Sports Fundraising Ideas

SOMERVILLE — Somerset County jump started the installation of synthetic turf at the Brooks Field complex with a $1 million cash injection and has overseen the construction since.

But local fundraising to make the project a reality had gone on for years prior to the county’s grant, and the more than $900,000 in cash and pledges generated by community efforts under the umbrella of Team Green continues to play a role in the project at Somerville High School.

“People don’t realize what a herculean effort this was,” said Billy Garbarini, president of the Somerville High School Athletic Hall of Fame and a co-chair of Team Green.

GOING GREEN: The project includes new synthetic turf at both Brooks Field and a nearby field hockey field. Named after former high school Principal T. Latimore Brooks, Brooks Field has been the site of Somerville High School football games since the 1940s, and Immaculata High School began playing their home football games there in the early 1960s, according to Garbarini.

Spearheaded by the Somerville Education Foundation with the support of district Superintendent Carolyn Leary, Team Green was started in 2005 to raise money for the turf improvements, which were to be tackled in different phases.

Groups that contributed to the project represent a who’s who of local youth sports. The Pop Warner Football Organization made a $45,000 pledge; Immaculata High School, through its Field of Dreams organization, pledged $125,000; the Hall of Fame pledged $70,000; and the Somerville High School Quarterback Club pledged $10,000 ? just to name a few of the donors.

One of the group’s biggest successes was securing a six-figure contribution ? Garbarini declined to say the exact amount ? for the facility’s naming rights. A native of the borough, Jeff Vanderbeek, chairman and managing partner of the New Jersey Devils, pledged that contribution in September 2008, with the facility to be rechristened the Gus Vanderbeek Athletic Complex at Brooks Field after his father, a 1948 Somerville High School graduate, football and track star and longtime football official.

“I grew up there, I literally walked that field probably every other day of my life,” Vanderbeek said. “Just to see it thrive, to see it come back, to see kids playing on it, to see the night football games and just to be proud of it, that to me is going to mean the most.”

Jeff and Gus Vanderbeek will be honored with others during a ribbon-cutting ceremony at the field on Sept. 17, according to Garbarini.

REACHING THE GOAL: Garbarini said Team Green and Mayor Brian Gallagher were also pursuing the open space grant from the county. Somerville was among three districts that received grants of up to $1 million for recreation improvements, and freeholders on June 2 unanimously awarded Dakota Excavating Inc. a $1,010,647 contract for the project.

“That took us to the next level,” Garbarini said. “The thing we’re doing now, that was phase two. Phase one was just get Brooks Field done.”

The local share for turf work beyond the county’s grant is less than $20,000, according to county Public Works Director Michael Amorosa, who said work continues at the field hockey field, but Brooks Field is finished. Team Green money is paying for all the other features that will make the complex a place for student athletes to compete and for their supporters to cheer them.

Garbarini said Team Green is behind turf field maintenance equipment; two new, high-tech scoreboards for the fields; a new sound system; bleacher refurbishments; new bleachers for the field hockey field; a home press box; lighting upgrades; and snack shack upgrades. The group has committed close to $225,000, he said.

Some of the work, such as the home press box, snack shack renovations and new bleachers planned for the home side of Brooks Field, will not be completed this year, according to Garbarini, who envisioned Team Green as more of a dormant entity ready to help when necessary once the projects are completed.

“They started out with nothing,” said state Sen. Christopher “Kip’ Bateman, whom Team Green lists as its official spokesperson. “I remember the running races they had, the bake sales – a lot of effort went into raising money and it really paid off. Everybody is anxious to get on the field.”

ednote Martin C. Bricketto: 908-243-6609; mbricketto@MyCentralJersey.com