(After this, check out our list of the hottest track stars that can help your fundraiser)

#5 Kristi Leskinen

Date of Birth: 2/10/1981
Hometown: Uniontown, Pennsylvania
Sport: Free-skiing

#4 Jamie Sale

Date of Birth: 4/21/1977
Hometown: Edmonton, Alberta
Sport: Pair Skater

#3 Gretchen Bleiler

Date of Birth: 4/10/1981
Hometown: Toledo, Ohio
Sport: Half-Pipe (Snowboarding)

#2 Tanith Belbin

Date of Birth: 7/11/1984
Hometown: Kingston, Ontario
Sport: Figure Skater

#1 Anna Semenovich

Date of Birth: 3/1/1980
Hometown: Moscow, Russia
Sport: Figure Skater

Click here for our list of the hottest track stars that can help your fundraiser

Runners tackling the Sainsbury’s Sport Relief Mile will complete a course ending at Forest Green Rovers FC to help raise funds for poor and vulnerable people.

More than 200 individuals – including MP David Drew – have already signed up for the event, which is among dozens of similar runs taking place worldwide for the Comic Relief initiative.

Co-organiser Simon Barnes, a fitness instructor, said: “This is about allowing everybody and anybody to run, have fun and raise money for a good cause at the same time.

“I would like everyone to dress up, come along and do a mile – it is not as far as you think.”

The Sainsbury’s Sport Relief Mile, which will happen on Sunday, March 21 at 11am, will cover a figure of eight starting at Nailsworth Primary School playing field.

Runners will complete a lap of the field, cross a private service road to the football club and run around the outside of the stadium.

They will then enter the stadium, run along the walkway in front of the stands before ending at the stadium.

The runners will be spurred on by family and friends seated in the stands as well as Forest Green’s official cheerleaders.

Folk and blues group, Ben and Ru, will be at the Green Lamb bar, performing motivational songs which will be relayed outside to the runners on a sound system.

The course is one mile but fundraisers can complete further laps to cover three or six miles.

Runners of all ages and abilities can take part but primary school children must be accompanied.

Organisers hope about 400 to 500 people will join in.

The cost is £5 for an adult and £2 for a child but fundraisers can also collect sponsorship.

To sign up, visit www.sportrelief.com

#5 Jenny Adams

Date of Birth: 7/8/1978
Hometown: Tomball, Texas
Event: 100 meter hurdles

#4 Amy Acuff

Date of Birth: 7/14/1975
Hometown: Port Arthur, Texas
Event: High Jump

#3 Mary Sauer

Date of Birth: 10/31/1975
Hometown: Green Bay, Wisconsin
Event: Pole Vault

#2 Alisson Stoke

Date of Birth: 3/22/1989
Hometown: Norwalk, California
Event: Pole Vault

#1 Sara Galimberti

Date of Birth: ???
Hometown: Italy
Event: 800 and 1500 meters

Click here for our list of the hottest winter sports stars that can help your fundraiser

Sweet souvenirs. Work with a team to brainstorm fundraising ideas that will put everyone’s creativity to a test. Pre-teens will enjoy giving a hand in bake sales, designing cookies, candies and cupcakes or other novelty items to sell for the fundraiser. Make use of easy to understand and identifiable themes that will make the fundraising effort stand out and be recognized within the community. The more creative the presentation and the products are, the more people will want to purchase them. The fundraising organizers may opt to bake cupcakes and cookies with sports-related themes or make hand-made knick knacks and souvenirs that will reflect the sports theme of the fundraiser.

Car wash. Organizers can hold a fundraising car wash at the school parking lot and play some good music while the cars are getting cleaned and shined.  Organizers can also opt to serve simple refreshments while giving a short speech about the fundraiser to raise awareness to those who are participating. Crank up the music and get the cheerleaders do a short number for those waiting in line for the car wash. Make sure to hold your fundraising car wash party in an appropriate place where no one will complain of the noise—or the soap suds!

Scratch cards. There are a number of great scratch card sources over the internet. Some provide cheap bonuses like personalization and design, with a reasonable amount of profit. Scratch cards easily yield up to 80% to 90% profit without the hassle. These scratch cards are pocket-sized booklets with scratch off circles and a coupon pad in the center. Some scratch cards can be personalized or designed with the theme of the organizer’s choice. Scratch cards can also be printed with the team’s photo in front. Each fundraising participant who gets scratch card will scratch two or more circles and will pay the total amounts revealed by the scratch off. Make sure to place amounts that are easily affordable but will raise sufficient funds to meet the fundraising organizers’ goals.

