The Hawkeye Wrestling Club Banquet was a huge success. There is definitely momentum in the Hawkeye Wrestling Club movement. Every person I talked to mentioned the increased excitement of just the last 6-8 weeks. The movement on Hawkeyereport.com wrestling bulletin board to raise over $100,000 and the two individual donations of $1 million certainly has Iowa Wrestling fan’s attention.
A record crowd of over 350 people at the Kirkwood Convention Center in Cedar Rapids were generous with the silent auction, live auction, and raffle that amounted to a record total of over $74,000 raised for the Hawkeye Wrestling Club. The old record was just over $50,000. That is a huge increase in a year. I would not be surprised if they went over $100,000 raised next year.
The HWC has been innovating new ways for Iowa Wrestling fans to donate to the HWC. www.hwcdonor.com went live on April 17. To date, there is $2,094/month coming into the HWC from their new recurring payment system that has been implemented. That is a great start. Just since Friday night at the banquet, over $900/month has been raised. I spoke to Hawkeye Wrestling Club president Randy Novak and he is very excited about the impact that the new website and the recurring monthly payments will have on the fundraising efforts for the HWC. The goal is to have $100,000/month coming into the HWC on recurring payments. That goal will be achieved $1 at a time. Donations for the recurring payments range from $10 to $250/month. Every dollar counts and it all adds up.
The goal is to have $100,000/month coming into the HWC on recurring payments.
Mark Perry killed it in his speech at the banquet to the point that he received a standing ovation. The added buzz of having Mark Perry coming home to be the new head coach of the Hawkeye Wrestling Club has sure added to the excitement of Iowa Wrestling and the HWC. I also look for Mark Perry to be very effective at fundraising for the HWC as well. I will be interviewing Mark Perry soon for this blog.
I was able to contribute to the silent auction. I have designed a poster of Cory Clark. A shout out to two-time Lisbon state champ J.J. Butteris for the great job he did as the graphic artist on the poster. Donna Novak did a great job with the framing and matting to make the poster look its best. Cory Clark and Tom Brands added their autographs to add even more value. The winning bid of $600 went to Anders Kittelson of Decorah. Anders is pictured with Cory Clark and myself at the banquet. The Cory Clark poster will be available soon for fans to pick them up at no charge. I will keep you posted on locations.
There were so many people that worked very hard to make this banquet such a success. I wanted to mention Tim Grissell and Randy Novak who are spending a lot of time and effort into making the Hawkeye Wrestling Club an even better club with more needed money being raised.
One thought that I had when I looked over the crowd Friday night was that a similar banquet could be held in Des Moines, Waterloo,Okoboji, and Chicago. I really believe there are that many Iowa Wrestling fans out there. Also, wouldn’t it be great if people could bid on items for the silent auction online? Could the new HWC donor website have something setup like ebay for donors to bid on wrestling memorabilia or donated items 24/7, 365? Look for the HWC to expand on their fundraising efforts. I really like the goal of $100,000/month of recurring payments coming into the HWC. Be sure and check out www.hwcdonor.com. They have a thermometer with the goals set. I know wrestling people are very goal orientated so yet another effective system set up by the HWC.
With any questions,suggestions,or donations for the Hawkeye Wrestling Club, contact HWC president Randy Novak at [email protected]
Thank you to everyone that contributed to the HWC Banquet. It was a huge success and I look for even more great fundraising events by the HWC in the future. And of course, I want to see “The Greatest Wrestling Training Facility…in the world” as the home of the University of Iowa Wrestling program to become a reality. Events like this banquet only increase my confidence and faith that it will indeed happen.
As I am always saying:
It is great to be an Iowa Wrestling fan.
Go Hawks!
