CONTRIBUTE to the NHPF

After reading the Nov./Dec. issue of the NHPA Newsline magazine, and checking out the contributions to the NHPF, I often wonder how local clubs make it financially.

The NHPA push is for card carrying members to contribute $10 a month to the NHPF. The NHPF stands for National Horseshoe Pitchers Foundation. I bring this up because Newsline, unlike our WSHPA Ringer Report, is not included with the NHPA dues. You have to subscribe for it separately at a cost of $12 a year for six issues. I love this magazine, the only national publication solely dedicated to horseshoe pitching, that I know of. The WSHPA Ringer Report always has a form to fill out to send in when anyone makes a contribution to the NHPF.

Getting back to my first statement on how local clubs finance themselves. Every club has to keep up their courts. Build and maintain a storage shed, keep supplied with shovels, hoses, buckets, stakes, score boards, fencing, etc. Some of these items come out of the dues paid by league members, around $20 for most clubs. (Bar leagues charge $5 per week.) Most of the dues money is then spent on trophies or a year-end party of some kind. Not much left for maintenance of the club.

Most the of items mentioned come from club volunteers who donate time and material, or work in a place where the boss says it's OK to make something for the local club. So with these members the club continues to exist for another year.

Then along comes the NHPF saying they would like a contribution when maybe the money should stay with the local club? Now, don't get me wrong at this thought, it's just that.

Let me tell you what the NHPF is all about in a few words. Organized horseshoe pitching has been around since about 1909. It was just in the past few years that the thought of promoting our game nationally came into existence. We have our NHPA president, Dave Loucks, to thank for getting the NHPF started.

In my Guide Book that I published for the Mount Clemens Indoor Horseshoe Pitchers Club, I have on the inside back page, this statement:

Looking for a way to promote the "Great Game of Horseshoes?" How about a contribution to the National Horseshoe Pitchers Foundation? This foundation was recently created to educate the public about and promote
the game of horseshoes around the country as a

non-professional sport. The NHPF plans to construct and maintain a horseshoe pitching hall of fame, museum and library in Joelton, TN. Dr. Jack Freeman, of Nashville, donated 65 acres of land which already has a building with 18 courts and an open sided building with 20 more. The foundation needs the support of every person interested in seeing the game of horseshoe pitching grow as a recognizable sport. The foundation would appreciate your tax deductible contribution. All donations of $10.00 or more will be acknowledged in writing. NHPF, 140 Sierra Blanca Ct., Grass Valley, CA 95945-9741

It is up to the individual pitcher to send in a contribution. I have to admit that I just sent in my first personal contribution in December. Clubs that I'm treasurer of have sent in contributions.

The new MCIHPC donated $1 per member. We have 64 members. So maybe that is a way to start contributions from a club. Some clubs have a special fund raiser for the NHPF, but then comes my thought of keeping the local club financially sound.

One more thought. One of the purposes of the NHPF, and I think the most important, is to EDUCATE THE PUBLIC about horseshoe pitching. But as members of the NHPA we don't even educate ourselves when half the members don't subscribe to Newsline. Getting Newsline out to all NHPA members should be a top priority of the NHPF as its first education project. I think more individual contributions would start rolling in when pitchers realize we are going to educate and inform the public about our game. And through education comes an increase in membership. I urge the NHPA to take up this issue again of having all members receive Newsline. I also want to see advertising expanded in Newsline. As pitchers, we consume soft drinks, wear a variety of clothing, shoes, drive automobiles of all shapes and sizes, etc. I see no reason why big companies should not advertise if the circulation of Newsline can be expanded. And how about placing a copy in every public library in the USA and Canada? I think the readership would increase substantially.

So, I'm on my soapbox to say, "Contribute!" Make a personal contribution, or have your club make a contribution to the NHPF. And fill out the form for a subscription to Newsline, if you don't already receive it. You will be surprised at the horseshoe education you can get and then pass on your copy to a friend or give it to the public library. We will get a jump start on what I think should be part of the education program of the NHPF.

And for our local clubs' financial state? Just increase the dues or recruit more members!