A Booster Club for the Minden Recreation Complex had their second meeting Tuesday night to explore the Complex’s current condition and future opportunities.
The Booster Club is being spearheaded by District E City Councilman Pam Bloxom and is an entity that exists in order to raise funding and support for the Rec Center’s much-needed repairs and maintenance. These meetings serve as an opportunity for members of the community to come and work together to help the local Rec Center. When asked how she would describe the Booster Club, Bloxom said “We are a group of concerned citizens, parents, coaches, and everyone who wants to see the Minden Rec Center shine.”
Karen Yates was the facilitator of the meeting and led those in attendance through what is known as a SWOT analysis, which stands for “Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats.”
It was during this time that Yates asked for those attending for their input on what they think the strengths and weaknesses of the Rec Center are. People would say things like “ample parking” and “location” for strengths and things like flooding and “drainage” for weaknesses.
The topic that got the most attention was during the opportunities section of the exercise, and that was bringing more travel ball to the Rec Center. During this discussion, citizen Keith Jellum said “We have all these opportunities, all these other places that are doing all this stuff when we could be doing the same thing, and just bringing those opportunities here.”
Currently, Bloxom is working on making the Booster Club a 501c3 corporation, which would make it so that the club could raise funds for the Rec Center as a private entity.
“There are grants that are only available to private entities, that’s why we’re creating the Booster Club so that we can raise money across the board,” Bloxom said.
“We’re sitting on a 10 million dollar complex and we need 1 million dollars worth of repairs and maintenance, we have a huge challenge ahead of us but I think that we have enough energy that we can make a difference. We have been dealt a hand that we are gonna work with and turn it around to make this a complex that’s going to be an economic engine for Minden and Webster Parish.”