By Jennifer Eisenbart
Editor
The push to get a new sign made for the newly renamed athletic stadium at Burlington High School began in earnest last week.
The committee behind getting the stadium renamed to Don Dalton Stadium – after the school’s former athletic director and football coach – officially kicked off fundraising efforts in the last week, with an online fundraiser starting at GoFundMe.com July 7.
Funds can be donated online or in person, and the committee is facing a time crunch to get to the first half of the funds in time to complete the work for the start of the football season Aug. 22.
The Burlington Area School District School Board approved the renaming of the stadium in June by a 4-3 vote. Dalton has received recognition at the local, state and national level, and is also a former Rescue Squad member in the city and helped start what is now Partners2 – an educational program that deals with drugs and alcohol within the school district.
Dalton’s accomplishments are many, but it still took a special vote to approve the naming because of district policy – which currently recommends a person should be deceased for 10 or more years before receiving such an honor.
The three votes against the renaming had to do with the district going against policy, though the policy doesn’t expressly forbid the naming of facilities after people who are living – it just discourages against it.
Roger Koldeway, Phil Ketterhagen and Rosanne Hahn, the three School Board members who voted against the change, wanted the policy to be changed first.
But with the vote in favor of the renaming, efforts turned to fundraising. In just 24 hours last week, the online GoFundMe site – located at GoFundMe.com/aek1bs – had raised close to $900, while other donations in checks had been given to Chris Weidert, a member of the committee behind the renaming.
Weidert is serving as the collector of traditional donations, while Beth Reetz is managing the online donations. Also involved in the project are former BHS football coach Hans Block, Ed Nadolski and Chris Miller of Miller Motors.
Block said he was excited about the prospects of raising the money, though there is a tight timeline. The group needs to raise about $7,500 of the proposed $15,000 by this week in order to get the order in on the signs and get those signs back for a proposed Aug. 22 ceremony.
Block said letters had been sent to alumni of the football program, and he was hopeful former players would answer the call.
“We’re optimistic,” he explained. “We have a lot of really great people who are involved in this campaign.”
Indeed, a number of former players and people involved with the program spoke up for the naming of the stadium for Dalton in the first place. In the fundraising letter that went out, Mark Harlow – now an orthopedic surgeon after graduating from BHS in 1972 – had strong words in support of the effort.
“It is an indisputable truth that youth sports are only as good as the adult leadership that guides them,” he wrote. “Burlington has been richly blessed with many exceptional leaders through the years.
“None have stood taller or accomplished more than Coach Dalton.”
Reetz said Monday that the goal is to get as many people as possible to “buy into” the concept.
“Our goal was never to have one person step up and donate $15,000 – or $10,000,” Reetz said of the grassroots effort. “It’s really being named on behalf of the community.”
Those wishing to donate by tax-deductible check, may do so by making it payable to: Burlington Area Schools Educational Endowment Fund, and sending it to Don Dalton Stadium Committee, c/o Chris Weidert, 6252 Brever Rd., Burlington, WI, 53105.
Read the group’s fund-raising letter by clicking here; and campaign flier by clicking here.
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