Mary Omer makes it to all Palmer High home football games, but you won't find her in the stands.
She's one of a band of Palmer Lions selling tickets at the gate, where she has stood off and on since her two sons began playing for the Moose in the 1990s.
"I enjoy it. The gates are set up where you have a full view of the field so if there's a good play you can see it," she said.
The Moose take the field today in Anchorage to play Juneau Douglas for the large school state football championship.
Omer, a retired schoolteacher, and her fellow Lions, along with the Moose Football Booster Club, are among a contingent of volunteers supporting the team. From the concession stand to the announcer's booth to the medical crew on the sidelines, they're everywhere, said Palmer's head football coach, Rod Christiansen.
"We have the regular booster club, but you also have the 'what can I do to help?' crowd," he said.
Both types of volunteers are crucial to high school sports programs.
"You have to have that. We couldn't run our program without them," Christiansen said.
And they couldn't do it without fundraisers.
Financial support from the Matanuska-Susitna Borough School District for athletics amounts to busing expenses only, said Jeff Thiede, the Palmer High activities director. The district has a pay-to-play policy to help schools offset other expenses, he said.
Students pay $100 per sport. Of that, $25 goes to the school's general athletic fund for things like tape, medical supplies and letters for the lettermen, Thiede said. The remaining $75 goes directly to the individual sports programs to pay for uniforms and equipment.
That money falls woefully short of the costs to run most programs, Thiede said.
Jerseys and pants for one football player alone, for example, cost around $130 to $150. Throw in helmets, practice equipment and field maintenance and the expenses add up fast.
"The money in high school athletics is pretty much generated by volunteers and fundraising," Christiansen said.
In the Mat-Su, it's always been that way, said Larry De-Vilbiss, a former borough School Board member and a 1962 Palmer High graduate.
"I can remember when we even had to make our own ice rinks," he said. "The funding, the way it is, is the best way to keep parents involved."
Enter the booster club. Each high school sport has its own club. The football boosters work year-round raising money for the program, says Robin Waldvogle-Kemp, the club treasurer. Its members man the concession stand, sell ads in the football programs, hold dinners and silent auctions, and, in conjunction with the Palmer Lions, raffle big-ticket items like trips to Hawaii.
But year after year, sport upon sport, fundraising takes a toll on community generosity.
"The fall sports aren't so bad but when you get to the spring, the town's been tapped numerous times," said Thiede.
The boosters also organize a spring training camp for youth football and a summer passing tournament for high school players. Palmer coaches run both.
The fees, $35 for the camp and $25 for the tournament, support the high school team.
"We've had tremendous numbers show up -- around 100 for the last one," said Harry Moore, booster club president and father of senior Moose lineman Everest Moore.
All told, Moore said, the club raised about $26,000 last year.
That money pays for game uniforms, practice uniforms, pads and specialty equipment like gauntlet dummies and a lineman chute, and for food, trophies and T-shirts at the end-of-season football banquet, Moore said.
But the boosters and the Lions Club aren't alone in contributing to Moose football, Christiansen said.
Dr. Brian Larson of Larson Chiropractic in Wasilla serves the team medical needs on the sidelines, free of charge, Christiansen said. Other volunteers run the scoreboard and the time clock or work the sidelines marking first downs. Still others repaint the stripes and maintain the field, he said.
The team also enjoys support from benefactors such as MTA, which Thiede says donated rally rags and megaphones for the boosters to sell, to the local pizza companies that donate pizzas for post-game celebrations, to the fans who turn out week after week to watch the Moose play.
