Why should you join a booster club? Well the primary reason might be because your child has decided to continue their involvement in a sports or music program. Their involvement in those sports, music, arts or other activities will give them valuable skills and improve their college and university applications. These days is those valuable extracurricular opportunities also tend to be under extreme budgetary strains, which is where booster clubs try to step in. However, in order for booster clubs to be effective, they rely on a steady stream of volunteers and community support from people like you!
That’s nice, you might think. But I’m way too busy to join a booster club. And they are not something I have any experience with!
Think again! Booster clubs need a wide array of support and help in ways you may not realize. Furthermore, understand that the booster club – volunteer relationship is not a one way street and can benefit you as well! You volunteering support of your child’s a booster club positively impacts:
- Your child
- Other children participating in the school program
- Your community and school
- Yourself
Join A Booster Club for your Child and Other Students
Still not convinced? Let’s look at what booster clubs do for your child and other students.?
School faculty and staff members, as well as other individuals responsible for managing extracurricular activities, work with hundreds of students each day. The extra support given by a booster club to a school program can result in vastly improving the experience your child, other students and the school staff that manage that activity. The more people who volunteer, the more quickly and easily necessary tasks can be completed. A ten-minute task your booster club helps complete relieves a school faculty or staff member to focus on other important activity related needs. This translates to saved time that goes right back to the students, giving everyone (your child included) a better experience. That in itself is reason enough why you should join a booster club.
Furthermore, as you find ways to help your booster club, you’ll be in a perfect position to spend more time with your child. Sometimes it can be difficult to connect with your teenager, but your involvement in an activity they take serious gives you both an opportunity to bond. You’ll be able to see your child’s progress, support them in their ups and downs and gain some additional insight into their school life. What could be better than that?
Join a Booster Club for the Community
It is easy to see how your booster club helps your child, but you may be wondering how your booster club helps your community. School academics, music, and sport activities often impact involvement in the community. Local events like concerts, football games, parades, and rallies are opportunities for your child to participate in events while simultaneously giving back to the community. For example, many community events are enhanced by the addition of musical performances. A parade without a marching band may even be considered boring. Adding carolers to holiday community events? Now THERE’S a reason to bundle up. While performers gain the spotlight and attention, those who attend the events supported by the booster club(s) also share in a positive communty experience.
Another opportunity arising from community performances are opportunities to advocate for music, sports, and education. If people see various student activities as a positive forces in the community, next time a school activity funding referendum happens, your neighbors will be that much more likely to support additional funding needs. Additional funding for school programs improves every child’s educational experience through exposure to extracurricular activities, and in turn strengthens the school and the district for years to come. The combination of school funding and booster club support should improve your school district’s longer term educational experience makes a positive impact on both the school system and community for years to come!
Join A Booster Club to Improve your Skills
Yet another reason why you should join a booster club is your own self growth! There is substantial research that shows volunteer work is beneficial for the volunteers as well as those they are helping.This also holds true with booster clubs.
One way you can benefit personally is viewing volunteering for your booster club as an opportunity to develop new skills or utilize your field of expertise (if applicable). An additional professional advantage of helping your booster club, is potentially strengthening personal and professional connections. Those connections may come in handy in your social life or career outside of the booster club.
There are so many important tasks booster clubs need help with and likely a shortage of people to do them. You may think knowledge in areas such organization skills, bookkeeping, logistics, communication, technology, marketing and more is needed before joining the booster club, but that is probably not true. There are almost always outgoing booster club members who are actively looking to teach others the skills needed to help the booster club run smoothly after they have left. In this way you can gain new skills or hone rusty ones.
Join A Booster Club For Your Health and Fun!
Involvement in a booster club also provides an emotional benefit. It has been shown time and time again that volunteers are happier than individuals who are not involved in volunteer work. Research indicates that volunteering can decrease the social isolation that often accompanies depression, as well as improve conditions like heart disease and chronic pain.
But really, perhaps the NUMBER ONE reason to volunteer for your booster club is that it’s FUN! Seriously! Most people involved with a booster program are in it for the right reasons, and it shows. The students the booster club supports are having a blast and that positive energy radiates through the program. The experiences shared by everyone involved make happy memories for years to come.
Consider giving a hand to your child’s program. Any way you look at it, your child’s booster program is a force for good: for students, the school, the community, and yourself. With a bit of luck, in a few years, a healthier, happier you (and several new friends!) will wonder why you ever hesitated to begin supporting your booster club.
