Gehlen Catholic Schools' J-Club members aren't usually on the court or carrying an instrument, but they help make the programs possible. The entire athletics program is covered by the boosters club and speech, choir and band programs are supported by the Fine Arts Boosters. Front: Kathy Neary, Fine Arts Booster President and Lisa Niebuhr, secretary. Back: Heath Reichle, HS Athletic Director and J-Club President, Paul Freking. [Click to enlarge]

Without them, there would be no marching uniforms for Le Mars Community School's band.

There would be no lights on the LCS baseball field.

There would be no Gehlen Catholic School sports .

Le Mars Community School boosters pour around $50,000 into the fine arts and athletics programs for the schools. Pictured here behind some of the students they support are: Kolleen Queener (music booster), Jill Sluiter (music booster), Deb Ahlers (music booster), Kay Michaelson (music and athletic boosters), Lon Penning (athletic boosters) and Mike Van Otterloo (athletic boosters). [Click to enlarge]

Each year, the LCS and Gehlen Booster Clubs mobilize their small armies of volunteers and pump more than $150,000 into athletic and fine arts programs for students.

"The school provides the meat and potatoes items. 'We're the gravy,'" said Lon Penning, LCS Athletic Booster president, quoting Brian Michaelson, another booster member.

Michaelson coined the saying "We're the gravy" that even other booster clubs have picked up.

Backing Bulldog sports

If it weren't for the LCS Athletic Boosters, there would be no new press box on the football field, no new wrestling mats, no new surface on the tennis courts and no new sprinkler system on the softball and baseball fields -- to name a few.

Sports programs at LCS get an annual assist of about $25,000 from this booster club. That adds up to a lot of change.

"In the last 10 years, the boosters have provided more than a quarter of a million dollars," Penning said. "One-hundred percent of what is donated, whether it's the membership drive, tailgates, raffles at halftime or tournaments, it all goes back to the student athletic programs."

What isn't spent in a year is put into a pot for big projects.

"We just handed over the final payment on the weight room behind the high school," Penning said.

On deck for the boosters: a new building to house tailgate meals and to sell Bulldog apparel.

They also give out four $300 scholarships for graduating athletes.

"We look at how they carried themselves through high school -- it's a lot based on character," Penning said.

If you look around at an LCS event, you'll see the fingerprints of the boosters everywhere: Bulldog stencils painted onto the football field, new hurdles on the track, pitching machines, travel bags for the cheerleaders and jackets for the golf team.

It's the above-and-beyond things, Penning said.

"We want to stand out in the Lakes Conference in the things we do," he said.

He is a LCS graduate and his sons have been involved in sports. Not all booster members are parents, Penning said.

"We all have one thing in common: we enjoy participating in the sporting programs," he said. "It feels good to give back to the community."

The whole ball of wax

Gehlen's J-Club (boosters club) put a little more on its shoulders than the other booster clubs.

It covers the entire $90,000 budget for all of the school's sports.

"Everything that goes into sports at Gehlen goes through the J-Club," said Heath Reichle, the high school athletic director and booster club member. "As a small private school, it's hard to justify putting money into sports. So sports have their own budget, separate from the school."

Along with some big projects, like lights at the baseball field and a new gym floor, the J-Club covers the daily cost of each sport program including things like training supplies and awards.

To make the money the boosters man the gates at sports events, hold half-time raffles, host the Jay Jams tournaments, sell concessions and more.

It takes mammoth amounts of volunteer hours, Reichle said.

"Anybody with a kid in sports is a member," he explained.

A lead volunteer is picked for each sport, and they organize all the volunteers for that sports' events for the year.

And if a team goes to state competition, something that's usually not in the budget, the boosters come up with the dollars.

"Everybody kind of works together to get those funds raised," Reichle said.

Financing fine arts

Gehlen Fine Arts Boosters raise about $14,000 a year for the band, choir, art, speech and drama programs at the school.

They host a "back to school" breakfast and a turkey dinner, sell value cards for discounts at local businesses, work concession stands at football and basketball games and do a day of county fair parking.

"Every parent is a member," said Kathy Neary, the group's president. "We don't charge anything -- there's no membership drive -- donations are just your time and your talents."

Each year the boosters give a chunk of change to the fine arts programs' budgets.

"Any time you can get a little extra, your program can prosper," Neary said. "If we didn't have the supporters, things wouldn't work the way they do."

The fine arts boosters also helped pay for things like the new gym floor, new curtains on the stage and new lighting.

Neary pointed out that the benefits of the boosters' support flows both ways.

"Having the boosters also helps with communication between the parents and the departments," she said. "Our programs are getting bigger, growing. Part of that is the relationship parents have with the school."

"If it weren't for the boosters, we wouldn't be able to do all that we do -- we'd probably have to scale back quite a bit," said Paul Niebuhr, Gehlen band director.

The Gehlen Fine Arts Boosters helped the band program buy a drum set, a xylophone and a baritone. But the "biggie," as Niebuhr calls it, is paying for the music for the school's marching band show.

"The shows usually run from $1,000 to $2,000 and that's all paid for by the boosters," he said. "The kids always look forward to the marching contests. They seem to be what really drives them."

He, like Neary, said the boosters' support helps Gehlen connect with the public. Marching band, he said, is basically a musical public relations unit.

"It is one of the groups out in the public a lot," Niebuhr said.

In support of song

The LCS Music Boosters bring in more than $25,000 each year for the school's band and choir programs.

The cupboards would be bare of every uniform, choir robe, tuxedo and dress in any of the music programs if it weren't for the boosters. The group also paid for a trailer to carry instruments and equipment to events, drum major podiums, a choreographer for Crimson and Black, the show choir, rights to a musical for the middle school, some of the bigger instruments like tubas and basses, accompanists for contests and for some of the marching band show rights.

"Next year the band knows there will be 30 more kids, so they're going to need 30 more band uniforms and 30 more tuxes," Ahlers said.

The boosters pay for unforeseen costs, too.

"These are all things the school district just isn't able to do," Ahlers said. "We help provide the icing on the cake to finish off the great programs we already have."

The money is great, Ahlers said, but it takes volunteers to make things come together.

"I wouldn't even know how to begin counting the volunteer hours," said Deb Ahlers, president of the LCS music boosters. "We can call on all parents at any time, and I bet we get a 99.9 percent success rate of people saying 'Yes, I can help out.'"

The boosters' support, she said, is a small token of appreciation for the hours the directors put into the programs.

She and other booster members across the board seem to stand in line for the opportunity to give back.

Like many members, Ahlers joined the group because her four children are involved in the music programs.

"My children, all the students, are direct beneficiaries," she said. "It's a labor of love."

And she sees the bigger picture.

"Twenty-five years ago when I graduated," Ahlers said, "someone was doing this for me."