The Bruin Boosters and Jr. Bruin Youth Football and Cheer Squad supporters teamed up over the weekend with a major fundraiser guaranteed to fill the plates of crab enthusiasts.
On Saturday, Feb. 25, the Riverbank Community Center filled up with parents and families looking for a good meal and an opportunity to help the sports organizations support their teams.
The Bruin Boosters is a group of parents and others who strive to help fund activities of Riverbank High School athletes. Many of the members are alumni of RHS themselves, or who have players on current teams.
The Jr. Bruin program is dedicated to backing the Youth Football teams and Cheer Squads in Riverbank. They recently have more closely affiliated with the high school teams, becoming a true ‘feeder’ program for RHS.
Jr. Bruin football teams are organized by age group, with the Jr. Novice teams aged 7 and 8 years of age. The Novice team is made up of 9- and 10-year-olds, the JV Junior Bruins are 11 and 12, while the Varsity is 12-½ to 14-year-olds.
In addition to helping with team uniform and equipment purchases at the high school, Bruin Boosters also run the snack bar for football, basketball and soccer home games, at Ray Fauria Memorial Gymnasium or Angelo Novi Stadium, throughout the school year.
The Boosters group also organizes the Senior Night presentation for each sport, providing a keepsake photograph of the event, the final home game recognition for graduating seniors and the end of the season for most sports.
At the end of the school year, they often provide scholarships to selected graduating athletes at RHS.
The crab feed was billed as an adult event, with children welcomed under parent supervision. There was bar service, raffles, a silent auction and dancing. In addition to the all-you-can eat crab, they offered tri-tip. They even offered to-go pick-up service.
The Saturday event was packed to capacity this year, and there was some talk of needing to move to another location to accommodate the crowd in the future, perhaps out of town.
