Schools
District 304 Accepts 'Secret Santa' Donation for Burgess Field Turf
The Vikings could play on new artificial turf at Burgess Field this fall, thanks to an anonymous $450,000 gift to fund repairs and upgrades at the worn-out grass gridiron.
School District 304 officials all but committed to installing new artificial turf at Burgess Field Wednesday after receiving $450,000—nearly half the projected cost of the upgrade—from an anonymous donor. At a special meeting Wednesday, the Board of Education voted to accept the donation and put the project out to bid.
“I can start sleeping at night,” joked Tom Finnberg, who founded The Friends of Burgess Field last August and has volunteered full-time since then, organizing fund-raisers for the field upgrade. The Friends of Burgess Field raised $45,000, which the School Board also accepted Wednesday.
Finnberg proposed installing the FieldTurf brand artificial turf after watching Viking home football games for several seasons.
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“The drainage system had already collapsed, and the field turned into a swamp every time it rained,” he said. “I was seeing games where the kids were so covered in mud that you couldn’t tell which team they were on. My son, who’s been playing football since he could crawl, is a sophomore this year, and I wanted him to play on turf here before he graduates.”
“I think we have you to thank for this,” board President Mary Stith told Finnberg after the meeting. “Your awareness of the problem just made it happen.”
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Board members had already decided to spend $500,000 in reserve funds to repair the drainage system and re-sod the field. While it will cost about $1 million to repair the drains and install artificial turf instead of grass, officials expect to save at least $70,000 per year in maintenance costs.
“It costs $80,000 to $110,000 per year to maintain a grass field because you have to feed it, mow it and seed it,” Finnberg explained. “It only costs $7,500 to $10,000 per year to maintain FieldTurf.”
Finnberg and board member Tim Moran admitted that a few district officials know the identity of the anonymous donor, but that keeping that identity secret is a condition of receiving the donation.
“I would like to personally thank this person, even if we never meet,” Finnberg said. “We would have made it (to the fund-raising goal) eventually, but fixing the field now will make playing safer for kids that much sooner.”
