Angaston Football Club has kicked off its loftiest community fundraising challenge yet, with a goal of reaching $350,000 in just three years.
As part of The Barossa Council’s $3.51 million upgrade to Angas Recreation Park which includes a new junior oval, cricket nets, change rooms and recreational spaces, Angaston Football Club is facilitating the Park’s community fundraising programme, launching it last week on behalf of everyone using the grounds.
“To get it going, someone has to start things off in the community, so we’ve taken a leadership role,” said Dr. Bill Gransbury, Angaston Football Club committee member.
“It’s not just for the football club, it’s for the whole community.”
The extensive upgrades, which form part of Council’s “The Big Project”, will help attract sporting events through the SANFL and SACA, positioning the Barossa as a sport lover’s destination and boosting its economy.
“It will be great to be able to attract events from outside of the Barossa, that will be part of our fundraising too,” said Bill.
“We’ve got Council and State Government funding, now we’ve got to get the community funding.”
Angaston Football Club’s Keith Jamieson said they needed to raise as much money as they could before June 30, 2022 when they need to handover the community’s contribution to the project which is on track to being completed by the end of December.
“Initially we are trying to get $100,000 within a year because whatever we can do to reduce the loan we have to take out is going to be beneficial,” said president, Keith Jamieson.
It’s the most significant upgrade the growing Angaston Football Club has been part of as it strives to meet the needs of its 280 players ranging from Auskick to A-Grade.
“We’re growing all the time,” Keith said.
“We have 12 teams now, including three women’s teams.
“The extension of the actual clubrooms has been an idea for the last 25 years I would imagine because that is when it started getting too small for presentation nights and things like that.
“We did the changerooms and the grandstand, put up lights and obviously built the clubrooms back in 1978.
“But this is doubling the size of the clubrooms, doubling the amount of changerooms and significantly increasing the recreation area of the park, including state of the art cricket nets.
“It’s a significant boost.”
Keith is keen to see the new facilities utilised, especially the clubrooms which will enable them to keep up with their fundraising commitments.
“For it to work, we need the community to use it when they can and we want to encourage that,” he said.
“The town hasn’t got a medium sized venue like this, it is ideal for weddings, conferences and all those sorts of things.”
A sign featuring a thermometer will be located in the window of Neville Smith’s office in Angaston so people can see the tally rising.
“We’ve got about $3,000-$4,000 so far from a raffle and some other things,” said Keith.
There are plans for “all sorts of fundraising” activities, including an upcoming goods and services auction, with Keith and the team also encouraging donations and bequests.
“We have a vehicle to make donations tax deductible through the Australian Sports Foundation,” he added.
