Free Events for Students to Potentially End
Update: As of the morning of November 11th, Dr. Brewer and ATLAS President Amy Curran stated that a final decision has not been made about continuing the program and the final decision will be made at the next ATLAS meeting on December 2.
During the 2019 fall season, the attendance to fall events is free for all Dominion students. The purpose of free attendance was to encourage students to attend more sporting events, since they do not need to pay to attend. This will not continue after the fall sports and arts season, according to Co-Vice President of ATLAS Natalie Earley.
The fundraising for this to be possible was to be done by the Association of Titan Leaders Assisting Students (ATLAS) which is an organization of numerous parents of titans and some of the Dominion staff. The total number of students who have attended fall events as of October 18 is 2,056, which is equivalent to $12,336.
“At this time we are exploring applying for grants that would cover some of the cost of admissions along with reaching out to donors for support,” Earley said. “We are planning to sell sponsorship packages that will include banners that can be placed/hung at the fields and in the gymnasium for advertisement,” added Earley regarding some of the ways ATLAS is planning to raise money and continue to raise funds. As of October 22, the athletic department had not received any funds from ATLAS.
While ATLAS is actively working on raising money to pay for the 2,056 student attendances, the Dominion athletic department is hopeful about receiving the funds for paying for necessities for the athletes. Mr. Peters, the athletic director, explained that the money from ticket sales is used to pay for officials, for the purchase of equipment, uniforms and many other aspects that are necessary for these sporting events. “I would like to see it [free attendance] continue. It is good for the student body to get them involved and excited, but that is totally up to ATLAS,” said Peters in support of this new program. Mr. Peters is hopeful that the department will receive all the money by the end of all fall sports.
Victoria Simonenko has been a student reporter for DHSPress since 2018. She joined the newspaper and developed a strong has a passion for writing and expressing...
Thomas Winston • Nov 8, 2019 at 1:09 pm
Why are the fall sports the only cluster to get this benefit? It seems like ATLAS only provides a benefit to 1/3 of the teams? Winter and Spring teams should not have to pay into ATLAS for their fundraisers.