By Garrett Christensen on Friday, August 2nd, 2024 in More Top Stories Northeastern Oregon News
IMBLER – Just over a year after starting out, the Imbler Track and Field community project has hit 75% of its $1,290,000 dollar goal, or approximately $967,500 dollars, as of August 1. Not only is the project nearing its funding goal, but preliminary installation of the track’s planned lighting system is already getting started. As stated by Committee Chair Ian Gordon:
“It’s great! We’re already starting to put some of it to good use. We’re working on installing the lights for the field now, and there’s a possibility that we may begin putting in the track base here within the next month. We haven’t made a final decision, but it could be possible we start even this summer.”
For those unfamiliar, the ambitious project aims to construct a state of the art, eight lane, composite material track for Imbler’s track and field program, replacing the long-standing dirt track. When completed, the new track will allow the school to host tournaments, in addition to drastically cutting down on the amount of shin splints suffered by student athletes.
Of the total funds raised, $194,000 dollars have been from awarded grants, while the rest have come from local donations, fundraising (including the recent 4th of July fun run, and $100,000 dollars from the hugely successful Golden Gala dinner), and even some contributed by the school board. As for the decision to start work now, Ian commented:
“We don’t want to have the money sit there and waste away with inflation. We want to make some progress, and we’ve had good success raising funds. We anticipate being able to continue doing that and raise what we need for the basics.”
As of the time of writing, no fundraising events are planned for the immediate future, but there is an ongoing push to work with 100 local businesses and have them donate $1,000 dollars each. Beyond that, individual donations of any size are accepted at any time. As best put by Ian:
“We’re just very thankful for all the support that we’ve had. For anyone else that hasn’t contributed yet and wants to, they can contact the school, or they can contact anyone on the track committee.”
Going forward, some final decisions regarding the track’s design and construction may be made at the next school board meeting.
For anyone interested in supporting the project, donation information can be found at https://imblertrack.org/?fbclid=IwY2xjawEY77NleHRuA2FlbQIxMAABHZhnfwaQYo_hSD8Cwm-aXPZs2400oy5kFwtZQMkn4ucJFZKH1QK2BsuKbQ_aem_6NnYvj70UGChJLOiBgaiTQ