Little league cookie dough. Let’s face it—everyone loves cookies! A little goes a long way for these sugary treats as everybody will surely buy a piece or two. They are easy to sell by piece or by dozens—depending on how good they are!—so organizers must make sure to come up with quality scrumptious cookies that will definitely sell and bring in the money for the fundraiser. A bake sale is a common fundraiser that will also work with sports fundraising. Parents and teachers can come together to bake cupcakes and other handy pastries that are easy on the budget but will definitely sell.

Local pizza store discount cards. Take a trip to the neighborhood’s favorite pizza parlor and ask them to participate in the sports fundraising activity by either being at the sports event or providing some great offers to be printed out on discount cards. Other establishments that may provide great discounts include sandwich shops, local restaurants, florists, dry cleaners and car washes. Make sure that it is a popular service that most people frequent and everybody will enjoy.

Recycling. With the mass of pollution and environmental damage people encounter everyday, it does not hurt to try and help save the earth and what’s left of it. Parents and teachers alike will definitely want to help preserve the environment for their children and the generations to come. Everyone can give a hand in this type of fundraising activity—all they need to do is collect empty ink jet cartridges or soup labels to give back to the local grocery store, who will in turn provide an amount of cash for the little league. Make sure that the business is willing to participate in the cause and support the fundraising activity.

Sports fundraising ball. The high school student council can serve as the fundraising committee for the student body. They can organize a fundraising ball that will be sponsored by local community restaurants who are willing to lend a hand. They can sell tickets for a minimal price, with all proceeds going to the school’s sports programs. They can also approach local musical artists to provide music and entertainment. The student council can also hold a raffle in which half of the pot money will go to the fundraising cause.

Recycling fundraising. With today’s environmental problems, it wouldn’t hurt to get everyone together to recycle newspaper, plastic, aluminum cans, glass and other items. The student body can divide themselves into teams and make it a friendly competition to determine which team can come up with the most newspapers and other recyclable materials to exchange at local businesses which are willing to take them in, in exchange for cash. Make sure to get as much local stores or groceries to willingly help out in the effort to reduce trash and increase funds for the school’s sports programs. For those who want to go an extra mile, they can form a group that will clean up the local park in exchange of a small amount of donation from the local government.

Fundraising concerts. Music is an integral part of high school. Get local bands to perform at the school for free and sell tickets for a small price, with proceeds going to the fundraising cause. Watch out for local bands who don’t mind playing for free in exchange for publicity. The fundraising organizers may also want to reach out to local celebrities and politicians who may be willing to donate an amount or sponsor the concert. Local restaurants and pizza parlors may also want to participate by sponsoring the event.

To augment funding for the athletic department, which has had to raise fees to bridge a budget gap, a local boosters group is taking the next step to provide substantial assistance to the sports program.

The Ashland Clocker Club has been growing significantly since its inception last June, said President David O’Brien. The group last week filed paperwork with the Internal Revenue Service to apply to be a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization.

The nonprofit status, O’Brien said, will allow the group to accept larger donations, and donors will be allowed to write off the cash gift as a charitable donation on tax forms.

“I think that, in the long-term, it’s very important,” he said. “We can take larger donations from people in the community and the funds the group raises will have tax protection.”

During the last few years, the budget for the athletic department has been cut sharply and user fees for high school sports have crept up.

For the 2009-10 school year, fees range from $259 for sports like girls soccer, cross country and lacrosse to $335 for ice hockey. Students who play more than one sport are required to pay the full fee for each sport.

While the group hasn’t held any fundraisers yet, O’Brien said the 60 or so members have been laying the groundwork over the last months.

“The fruits of what was done in 2009 will be seen in 2010,” he said.

The Clocker Club will hold its first fundraiser next month – a Super Bowl Sunday pancake breakfast, O’Brien said. Other proposed fundraising events include a golf tournament, trivia night and community-wide field day.

At first, the group will aim to fund initiatives like honoring student athletes with jackets, pins and letters, O’Brien said, as well as equipment purchases that will help the program as a whole – such as vehicles for custodians who care for the fields, or trainers who have to travel from field to field for after-school practices.

