Personal testimony from the current Booster Club President, Matt Morrow:
“From a personal testimony standpoint, helping Harding Athletics is a passion of mine. I graduated from Harding in 1999, and at that time the school was a beacon for CMS. It was featured in Newsweek as a top academic institution, the diversity within the school was excellent, and there was a great pride from the students and the alumni community from what Harding was achieving on the field and in the classroom.
As Charlotte has grown, we have seen more schools come along with newer facilities, and Harding has fallen by the wayside, even among its own schools on its same side of town, not to mention its entire system. Harding has not seen any upgrades to any type of athletic facility since 2003, and its a miracle that our student athletes achieve the successes they do in spite of having inferior conditions as far as equipment and facilities go.
The football team won the 2017 4A State Football Championship with an incredible story of achievement and overcoming adversity. At that time, myself and other Harding Alumni learned that the Booster Club had been gone for at least 8 years and that there was no support within the school for athletics outside of the small amount CMS provides. So approximately one year ago, alumni came together and reformed the Booster Club. And it is led by a vast majority of alumni that have been gone from the school for several years, in some cases decades, that have come together to try and organize and provide support for kids that truly need it.
Our demographics are of kids that are primarily from single parent homes that don’t have support anywhere else except for their school. CMS has failed us in terms of providing equitable conditions, and we have been very vocal about that in trying to show that people care about Harding, and we deserve that support.
But, even by ourselves and our great efforts, we can only do so much. This is where companies and individuals like yourselves can come in and make a real difference. In places in better parts of town, sponsors are easy to come by, and everyone can come together and support them very easily as they have resources and relationships established for years upon years.
The Harding Rams Athletic Booster Club is in its infancy, and you and/or your company can be on the leading edge of helping kids that truly need it. Without that help, we may not be able to support kids to chase their dreams. Athletics can be a vehicle for a lot of our population to go to college, major in something, and change the world.
That’s our mission statement – “To Provide Support To Our Athletes Financially And Through Service With Passion And Dedication”. And through that support, we hope to change lives, one day at a time. “