Boosters Turn Mulch Into Moolah

One heaping bag after another, dozens of Wolverine athletes and boosters doled out Watkins Mill’s annual payload of mulch on Saturday morning—each stack amounting to its share of textbooks, school supplies and other must-haves for seven college-bound students.

About a dozen adults joined members of the tennis, baseball and boys’ and girls’ lacrosse teams to deliver 5,300 bags of mulch on Saturday morning, which raised $6,500, said Boosters president Elizabeth King.

More than a decade old, the mulch sale is the Boosters’ biggest fundraiser. After last year’s anemic total of 3,900 bags—King blames Snowmageddon—the sale rebounded nicely this year with its 5,300-bag total, a few hundred bags above the typical year.

“We have been able to raise more, keep more, and hopefully have it go toward more scholarships,” King said.

The Boosters give out six $500 scholarships at end of each school year: one male and female each for academic accomplishment, athletic performance and overall excellence. The Boosters also split a $600 scholarship with the PTSA.

Most of the Boosters’ funding—about 80 percent—comes from concession and sportswear sales, King said. But the mulch sale is one of the best measures of the Boosters’ vibrancy—and by extension, the vitality of Watkins Mill athletics. Both have seen a marked increase this year as Watkins Mill teams have enjoyed some of their best-ever seasons bringing a lot of close games, especially on the football field.

The Boosters' success also reflects on the school-wide jump in morale, which King credited in large part to first-year Principal Scott Murphy—who showed up on Saturday with his own truck to help with the back-breaking work.

Next up for the Boosters: Watkins Mill’s 3rd Annual golf tournament, set for June 17 at Laytonsville Golf Course. Sign-ups will start soon.