“Ashland High School has no fields of its own,” O’Brien said. “You could have high school kids at fields all over town. … We are trying to get things that will benefit everyone.”

O’Brien said a number of school districts in the state have established booster clubs, which have been especially helpful in the recent economic climate.

“If you look around to most communities now, high school sports boosters are playing a much bigger role,” he said. “They make a difference.”

O’Brien also said that a number of individual sports in town have their own fundraising groups and he hopes that eventually they will all be brought under the umbrella of the Clockers Club.

“We hope to consolidate that into one organization. But that will take some time. The new organization has to justify itself.”

In addition to providing financial assistance to the athletic program, the group also aims to help out with volunteer staffing when needed.

The group is currently recruiting members at various sponsorship levels.

More information and membership forms can be found online at sites.ashland.k12.ma.us/ashland-athletics/home/clocker-club.

(Kendall Hatch can be reached at 508-626-4429 or khatch@cnc.com)

After a fundraising drive by middle school students and a $3,000 donation from the Raynham Lions Club, sports at the Raynham Middle School have been saved.

Parents who paid half of the $325 registration fee up front for the self-supporting programs likely won’t have to make another payment as a result.

“We’re in line for them not to pay any more than that $160 because of the help of the Lions Club and other donations,” said Lori Donohue. She estimates 180 students will participate in the Raynham Middle School’s basketball, softball and baseball programs.

The money will allow Raynham students, but not Bridgewater’s, to participate in the sports.

Donohue, along with fellow parent Laura Tate, helped spearhead fundraising efforts after all sports programs at the district’s middle schools were eliminated from this year’s budget. It was a decision the Bridgewater-Raynham Regional School Committee called “tough” but necessary as it struggled to keep teachers in the classrooms and class sizes low.

The School Committee asked the member towns’ park and recreation departments to step up and offer enrichment programs geared toward middle school-age children. But that wasn’t enough for Raynham parent Deb Korotsky, whose sixth-grade daughter, Stacy, plays on the basketball team.

“She gets more practice in the school program for her travel team,” said Korotsky. “The travel team has limited practice time, but in the middle school program she’s practicing every day. She loves the sport. She absolutely loves it.”

Korotsky said some students couldn’t participate this year because of the high cost. After the school district eliminated middle school sports, it reversed its stance and approved the return of the programs as long as they were self-supporting. The user’s fee went up from $250 to $325 per student per sport.

“I think more kids would have tried out for the teams had the price not been so high. Actually, we know some kids didn’t try out because of the cost factor,” said Korotsky.

Frank Gendreau, president of the Raynham Lions Club, said the Lions Club heard of the sports program’s plight through a member and invited the parents in for a presentation on the fundraising efforts the group had put forward already — bake sales, snack tables at sporting events, Crazy Hate days, tag collecting at store fronts and the town’s landfill. He said the Lions also wanted to support the cause, and presented a check for $3,000 to Donohue last Thursday.

“I am a former college professor and I know just how important it is not just for kids to be good at what they do in school, academically, but athletics is an important part of the maturation process and many of these young children would not be able to play because of the very high cost,” said Gendreau, who served on the town’s School Committee in the 1980s.

Gendreau said the Lions Club, which has 55 active members, donates an average of $20,000 to $25,000 every year to local causes including the library, food basket, Boy Scouts, camps for sick children and programs for senior citizens, as well as their own scholarship, eyeglass and hearing aid programs.

Donohue said she is glad the sports programs have been restored.

“Sports really is part of the whole middle school experience, and to return sports introduces the kids to different people to work with on your teams,” she said. “It may sound crazy but, when you’re just playing with the town, you’re not with the same bunch of kids that you’re with on the school teams … It’s all part of the social environment and I think it adds a lot to enrich the middle school experience.”

If you go …
What:  Raynham Middle School sports fundraiser to offset costs of middle school sports programs.
Who: Steve Wronker’s Funny Business Comedy Hypnosis Show.
When: Jan. 29 at 7 p.m.
Where: Raynham Middle School auditorium, 420 Titicut Road, Raynham.
Cost: $10 for students, $12 for adults.
More info:  Contact Lori Donohue at laucfp@comcast.net