth.

“With this event it just amazes me the support that we get from the community,” said the director. “With everything that’s going on and even through tough times we have some of our better years of raising money in this event.

“It’s just great to see a community come together for a cause and support that cause. I thank everybody for their continued support and without it we wouldn’t be able to do what we do,” said Namuth.