Director of Fundraising Announcement!

On behalf of the board of directors, I am happy to announce that we have created a new position within BNSC. Sam Sandmire has agreed to take on the role of Director of Fundraising for the club. As many of you know, on every one of our teams, we have families whose children play on partial or full scholarship due to the families’ current financial situation. As the size of our club continues to grow and as our national and local economy continues to struggle, we have found that our fundraising efforts are becoming more crucial to the support of our scholarship program.

In addition to supporting our scholarship program, our fundraising efforts also go directly back to keeping all of our families’ costs low. The unfortunate reality of soccer in America is that it can be a prohibitively expensive sport for kids to play. As a club, we have always believed in trying to keep costs low in an effort to keep the greatest number of kids playing the game for as long as possible. Our
fundraising efforts allow us to do this and are going to be absolutely crucial in the next year for us to keep our club dues at a reasonable level for everyone.

We have also recognized that without a consistency to our events and a central resource to organize our many volunteers, our fundraising efforts will never be as productive as they could be. This is why I am extremely pleased that Sam has agreed to take on this role in the club. Sam was the head gymnastics coach at Boise State University for 20 years. During that time, she led the women's team to several conference championships, qualified to NCAA Regional Championships 19 consecutive years and had the highest graduation rate of any team on campus. In that role, Sam learned that she was more than a coach, but was in fact the spokeswoman for the program and the primary fundraiser for her team.

After retiring from coaching in 2007, Sam served as co-commissioner for the 2009 Special Olympics World Winter Games Festival. Throughout her life, Sam has been involved in organizing countless fundraising events and has served on several boards including PAYADA, Idaho Women’s Challenge, TSEF and Anser Charter School.  If you have any questions or ideas for Sam, please get in touch with her via e-mail at carysamidaho@cableone.net. Thank you Sam and thank you to all of our volunteers who help out with our fundraising events. Without your efforts, it would not be possible for many of our kids to play the game they love!

Chris Billings
BNSC President