Want to show your team spirit? The athletics department at Mary Baldwin University wants you to start by wearing green or Mary Baldwin clothing for National Fighting Squirrel Spirit Day on Friday, March 16, and follow up by becoming a member of the college’s first-ever Booster Club .
Anyone who wants to support Mary Baldwin Athletics can become a booster: athletes, former athletes, students, alumnae/i, parents, faculty, staff, and friends. The $25 annual fee will cover the cost of expenses that are not included in the teams’ yearly budgets, including facilities updates, student-athlete “break trips,” and more.
The Booster Club’s mission is to encourage academic and athletic excellence and create a network of supporters to help spread information about upcoming events and recent accomplishments among the college’s six sports teams.
The more immediate goal for 2012 is to enroll 300 Booster Club members in time for the annual Athletics Banquet on April 16. Reaching that benchmark would provide the club with funding to make improvements to the weight room inside the Physical Activities Center, a facility open to all members of the Mary Baldwin community.
“Strength training helps our athletes get stronger and we know that stronger athletes are better athletes,” said Director of Athletics and Wellness Sharon Spalding. “And we know weight training is important for women to maintain lean body mass.”
Spalding believes former Mary Baldwin athletes may be motivated to become boosters when they “think back to their experiences as a student athlete and realize how it has helped them after college.”
“Being part of a team teaches you how to set goals, how to relate to others, and how to deal with both success and failure,” she said.
In 2011–12, the athletics department also launched a new website to help keep Fighting Squirrel fans in the loop. The new Booster Club page — where supporters can apply for membership or simply donate to the club — can be found within the new site, under the “traditions” tab.
Photo: Director of Athletics and Wellness Sharon Spalding shares a moment with Mary Baldwin tennis star Karin Whitt ’88 at the college’s Athletics Hall of Fame induction.