A group of Darienites calling itself the “Darien Lights Brigade” has started a campaign to raise $750,000 for lights to illuminate Darien High School athletic fields.
“The Lights Brigade was formed as an all volunteer community organization to fund raise for LED stadium lights in support of the Darien Athletic Foundation,” the new group said on its website, where there’s a “donate” button.
“In order to install stadium lights next summer when the stadium field is returfed, we need to raise $750,000 by May 2017,” the group says on its website.
Photo from the Darien Lights Brigade on Facebook
Elsewhere on the website, the group states: “All donations go directly to the Darien Athletic Foundation, which is a 501(c)3 charitable organization.”
The Darien Athletic Foundation, in turn, recently announced on Facebook:
We hope your children get to play under the lights. That will only happen if we raise $750,000. […] Just like Opus was created to support Person-to-Person, a group of volunteers have created the Darien Lights Brigade in support of the work that the DAF is doing.
These are the members of the Capital Campaign Committee, chaired by Susan Graham, Susan Hamill and Jennifer Montanaro:
Most of a Web page on the Darien Lights Brigade website.
Here’s an argument for why you should give to the campaign, posted on the group’s Facebook timeline on Sunday, Oct. 23:
The lights will benefit our Youth and High School sports programs that will carry on Darien’s strong athletic legacy. This is how:
Allows for safer practice time. Youth programs, which are coached primarily by parent volunteers with full time day jobs, require practices to be scheduled later in the day. These practices are often cut short or cancelled due to darkness when safety becomes a real issue. For the high school, it affects not just practices, but Varsity and JV games as well.
Extends usable field time for competitions which minimizes early dismissals from school.
Eliminates the scheduling conflict between Academic testing (SATS etc) and sporting events.
Provides a “home field” for our many high school teams who make it to championship games–we currently rely on neighboring towns for their lighted stadiums.
The benefit of DHS stadium lights to the Youth Sports program is monumental and immeasurable in adding safety and quality to the youth programs. The lights will allow more of our DJFL parent coaches to commute and attend practices.
The surrounding Fairfield County communities have enjoyed lighted stadiums for years which has disadvantaged our youth programs as our teams have less practices, shortened practices due to the fading daylight and fewer coaches in attendance given the early start times.
Like the Darien Athletic Foundation, the group’s website is slick, with great pictures. Here’s another one:
Featured picture on the Darien Lights Brigade Facebook page.
It’s also got a tagline, “Unite the Community / Light the Wave,” on its shield-like logo, as seen on its Instagram page:
The Darien Athletic Foundation has paid for a lot of expensive capital improvements for Darien High School sports teams. The foundation clearly now wants Darien residents to pony up a share, as well.