The following donations have kept RCAF expenses to a minimum:

Chad DeGraff of DeGraff Development (checkout degraffdevelopment.com ) arranged to have all the insulation donated, as well as the HighLift rental. He has also given us a couple free days use of his crew and his crew (Aaron Santos & Alex O.) kindly agreed to come on Saturday, as volunteers, to help us finish.

Volvo Rents (checkout volvorentsconstructionequipment.com )donated the use of the reach forklift for the week.

Josh Penera, California High Reach (checkout californiahighreach.com ) donated $1300 in equipment rentals

Rick Hogan, Hogan Drywall, took care of sheetrocking the fieldhouse.

Leif of Therm-All Insulation in Stockton ( www.therma-all.com ) donated $630 of insulation and tape

Steve Bickle & Chad Meems from Gate or Door donated their services to remove and reinstall the huge garage doors

Burkett (checkout burkettspoolplastering.com )donated a crew/equipment for the shotput/discus & batting cage pad demolish

Keith Haines and Vince Hobbs rehung the batting cage cables

 It took a lot of volunteers to get all that done! Thank you to the following people who gave up a part of their vacation to help out!

Scotty and Elizabeth Williams, T.J. Hobbs, Luke Hobbs & Cristian Spence, Josh Fredriksz, Scott Ambrose, Chad DeGraff & his crew Aaron and Alex, Devon Shirk, Sarah Ambrose, Paul Calkins, Ernie Tyhurst, Steve Bickle & Chad Meems, Wesley Mohler, Cami Gioffre & kids, Matthew & Michael Ysit, Sarah, John, Hart, and Reed Yoshida, Eli Day, Kristy Carlson and family, Louie Fredriksz, Melissa, Branden, & Malery States, Bert & Robert Lo

Great news!

DSA (the Department of the State Architect) has approved our shot-put and discus locations. This means we can order and install these two events in time for track season and move full-speed-ahead on the track and field revitalization construction!

SSJID (checkout www.ssjid.com ) and Building Dreams Foundation have donated $1,000 cash towards the shotput and discus events. These items must be installed this winter before the next track season so we are grateful for their help.

• Field house relocated (quite a feat!)
• Old batting cage concrete behind visitor’s bleachers demolished and hauled away by Burkett’s Pool Plastering
• Old field house location deep cleaned of all loose hardware & debris (using a magnet). Grated edges so pad is not a tripping hazard and edges painted a bright yellow for safety
• Fence posts set in place for fence blocking generator/electrical (a temporary barrier is in place)
• New batting cages assembled & poles primed & painted with very high quality paint
• Monkey bars removed
• Press box cleaned and painted (trimmed red & floor mopped and finish applied)
• Demolition & haul away of shot-put & discus
• Existing long jump & triple jump cleaned and prepped for next track season
• Painted new overhang to ice machine “Ripon Red”
• Gathered the scattered football practice apparatus and lined up against the fence
• Additional grading around temporary storage behind baseball field
• General cleanup around the stadium

Steve Bickle and CHad Meems with Gate-or-Door has shared his professional expertise by coming out on a moment’s notice to fix the doors on the donated storage containers.

Keith Haines, S&K Management and Vince Hobbs have been working tirelessly in the stadium to install infrastructure necessary for the master plan. We are grateful for VOLVO RENTS for the equipment rental donation!

RINA’S RUN will be May 12, 2012. We are starting to gather sponsors for this event. Our goal is to raise $30,000 this year. If you are interested in joining the Race Committee and/or sponsoring the event (thereby adding your logo/name to the back of over 700 tshirts), please contact Stephanie at 209.923.3894.

MID (Modesto Irrigation District) mid.org has already committed $300 towards the event.

Overview of the Project:

Established in 2007, RCAF is spearheading a grassroots effort to upgrade the football field and track at Ripon High School (RHS). The existing facility is over 70 years old and is the only football field and track with seating in the community. The track is six lanes wide, but only five are useable. Moreover, it’s less than ¼ mile in length and has an unpredictable surface of soil and clay. The field and track have not been addressed since they were last upgraded in the early 1970’s, when the track was graded and compacted, the irrigation system repaired and new turf was planted. At that time the field and track supported the football and track programs from one high school with an enrollment of 370 students (2011 enrollment 900). Since that time field usage has grown to support the high school’s football program, the football program for a second, private high school and two youth football programs. In the 1970’s there were 15 football games played on the field over 13 weeks. Today, over the same periods of time, there are 75 games played on the same field. The track supports a track program that is double the size of the 1960’s program. Because it is not regulation size, only dual meets can be held on the track. The community cannot host league, subsection or section meets due to the non-regulation size of the track. This revitalization will open Ripon’s only stadium up to soccer for the first time, regional events, and increased physical activity for more youth in our community.

Thanks to several generous donors, we have broken ground on initial aspects of Phase One for a regulation-sized football/soccer field and 8-lane dirt track.

Donations include: Demolition, surveying, heavy equipment, most sprinkler parts, asphalt for areas behind end-zones (“Ds”). The Ds behind the end-zones needs all-weather surfacing which costs $85,000. This surfacing is required for track events. Phase One total cost is $1,126,469.

The trailblazing donors (200+), listed HERE, will have permanent recognition in the new facility. The prime location of this stadium, which is adjacent to Hwy. 99, opens (tax-deductible) advertising opportunities for donors. Monthly, over 2.25 million cars pass Stouffer Field. Of course, the great feeling of giving back to their community, to benefit generations, offers a deep satisfaction.

News

• Thanks to R&B Supplies for their generous $1,000 materials donation!
• Brick orders are coming in. We have over 60 ordered.
• Schemper’s Ace Hardware continues their support by giving us a generous discount on all supplies purchased there.
• Batting cage foundation poured (30 yards of concrete discounted by 7 11 Materials). This is to make space for the wider soccer field and track as we slide the visitor’s bleachers back.
• Quarterback Club donates $7,000 to completely cover materials for the relocation of the field house and repair of a large ice machine
• Bryce Perkins at Tuff Boy Leasing donates two large storage  containers for baseball use and temporary storage while the field house is being relocated.
• Roadbase under those trailers provided by CalCrush and delivered thanks to Matt Burkett of Burkett’s Pool Plastering.
• Keith Haines, Eli Day, Vince Hobbs, Matt Burkett, and others, giving up many weekends to prepare stadium for construction.
• Cal Crush supplies rock for under foundation of future field house location
• Grass field will most likely be bermuda with a perennial rye overseed. This is the same mix that was planted at Stanford Stadium’s soccer field last year and is at PacBell Park.