The Eli Sports Network Soanka Fund
The Eli Sports Network is excited to announce and honor one of our own and launching the ESN “Soanka Fund”. The Fund is named after ESN’s own Ron Soanka who has given decades of his life to calling high school sports games and working directly with coaches and kids.
Ron’s positive personality and enthusiasm for high school sports is inspirational and contagious. Ron is currently in a fight with cancer but his positive attitude and outlook on life is the perfect partner for ESN’s new “Soanka Fund”.
The Soanka Fund is in the process of becoming an official non-profit foundation and we will be raising money through a multitude of fundraisers throughout the year. The Fund will have a Board of Directors that will guide the fundraising events and will also determine the distribution of funds.
The money raised will be targeted to student athletes that need assistance to pay for the very basics to compete. The Soanka Fund’s mission is to make sure some basic monetary fees do not stop a student from competing.
The Soanka Fund will notify school Athletic Director’s throughout the state and let them know what our fund is all about and how they can apply for assistance. The idea is for AD’s to apply for funds with an outline of what they need it for or how many students they are attempting to assist. The Soanka Fund will operate on the honor system, we will not be asking for names or any personal information from students.
Funds from the Soanka Fund may be used to pay for school fees, ASB cards, insurance for the sport and other basic costs such as cleats, shoes and other basic necessities.
We plan on launching this fund for the 2017-2018 school year. We will be going through the legal process of establishing the non-profit foundation, organizing our board and holding a couple of fundraisers.
Our 1st fundraiser will be Sunday, January 29th a golf scramble event at Tumwater Valley Golf Course. More details on this tournament coming out this week.
