Service Club to host golf benefit May 5

BY SUSAN GIBBS Record Reporter
Published: April 9, 2008

It was about four years ago that County residents began a grassroots effort to build a field house behind William Monroe High School.

They came up with about $230,000 to get the ball rolling. They spent $5,000 of that money drawing plans that would have cost $60,000 if they had used an architectural firm. A Greene County building contractor worked with that plan at no cost. And now, with the money run out, a Greene County Club is coming to the rescue.

“We’re holding a golf tournament at the Greene Hills Country Club May 5 to benefit the field house,” William Monroe High School Community Service Club President Brittaney Shifflett announced last week.

The Club, started more than three years ago and sponsored by the Greene County Ruritans, consists of sophomores, juniors and seniors who wish to serve their school and community. Its members have participated in, among other things, a road cleanup. They’ve manned the Ruritan float in the annual Parade of Lights. And they’ve collected donations for the County Animal Shelter and Kid Pan Alley, a Ruritan program that brings musicians into the schools.

But, Shifflett says, they wanted to do something big; “something that will have an impact on the school itself.”

So they decided to raise the $80,000 needed to finish off the field house, named for Cpl. Adam J. Fargo of Ruckersville, a 22-year-old Army medic killed while searching out and clearing improvised explosive devices in Iraq.

Fargo, a member of the William Monroe High School Class of 2002, and an athlete, died July 22, 2006, just as construction on the field house was getting underway.

With Fargo’s death, the building became more than field house; it became The Adam Fargo Athletic Field House—a memorial.

While Adam attended William Monroe High School, he was involved in basketball and soccer. All that knew Adam described him as a loving, caring, and an outgoing person. Finishing this field house in his honor is important to fellow students, faculty and our community.

Club members were enthusiastic about their project:” Our school really needs the field house. The athletic department needs it, but it will be exciting for the students to have a place to get pumped up for games,” Shifflett says.

They created qualifiers for sponsorship. 

A $1,000 title sponsorship includes a four-player team and 50 ESPN 840 radio spots and a $500 hole sponsorship includes a four-player team and 20 ESPN 840 radio spots. Also available for sponsorship are $300 holes, award-free golf plays, merchandise or gift certificate, and snack, beverage or dessert items – or other – contributions. And, of course, they would take checks and cash.

They printed flyers, pounded the pavement for sponsors, produced a benefit video about the field house and Fargo, which they placed on line at the School District’s website—http://www.greenecountyschools.com – and were touched.

Shifflett, a member of the William Monroe High School Class of 2008, admits she did not know Fargo, who, as a member of the Class of 2002, was six years older. “But after working on this project, I feel like he was a cousin,” she says.

“We want the students who did not know Adam to remember him,” Shifflett explains. “We want them to realize that young men like Adam are dying every day for us to live in a free country; that there is a sacrifice for living free. I think people forget that sometimes.”

The Adam Fargo Athletic Field House is a privately-funded project that was started by Ruckersville’s Rodney Kibler, chairman of the Greene County Athletic Department Foundation.

Kibler, who was a member of the County’s school board when he gave birth to his brainchild, donated $200,000 to get the ball rolling.

“Who would have ever guessed that one of my son’s best friends from high school … would have been killed in Iraq just as we started construction?” Kibler has wondered.

The new field house, when completed, will include locker rooms, coaching staff offices, a training room, and other much-needed facilities.

To help students remember Fargo, it will also include a trophy case holding the awards he won, along with other memorials. “Even a student that’s in the sixth grade now will be affected by it,” says Shifflett.

All proceeds from this tournament will go directly to the Adam Fargo Athletic Field House funding. The money raised will first go towards installing a heating and cooling system, and then to finishing the remainder of the building.

Those not able to participate in or attend the tournament can make contribution by sending their checks—made out to the William Monroe High School Community Service Club – to Club Sponsor Mrs. Donna Eddins, 254 Monroe Drive, Stanardsville, VA 22973.

Those with questions are asked to contact Eddins at (434) 985-1464), Shifflett at (434) 409-4789, or William Monroe Athletic Director Katie Brunelle at (434) 985-1397.

All contributions are tax-deductible and receipts will be provided