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These Supporters Provide Extra Boost
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Every sports team has die-hard fans. You know, the ones that come to the games with their bodies painted and scream their lungs out no matter what the score is. The Des Moines Buccaneers’ Booster Club is made up of a different kind of die-hard fan.
Sure, they might like to get all painted up and go cheer with the other fans, but they also find joy in serving the team they love.

“I was a big hockey fan and I wanted to be able to do more to help. My son, who is eight years old, is very involved in hockey, so it was an opportunity for me to really make a difference knowing that hopefully someday my son will play for the USHL and somebody else will be in that same spot to help him just like I’m helping the players now,” said Merri Lenz, the president of the Buccaneers’ Booster Club.

In mid June the Buccaneers’ held their annual tryout camp with over 20 games of hockey played during a four day span with some of the days starting as early as 7am The booster club was there through it all, providing food for the coaches, players, parents and spectators,among many other behind the scenes preparations that were done for the camp.

“We do anything from planning and organizing the meals, snacks, and beverages to cleaning up after the players. We also organize travel and transportation arrangements for the players if they need it. If a player wants to go to the mall in between games, we find travel arrangements so they don’t have to pay for a taxi,” said Lenz

The booster club handles these responsibilities along with a number of others throughout the tryout camp weekend. They also ran the garage sale during the camp and supported each of the 10 teams by assigning team leaders to provide encouragement and guidance for the players.

“The leaders were essentially there to be cheerleaders for the team and basically do whatever we can do to help them prepare for the games. We wanted them to feel like they had an advocate in their corner helping them to make the team. That was a huge role this year and I though it went really well,” said Lenz.

The booster club does a lot more than just help out players during the tryout camp, however. Their involvement and commitment to the team runs much deeper than that. Many of the booster club members put in countless hours of volunteer work throughout each season. They organize snacks for all the players before each road game, hold a meet and greet with the players, so fans can come and interact with the players, represent the team at parades, and also provide a scholarship opportunity for the players. This covers a very small portion of what the booster club will do for the team each year.

The scholarship opportunity that the booster club offers for the players is one of the biggest things they do each year. The booster club finds a number of different ways to help raise support for this scholarship. The first way is through membership fees. They charge $30 for a family membership and $15 for a single membership per year. They also sell player buttons at games and candy and Coke, all of the money from those sales go towards the scholarship fund. They also hold “Tips for Scholarships,” an event where Bucs players wait tables at a restaurant and whatever tips they get are put in the scholarship fund. This year the event will once again be held at Mama Lacona’s sometime during the season.

“Every year in the spring we award our scholarships which are at a minimum $1,000. In the past we have awarded anywhere from one to three scholarships a year. It all really just depends on the year and who applies that determines how we award our scholarships,” said Lenz.

The booster club is always looking for more members and Lenz said that they would like to see their numbers “increase dramatically” by the end of the year.  
 


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