October 16, 2020

Dear Colonels Family:

Every year, the James Wood Athletic Association awards scholarships to our graduating student-athletes and gives a donation to the James Wood Athletic Department to be used to benefit all of our teams. Needless to say, COVID-19 has thrown our fundraising capabilities for a loop. 

Like many others, we were incredibly disappointed to be unable to hold our Spring 2020 athletic season. We know the VHSL and our schools are working hard to help hold all three seasons during the second half of the school year. If we are lucky enough to hold competitions later this year, it will mean limited games and required reduced attendance. The largest fundraiser that the JWAA holds annually is the running of our concession stands, and this year we will certainly not have the crowd capacity to make the profits we have seen in past years.

The JWAA is very proud of our tradition of giving a scholarship to every senior student-athlete who applies. This year may be the first in which that tradition is at risk. We anticipate around 50  seniors applying for scholarships this spring, and our athletic department could use our donation as well after what will be a tight year. 

We do hope to have some fundraisers this year although we do not anticipate they will make up the loss of funds from sports concessions.  These fundraisers include a pork raffle and a membership drive, and we hope to be able to start our Golf Tournament again this spring and continue our Cash Party, which may look a little different this year.  

So, we are asking all of our James Wood family, friends and alumni to consider donating to the James Wood Athletic Association. We have set up multiple ways for you to help. Please go to the JWAA website at www.jwaa.org to see the following: 

• Join the JWAA - click on the “Membership” tab at the top of the page

• Donate to the JWAA Go Fund Me Page - link is under the “Fundraisers” on the left side of the page

• Amazon Smiles - choose the JWAA as your Amazon Smiles recipient and we receive 0.5% of your qualified purchase; link is under “Fundraisers” on the left side of the page

• Colonels Spirit Wear - click on the JWAA Store tab and the JWAA receives 10% of your purchase

• Hog Raffle - win a fully butchered and dressed pig - $10/ticket - available on the JWAA website or contact an officer - the drawing will be on December 14th at 6:00 pm on the JWAA Facebook page Live!

And, as always, we need your help with our fundraisers -- selling tickets, purchasing membership, and obtaining sponsors for the golf tournament and cash parties are just a few ways you can help!  We also are interested in hearing your ideas for fundraising that may help provide funds we need for our athletes.

Please feel free to share this information with any others who may be interested.

With our gratitude,

Susie Grove

JWAA President

www.jwaa.org