According to a post on the Illinois Elementary School Association’s official website, iesa.org, a crowdfunding effort is underway. A Go Fund Me Charity page has been set up by the IESA to help counteract the organization’s current financial crisis.
In late October, due to the coronavirus pandemic, the organization that oversees junior high school sports and activities in the state of Illinois stated that they were concerned about their financial future. The IESA’s executive director Steve Endsley said at the time that unless junior high school extra-curricular activities get back to a somewhat normal schedule for the entirety of the 2020-2021 school year, they would have to consider suspending operations for the first time in its 91-year history.
Having canceled the wrestling, track and field and volleyball championship tournaments last spring, Endsley said they had already suffered losses of over $400,00. This fall, there were no championship tournaments held for baseball, softball, golf and girls basketball. Endsley added that should they not be able to host championship tournaments for the remainder of this school year, the deficit could climb to near $1.5 million.
The IESA hopes to raise at least $500,000 on their “Campaign to Save the IESA” Go Fund Me Charity page. As of this morning, in less than 24 hours, nearly $6,000 was donated.
In a lengthy post on the page, it states that the IESA is the only organization throughout all 50 states that is set-up to exclusively govern and administer athletic and non-athletic activities at the jr. high school level. Every other state in the union’s junior high sports and activities are ran through their state’s high school association, such as the IHSA in Illinois.
The IESA is a not-for-profit organization and not a state agency, meaning that it does not receive funding from the state. The post says, “Most of our operating funds are the result of attendance at the state series events. As those events have been cancelled because of the pandemic, the Association has been crippled by the revenue loss. No championships were held in the spring of 2020. There were no championships in the fall of 2020 and as of today, it does not appear as though championships in any sport will be held for the remainder of the 2020-21 school year. We simply cannot survive that kind of financial hit and continue to operate. In fact, we won’t survive. Without any significant income, we are spending our reserves and those reserves will likely run out in April.”
There are over 900 IESA member schools in Illinois. To donate to the “Campaign to Save the IESA” go to iesa.org/gofundme
