Rural communities unite to support school improvement project
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CHARLO – Support for a community project to fix up a school’s outdoor complex has spread across Lake County.
“It’s amazing how much support Charlo is getting from surrounding communities,” said Harley Coleman, board chairman of the Charlo Community Outdoor Complex project.
Businesses, community members and school alumni from all over the county and outside the state have been purchasing signs for an annual fee of $250 to support a project to update the school’s track and field.
“We thought we should create a new slogan for this project and say ‘Together We Can’ because so many people are coming together to make this happen,” he said.
He said the school is the center of the community, and people have been thankful that there is a project they can support to help improve school facilities at a time when many schools don’t have funding available for infrastructure.
“If the school dies, the community dies, and if the community dies, the businesses die with it. And if one community goes, it has a ripple effect on all the communities (in the county), so people are coming together to support this,” he said.
Charlo students in the shop class recently put the signs up in the gym, above the basketball hoop, and near the entrance. Each sign is three feet wide and two feet deep. Individual names or business logos are colorfully printed on them.
Seventy-one signs are currently on the wall and there are plans to add more. Coleman thought the group might sell around 20 signs, another member of the community guessed that about 50 would be sold, but the number is moving closer to 100.
The project started about three years ago when Coleman looked at the Ronan School District’s rubber track with a bit of envy. He thought of Charlo’s dirt based track and wanted to fix it up. The school isn’t able to hold track meets because the track isn’t adequate. So, Coleman and other concerned community members organized with the purpose of fixing up Charlo’s outdoor complex.
During the first phase of the project, they focused on the center of the track, which was often a muddy football field. The group raised about $100,000 to resurface the field and lay out new grass.
High school senior Shad Andersen said the school’s football team helped put down the sod last summer. He remembers football games and practice before the new grass was put in: “It was so muddy it was hard to walk on with cleats. Now, it doesn’t get near as slick, and the grass is much greener. It’s a huge difference.”
Complex volunteers are working on raising the money for the second phase of the project, which includes a rubberized track around the football field. Coleman said the group has raised just over $100,000, but they need about $250,000.
The newly minted signs will bring in about $25,000 a year to support the project. With revenue from the signs, donations, and grants, the group hopes to have enough money raised to start construction on the track in 2019.
Coleman said the project was done without tax revenue in an effort make sure people kept a positive outlook about it. He said he worried that people wouldn’t think the upgrade was necessary if tax money was used.
The volunteers, organized by a board of seven and one treasurer, have put together several fundraising events from selling slices of pie at parades to the sign project.
The second Viking Challenge, the next fundraiser, is planned for March 24. The challenge includes a foot race and obstacle course. For more information about purchasing a gym sign or volunteering, call 406-644-2232.
