In California, a helicopter will help fund a football season
School districts across the nation are trying anything and everything to raise money for their beleaguered athletic departments. Of all those fundraisers, few -- if any -- are more creative than one that will be held on Sunday in Southern California.
As first reported by the Los Angeles Times, Placentia (Calif.) El Dorado High will attempt to raise money for its football program by dropping golf balls from a helicopter. In particular, these golf balls will be dropped above the 18th hole at Black Gold Golf Club on Sunday afternoon.
Each ball which is dropped will carry the name of a donor, who will spend $10 per ball to have that name written on the aforementioned balls. While those prices aren't cheap for a golf ball, the rewards are significant: The first ball to land in the hole wins $1,000, the second nets $500 and the third will win $250.
Of course, by that math, the El Dorado team must have sold at least 176 golf balls to turn a profit, assuming at least three balls land in the hole. Incidentally, if that is the number of balls sold by El Dorado football boosters, each ball's chance of winning would be approximately 0.005 percent.
We can all hope that the team sold far more golf balls than that. In fact, hopefully the Golden Hawks will raise enough to offset the budget crunch that will surely continue to hamper teams' abilities to train, travel and compete as they always have.
And, if an entrant's ball doesn't win? Well, there's always the more traditional high school fundraiser to enjoy: A fundraiser golf tournament. The helicopter ball drop is actually part of the broader 2011 El Dorado Quarterback Club Classic Golf Tournament. It may be the highlight, but there's sure to be plenty of traditional golf played earlier in the day as well.
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