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Hastings Booster Club Hopes to Energize Community

HASTINGS-ON-HUDSON, N.Y. – Although it only started last year, the Hastings Yellow Jacket Booster Club is already looking to make its name known in the village.  The booster club supports the entire athletics department rather than just one team in particular.

“Football and baseball are always premier. What we’re trying to do is recognize all the athletes, cross country, wrestling, swimming, everything,” said Bob Wilt, club president. 

Wilt, who has two sons and a daughter all involved in athletics, said the relatively new group is more of a spirit club than a booster club.

“We want to reach out and not only recognize kids, but reward them too,” Wilt said.

It is in that vein that the booster club offers student athlete scholarships each year to graduating seniors. Wilt, who grew up in Yonkers and is a retired Yonkers police officer, said he got involved with the club because he wants to help bring the community and the high school together.

“We’re trying to not only build the spirit in the school we want to reenergize that sense of community,” he said. “Ninety nine percent has been a positive response where everybody benefits from it.”

The boosters also raise money for the programs through raffles, concession sales and various fundraising events.  Wilt said the club is unique in the way it staffs the concession stands, which local parents seem to love.

“Football parents will be working at the concessions stand selling hot dogs and the game is over and they’ll ask what the score is,” Wilt said.  “What the boosters do is we try to staff parents from other sports so football parents can watch their kids play.”

In becoming more involved in the community, Wilt said the booster club is also helping in the renovation of the bathrooms at Reynolds field and one day soon hopes to purchase new scoreboards.

“It’s more than just specific athletic events," he said. "The community as a whole benefits."

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