When working concessions at the Telstar middle/high school campus in Bethel, Telstar Boosters Club President Rebekah Howe-Coolidge said players often swing by to chit-chat — sometimes angling for free food.

“Building that connection and knowing that there are people there that support them and their sport — that, for me, is a good feeling,” she said. “A little kid (playing rec basketball) told me my grilled cheese ‘tasted like heaven.’”

Howe-Coolidge and her team — Vice President Kara Kimball, Secretary Jenni Smith and Treasurer Erin DePrey — plan to expand the 12-by-16-foot snack shack they share with youth football by about 8 feet.

They also plan to add two 10-foot dugouts to the middle school softball field at the Route 26 campus and two more to the middle school baseball field at Crescent Park Elementary School on Crescent Street in Bethel.

In the meantime, the boosters have batting cages to help purchase, senior banquets to plan, concession schedules to staff, food to order and donations to manage. Additionally, they’re planning a January breakfast for visiting Vinalhaven basketball players.

Howe-Coolidge said the Telstar coaches’ jackets, sweatshirts and polo shirts funded by the boosters were well-received.

Despite how busy the boosters keep her, “I do actually have a job,” Howe-Coolidge joked.

This year, the group hopes to recruit younger parents. Watching games while staffing the concession stand, Howe-Coolidge said, can be a juggling act. And while they’ve done it with just one volunteer before, it’s far from ideal.

They hope to have middle school parents staff the shack during varsity games and vice versa, and they hope to recruit high school students seeking community service hours.

“It’s not hard; most people know how to make a grilled cheese,” she said.

Howe-Coolidge posts the weekly home game schedule on Facebook.

“It was sad when my kids first hit middle and high school,” she said. “To me there weren’t many fans. That was a big push for me to get more community involvement.”

Her son, Kimball, Telstar class of 2024, played football and basketball, and daughter Quinn, a Telstar sophomore, plays field hockey, basketball and softball.

Her efforts have paid off. She said parents and grandparents have thanked her for raising awareness, and the past few years the stands have been packed for basketball, with other games drawing strong crowds, too.

Their first year together, the four club officers started from scratch, establishing bylaws and electing officers. Howe-Coolidge is entering her fifth year as Telstar’s unofficial Boosters president — and her second as “official.”

She said the job “fell” into her lap five years ago. Two years ago, it became an official club with Howe-Coolidge as president.

“No one else wrote in anyone else to be president. I can’t imagine why,” she said, laughing about the time commitment.

Volunteers have offered to do the excavation at the snack shack, pour the concrete and provide materials. They will likely need to pay for construction labor.

“It would be a lot harder (without the volunteers) and would take longer,” Howe-Coolidge said.

The 17 vinyl signs lining the track fence are from another fundraiser. There were just four when Howe-Coolidge began. She said Kara Kimball secured another 20 for the gym wall.

Of the donations that come in — many unsolicited — she said she still feels like she’s “just constantly asking for stuff. It’s not a good feeling. But I know ultimately it’s for a good cause.”

Looking around the snack shack, Howe-Coolidge said they’d love to fit in another freezer and a Fryolator. On a typical football game day, they sell burgers, hot dogs, french fries, candy and baked goods.

“This year we were desperate for volunteers (at the snack shack), so I roped my husband in, who likes to cook,” she said. He created what became a popular Thanksgiving sandwich and a brisket sandwich, and “now he’s asking for the game schedule for basketball,” she said.