screenshot Wallowa High volleyball players Ashley Starner (left) and Jordan Ferré appear in a video urging donations for night game lighting at the WHS football field.

Wallowa County Chieftain

WALLOWA — The clock is running for an ever-expanding group of fans in the Wallowa/Lostine area trying to raise funds and install night lighting at the WHS football field before fall.

In fact, says Cougars football coach Matt Brockamp, if the lights are up and running by the time the Oregon School Activities Association drops the flag to allow first practices in August, he’ll launch the 2015 season with a “Midnight Madness” practice to spur community support.

“I definitely want lights,” says Brockamp. “I can’t think of anything bigger to change the culture of a football community.” His thinking is based around a common denominator of “increasing the family atmosphere” by allowing many more parents and supporters to attend games after work.

The current push to install lights at the Wallowa High School football field was initiated by a Ford Family Leadership class for the Wallowa/Lostine area that chose those lights as its community project.

Although not funded in time to install the lights for the 2014 football season, a concerted effort is underway to raise remaining funds needed by May to allow time to hire contractors to complete the work by August.

Valerie George, co-project manager for the “Light the Night” effort along with Lisa Mahon, says about $21,000 of the $45,000 needed to complete the project has been raised.

She expresses optimism that a relatively new effort to raise donations online via ChangeFunder will help reach the $45,000 goal by May.

Found at changefunder.us/lightthenight, that site includes a 4-minute 34-second video about Wallowa football filmed by Brockamp and simple avenues to donate funds to the project.

Included with video coverage of last year’s Wallowa team that went to the 1A State Quarterfinals are interviews of four Wallowa players who will be on the field this year and two volleyball players, Jordan Ferré and Ashley Starner, explaining they never get to see the football team play because volleyball games, at present, are staged concurrently with football.

Money raised to date, says George, mostly has come from four sources. Of the $23,000 in hand, $10,000 came from a Wildhorse Foundation grant, $5,000 from a matching $5,000 Ford Family Foundation grant, $3,100 from a special event held at Main Street Grill, in Wallowa, and the rest from individual and business donations.

Meet Street Grill owner Wiley Frei, on the same Feb. 17 date Wallowa’s ChangeFunder page was launched, opened his restaurant to his usual Tuesday night taco crowd and let $3,100 of proceeds that evening filter into the football light fund.

On that night, said George, both football players and cheerleaders contributed by cooking and serving tacos.

George, who doubles as the school’s cheerleader coach, and Mahon, a member of the Wallowa City Council, pooled their energies to write the grant application for the Wildhorse Foundation and now are writing additional applications for smaller grants.

George says active members of the Ford Family Leadership Class and many additional persons from the community are backing the project in myriad ways.

In short order, she says, a mailing will be sent to all homes in the Wallowa/Lostine area apprising the public of the online ChangeFunder site and seeking donations.