Schools

Community Cash Salvages Wantagh High's Golf Program

Fundraiser nets $14,000 to make up for the sport being cut from the school's 2010-2011 budget.

When Wantagh High School varsity golfer Andrew Onufrey learned last spring that his program was cut from the 2010/2011 budget, anxiety set in at the possibility of him missing out on his senior year on the team. But due to a community outpouring that raised $14,000 in less than two months, the Wantagh golf program has been saved.

"The community really did step in and help us out," Onufrey said.

Onufrey's mother Felicia was one of the Wantagh golf parents who took the lead on fundraising to help salvage the team. The fundraising efforts took place from late April to the end of June with the bulk of the necessary money raised during a May 20 event at Johnny Malone's in Wantagh. The fundraising to save the Warriors golf team came two years after the Wantagh community banded together in raising more than $650,000 to restore all the district's athletics programs after they had been cut when voters rejected the proposed budget and forced the district onto austerity.

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"I was emotional with all the support we got from our neighbors and community," said Mrs. Onufrey, who credited the Wantagh High School Sports Booster Club for helping in the fundraising efforts.

"They went about reinstating the team in a very appropriate way," said Wantagh Superintendent Lydia Begley, who said that the initial decision to cut the golf program was a very difficult one for the district.

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