Joe White Event Raises Nearly $100,000 for Hancock Athletiics
The largest and most important fundraiser of the year for the Allan Hancock College athletics department was a smashing success. The 14th annual Joe White Memorial Dinner and Auction took place at a new location, the Santa Maria Elks Lodge #1538, on Saturday, August 15.
With the silent and live auctions, as well as through sponsorships, the event raised nearly $100,000 prior to expenses. Eight homemade cakes brought in nearly $6,000 combined during a dessert auction. Twenty-one live auction items, including two tickets to a San Francisco 49ers game and a chance to train as a first responder at the college's state-of-the-art Public Safety Training Complex, netted nearly $65,000 combined.
It will be a few weeks before the Joe White Committee will be able to determine exactly how much the event raised. All proceeds go directly toward funding capital improvement projects for Bulldog Athletics. The Hancock College Boosters, Inc. has raised more than $700,000 since 2001 to purchase scoreboards, the renovation and naming of Joe White Gymnasium and John Osborne Field, as well as upgrades to the softball field and press box in the gym.
The theme of this year's event was "We're Bringing Bulldog Football Home." Funds raised this year will help to purchase a new video scoreboard for the college's new on-campus football stadium. This fall, the Bulldogs will play the first on-campus football games in school history starting with the season opener on September 5, against Santa Ana College. Previously, Hancock football played home games at Righetti and Santa Maria high schools.
The annual event honors the late Joe White, a former Hancock coach and athletic director.