New Wrestling Mat and Pads
Donation protected
My name is Carlos Martinez. I am the head wrestling coach for Clearwater Valley Junior and Senior High School in Kooskia, Idaho. We are a small community in north central Idaho with a population of about 620 people. The school also services the surrounding communities of Kamiah, Stites and Elk City. The high school has about 125 students and the junior high has another 85. I also work as a patrol sergeant for the local Sheriff's office.
I am attempting to raise money to do some much needed upgrades and repairs to our wrestling facility. Due to a lack of funding, the wrestling room has not recieved much attention over the past 25 years. Currently we are wrestling on mats with large portions of the surface ripped, cracked, and missing. This creates the perfect environment for bacteria and viruses to thrive. We are constantly dealing with ringworm, scabies, and impetigo. The last time the school was able to get a new mat was in 1991. It was a used mat that was paid for by Pepsi cash caps.
The room is also in need of a new heating and cooling system. There is currently no way to cool the room and we are down to one heater that is being worked to capacity. We wrestle during the winter months and it is normal for the temperature to be at or below freezing all winter long. When the heater does have a problem our room is the same temperature inside as it is outside.
Our room is in a steel building built onto the backside of the school. The interior walls are sheeted with plywood. The nails are constatly backing out and are a safety hazard for the kids. We also have steel beems and poles with bolt heads exposed that the kids have been injured on.
All of the money raised will be put towards new wrestling mats, padding for the walls, and upgrades to the heating system. The cost for new mats in the wrestling room would be about $9500. The cost for the wall padding would be $7250. That leaves us $3500 to put towards new heaters for the room.
Our high school season just wrapped up. We finished the season with one state champion. We also had wrestlers finish 2nd, 3rd, 5th, and 6th. The school does not have much money to put towards the sport so most of the money required for equipment and supplies is up to me to raise. Our community has been awesome in donating to the team but this is more than we can take on alone.
Most of the kids and families in this community are low income. The kids in this community have very few activities to participate in other than what the school provides. In the early 2000's there were kids out late drinking and getting into trouble with the law. I looked for ways to get kids active in healthy activities and moving in a positive direction. In 2009 I took over the wrestling program in an attempt to work with some of our troubled youth. The first year we had 8 wrestlers. Now the program has grown to 16 high school students and 18 junior high students annually. We also have a youth program for kids ages 5 to 12 that has about 45 participants annually. Our community has a much lower underage drinking rate and youth crime rate since the program started.
We are going to be starting our freestyle and Greco-Roman seasons in the next couple of weeks. We would like to raise the money before the start of our youth folk style season in September if possible.
Funding this project will give us a clean and safe environment for our kids to wrestle in. It would be amazing to give these children a facility they could be proud of. Thank you so much for your consideration and for any support you can give.
I am attempting to raise money to do some much needed upgrades and repairs to our wrestling facility. Due to a lack of funding, the wrestling room has not recieved much attention over the past 25 years. Currently we are wrestling on mats with large portions of the surface ripped, cracked, and missing. This creates the perfect environment for bacteria and viruses to thrive. We are constantly dealing with ringworm, scabies, and impetigo. The last time the school was able to get a new mat was in 1991. It was a used mat that was paid for by Pepsi cash caps.
The room is also in need of a new heating and cooling system. There is currently no way to cool the room and we are down to one heater that is being worked to capacity. We wrestle during the winter months and it is normal for the temperature to be at or below freezing all winter long. When the heater does have a problem our room is the same temperature inside as it is outside.
Our room is in a steel building built onto the backside of the school. The interior walls are sheeted with plywood. The nails are constatly backing out and are a safety hazard for the kids. We also have steel beems and poles with bolt heads exposed that the kids have been injured on.
All of the money raised will be put towards new wrestling mats, padding for the walls, and upgrades to the heating system. The cost for new mats in the wrestling room would be about $9500. The cost for the wall padding would be $7250. That leaves us $3500 to put towards new heaters for the room.
Our high school season just wrapped up. We finished the season with one state champion. We also had wrestlers finish 2nd, 3rd, 5th, and 6th. The school does not have much money to put towards the sport so most of the money required for equipment and supplies is up to me to raise. Our community has been awesome in donating to the team but this is more than we can take on alone.
Most of the kids and families in this community are low income. The kids in this community have very few activities to participate in other than what the school provides. In the early 2000's there were kids out late drinking and getting into trouble with the law. I looked for ways to get kids active in healthy activities and moving in a positive direction. In 2009 I took over the wrestling program in an attempt to work with some of our troubled youth. The first year we had 8 wrestlers. Now the program has grown to 16 high school students and 18 junior high students annually. We also have a youth program for kids ages 5 to 12 that has about 45 participants annually. Our community has a much lower underage drinking rate and youth crime rate since the program started.
We are going to be starting our freestyle and Greco-Roman seasons in the next couple of weeks. We would like to raise the money before the start of our youth folk style season in September if possible.
Funding this project will give us a clean and safe environment for our kids to wrestle in. It would be amazing to give these children a facility they could be proud of. Thank you so much for your consideration and for any support you can give.
Organizer
Carlos Martinez
Organizer
Kooskia, ID