This isn’t the first time the field conditions have wreaked havoc on schedules. The Jim Thorpe Booster Club uses the field for their home football games on Sundays. On Sunday, Sept. 13, the club arrived at the field for that day’s games only to field it usable despite the bright sun and warm temperatures.

The club had only about an hour to move all of their equipment, concession stand materials including a grill, and kids 15 miles up the road to Penn Kidder. Someone had to stay at the high school to direct all the home teams and the visiting Tamaqua players and their families to the new location.

Needless to say, Jim Thorpe is not getting a good rap in terms of being able to host athletic games. The state of our field negatively impacts all sport programs that rely on it to be dry and playable — track, soccer, and football. The poor drainage system results in a swamp days after the rains have stopped. It creates chaos for scheduling and financial losses in terms of concession stand and ticket sales.

I think it’s time we start fundraising for a new field. Who’s with me?

I’m devoting a section of this Web site to the New Field Effort. The section will document when a program is disrupted due to the field not being playable. I’ll try and document both the inconvenience and the financial losses. Overtime, I believe, we’ll have a good case upon which to build a robust fundraising program.

It will take time. I will reach out to area districts who have successfully raised enough money to put in Astro-turf — which isn’t affected by weather. We’ll learn from their success and their mistakes. It will probably take ten years but in the end we’ll have a field to be proud of and one that won’t turn kids away on a bright sunny Sunday afternoon.

Kathy Schwartz
Jim Thorpe resident and mother