The Falmouth Road Race, Inc. is Pleased to Gift Upper Cape Cod Regional Technical School with a Grant of $68,000 for their Sports Programs
FALMOUTH, Mass. — Each summer and winter, Falmouth Road Race, Inc. gives grants valued in the millions to a handful of local organizations with a specific focus on youth athletics and programming that promotes health and wellness. In the last round of grants, one of the recipients was Upper Cape Cod Regional Technical School in the amount of $68,000 to refurbish their football field goal posts and soccer nets, as well as purchase a new modernized scoreboard for the field.
Members of the Falmouth Road Race, Inc. board made Superintendent Roger Forget aware of the grant opportunities and encouraged him to submit their own application. When questioning what to ask for, “They said, ‘give us your wish list!’ We were very very fortunate.”
The Falmouth Road Race, Inc. is dedicated to uplifting local educational communities, with Falmouth High School, Lawrence School, Mashpee Middle-High School, and Waldorf School of Cape Cod among the list of summer 2024 grant recipients.
The Upper Cape Cod Regional Technical School is a high school community welcoming students from all neighboring towns with 15 vocational programs. “It’s a wonderful campus,” says Forget. “It’s one of the best well-kept secrets, and a testament to the students and the staff because they’ve built everything and maintained the grounds. Having the opportunity to further improve the campus with this grant made us very very excited.”
Assistant Principal Tim Lizotte sat with the athletic director and coaches to target areas that “were really big needs for us” before writing the grant. In line with Falmouth Road Race, Inc.’s mission, they asked for items that would most promote the health and wellness of their students.
Their football program started 15 years ago and the equipment was in need of replacement so new field goal posts and a new scoreboard were at the top of their list. The new scoreboard will also be more modernized for a multi-sport format that is appropriate for football, soccer, and lacrosse. The last request was new aluminum nets for the soccer program that will be more durable and transportable.
All of the equipment will be there in time to start fresh with the new school year. The football and soccer nets will be delivered over the summer, and “The scoreboard is ordered and should be complete before the first football game. The students and school committee were elated with the gifts.”
The school is building two new athletic fields behind the current fields. “Now we can refresh the new game day field with these gifts and move the old equipment out back,” explains Lizotte. “There will be a sign that will say ‘donated by the Falmouth Road Race’ which will raise awareness with not just our kids from Falmouth, but with our students from all of the other towns and visiting teams to put two and two together about the Falmouth Road Race and what they do.”
In thanks, “The boy’s varsity soccer coach has already volunteered his team to help with race day prep or clean up and the football coach will organize a contingent of football players to do the same,” says Lizotte. Forget explains: “To really say thank you for being so supportive of our students. We want to exchange the favor because there is a real partnership and a community feel for everything that we do.”
It is their first time having a student organization volunteer to help out at the race. “Part of the mission for Upper Cape Tech is to give back to our five sending towns, and the partnership with the Falmouth Road Race will continue however we can assist them for many, many years.”
“The Falmouth Road Race is just a wonderful organization and knowing the members is something I would encourage to any of my colleagues,” concludes Forget.