Imbler Track and Field Community Project makes tracks with another major grant
By Garrett Christensen on Monday, August 12th, 2024 in More Top Stories Northeastern Oregon News
IMBLER – After recently announcing they’d reached seventy five percent of needed funds; the Imbler Track and Field Community Project committee is already making additional strides. According to Committee chair Ian Gordon, the committee was recently notified that they would receive a $50,000 grant from the Harry A Merlo Foundation. This funding, combined with recent donations, puts the project at roughly $920,000 dollars in total funds. With recently discovered savings in the overall construction cost, this equates to roughly just over three quarters of all funds needed to complete the project’s main objectives, with Ian estimating a further $300,000 is still left to raise.
In addition, there are also preliminary talks about some philanthropic groups in the Willamette Valley area potentially supporting the project in the future. Not much more about this funding avenue can be discussed at this time according to Ian, but additional grant applications are in the works. In the meantime, the committee is still pushing to secure even more local donations and grants from the Union County community, with local support being crucial to lending the project credibility when applying for funding outside the area. As put by Ian:
“The more help we can get locally, it looks better to people outside of Union County. They see the strong support that we get here, and it tells them that we’re doing everything we can. It gives them a bit more of an inclination to help us out. We’ve got a number of large grants. Ag West Farm Credit, they gave us $50,000. Ford Foundation gave us $50,000. The Trail Blazers, ($10,000), Wild Horse, they gave us $30,000.”
As was mentioned in the previous update, preliminary installation of the track’s lighting system is getting underway, with the committee hoping to begin work on the track base before the end of the summer.
For anyone interested in supporting the project, donation information can be found at https://imblertrack.org/?fbclid=IwY2xjawEY77NleHRuA2FlbQIxMAABHZhnfwaQYo_hSD8Cwm-aXPZs2400oy5kFwtZQMkn4ucJFZKH1QK2BsuKbQ_aem_6NnYvj70UGChJLOiBgaiTQ
For those unfamiliar with the project, the goal is 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.
