Every Santa Clara non-profit finds a way to host a fundraiser to support their community projects.
Some of these fund seeking projects are fun and some are just a lot of work.
Santa Clara Rotary club has been building on a fund raising project for the past seven years that doesn’t require eating another chicken dinner, buying raffle tickets or attending another event.
The members of the Santa Clara Rotary club sponsor the Santa Clara Cup soccer tournament. This is not just your average, have a few soccer games and host a few teams, kind of event.
The club takes over virtually every available field in Santa Clara, sells out their tournament with a total of 96 teams, 1,700 kids, 2,000 parents and enlists every club member to work the tournament for two days in August.
Tournament Chairs, contractor Ken Rowell and SCFD Captain, Marty Von Raesfeld have diligently worked to enhance the experience for attendees. First, second and third place teams in each age group are given a beautiful trophy and every team member is given recognition with a medal for their accomplishment.
While the tournament is designed as a fundraiser, the actual ability to raise funds for Rotary community projects is limited by the number of teams that can be accommodated in the City.
Initially the brainchild of Financial Advisor Steve Duffy and CPA Nick Streit, the soccer program was designed to supplement the soccer tournament fundraising by selling advertisement space in the program.
In 2002, the Soccer Program developed into an insert in the Santa Clara WEEKLY city wide edition reaching nearly 80,000 readers in Santa Clara.
Last year, the Rotary club members sold over $30,000 of advertising for their soccer program.
Jeweler and club President Michael “Diamond Mike” Beach has indicated the club’s goal for this year’s insert is for club members to sell $40,000 in advertising.
Since the club kicked off the advertising campaign on May 1, they have already sold over $12,500 in ads.
“It seems that any business who is in business in Santa Clara wants to be in this program,” said Beach. “It is like the “Whose Who” of local business.”
Santa Clara Rotary has used their collected funds to host a “Shoes and Book” project to provide 500 underserved 1st and 2nd grade students with a new pair of shoes and a new book. Second, they fund nearly a dozen scholarships for community college bound seniors who can’t afford to leave home and who would not qualify for academic financial assistance. Third, they do a senior BBQ for Santa Clara senior residents, providing them an enjoyable lunch and Rotary fellowship.
Beach indicates the largest single community project is Rotary’s Christmas for Kids. Each year, over 150 local hand picked young people are selected to participate in a bus ride, lunch, face painting, music, and a visit from Santa who presents each attendee with a bag of toys and new winter coat. “This event is the highlight of our Rotary year,” says Beach.
For information on buying an ad for the Rotary Soccer Program call Mike Beach at Ben Bridge Jewelers, 408-985-8884 or Miles Barber at the Santa Clara Weekly 408-243-2000.
Miles H. Barber can be reached at Scweekly2004@yahoo.com
