SALEM – Let there be light.
Six months after tackling the seemingly impossible task of raising $35,000 in an economically strapped region, Mt. Abram High School soccer coaches, players and parents can see the shimmering at the end of the tunnel.
A grass roots effort to refurbish the Roadrunners’ athletic complex will begin its final phase today, when Mt. Abram soccer parent Mike Carleton and Integrity Electric of Farmington begin the process of placing underground wire. By mid-August, Mt. Abram should be ready to host varsity, junior varsity and middle school soccer games under the bulbs.
“It’s funny,” said Mt. Abram boys’ soccer coach Darren Allen, who helped oversee the Light the Mountain’ fundraising effort. “Other schools have already called and asked us about using our field.”
Included in the project is a new baseball facility. Installing the soccer lights means destroying the old, weathered diamond. Another construction company has donated its time and resources to put a new field in place, hopefully by next spring.
All those plans nearly died over the winter.
Mt. Abram submitted its proposal to Musco Lighting, which responded with a quote of $70,000.
“It was out of this world. That was basically for materials only,” Allen said. “There was no way. Our school doesn’t have that kind of money.”
Carleton came up with a proposal to illuminate the grounds for half that figure. Parents and community members responded by selling raffle tickets and sponsorships throughout basketball season.
One idea was to sell space on the sign that will be unveiled at the christening of the new field. Benefactors were given the choice of a three-year sponsorship for $600, a “goal” level donation of $250 or a “corner kick” contribution for $100.
“Twenty businesses came forward,” Allen said. “I didn’t even know we had a total of 20 businesses in our towns.”
Mt. Abram Athletic Boosters kicked in $5,000. Sugarloaf Charitable Trust wrote a check for $4,000. A comedy night with University of Maine at Farmington graduate Bob Marley raised another $2,000.
Allen said donations are still rolling in, even though the group hit its $35,000 plateau in June.
The most expensive piece of the puzzle are six, 65-foot-high wooden poles purchased from Nova Scotia at a price tag of $14,000. Central Maine Power will put those in place.
“This part of the process is a bigger headache than raising the money,” said Allen. “I’m playing general contractor, at which I have no experience. I’m overseeing two projects. I’ve told everybody this is my last fundraising project, ever.”
Allen quickly added that the end result will be worth the trouble.
While Mountain Valley Conference rivals Dirigo, Telstar and Monmouth are seeing once powerful boys’ soccer programs struggle due to football’s resurgence, Mt. Abram, which has no pigskin program, continues to buck the trend. Allen projected that 60 boys and 45 girls will come out for soccer this fall at a school of roughly 300 students.
Mt. Abram played one home boys’ game at night last fall under temporary, generator-powered lights. That went over so well that coaches Allen and Marc Keller of the girls’ program are excited at the potential for soccer to become a community event in upper Franklin County.
Lights should help the Roadrunners’ feeder system thrive.
“We don’t cut anybody. Our JV teams will get to play full games,” Allen said, noting that they’ve typically had only the 20 to 30 minutes of left-over daylight after varsity games in the past.
Of course, one wag already hinted to Allen that his hard work could spread football fever and the “Friday Night Lights” phenomenon to Mt. Abram.
“I told him, Over my dead body.'”
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