Just like its athletes do on the field, the Mansfield Timberview Athletics Booster Club wants to make a name for itself in its community.

“Our first priority has been fan gear,” club president Rochelle Morgan said. “We wanted to show our pride. We are Timberview!”

Along with showing their pride, Morgan and the other board members have worked to bring more people into the club.

“We talked to people about what the club covers for the school,” Morgan said. “Everything isn’t just paid for by the district. Once they understood that, we saw more parents want to become involved.”

That outreach has worked, Morgan said. Club membership has grown to more than 300 members. The increased membership has come at a good time for the club.

“This has been the first year in a while where we’ve had a full board and had active reps for each sport,” Morgan said. “We’ve been trying to rebuild and keep the momentum for all of the kids in school. We’re one of the smaller schools in the district so our club membership is a little smaller than some of the other schools.”

Many of the fundraising events the club planned for 2020 didn’t happen, most notably a spring golf tournament and a community event that was to take place during the spring football game.

“That really created an uphill battle for us,” Morgan said. “We had high hopes, but it is what it is, and we just have to be creative. We hope we’ll be able to roll those events back out this year.”

Unable to put on its biggest events, the club revisited the way it worked with coaches to provide what each coach needs.

“Those coaches have a lot on their plates this year,” Morgan said. “Fundraising has been big, and it’s been the parents. We’ve been able to find things the parents can get behind and raise money for each team has been a big accomplishment.”

The club worked with each team to choose a fundraising platform that best suited its needs. Some teams went with donation drives such as Snap Raise. Selling sport-specific fan gear also brought in much-needed funds for each team.

Morgan said the other priority became keeping parents – both club members and parents of Timberview’s athletes – informed as to what was happening every week.

“A big thing for us has been transparency and keeping parents informed of what we need and what is happening,” Morgan said. “Increasing engagement has been big for us. We’ve sent out emails twice a week, so everyone is aware and engaged. We use our social media accounts to let the community members know what we’re doing for our kids.”

On top of the day-to-day needs each team has, the club still hopes to hold year-end banquets for each sport and give out scholarships to deserving seniors.

“We’re still trying to figure out the logistics of holding banquets this year,” Morgan said. “We also like to give out scholarships, and we hope to be able to do that this year as well.”