Voorhees Lacrosse: Salute To Service Start-up

To Our Voorhees Lacrosse Family, Friends, and Supporters,

First off, I hope all is well with you and your family! I know it may be a while since you have last heard from me. I wanted to reach out to share a new initiative that we are launching in the 2025 season and request some help from our Viking families.

Everything has been great over here at Voorhees, and our program is in a really awesome spot from a performance standpoint as we come off of one of the best seasons in school history. This is largely thanks to the dedication and efforts of so many of you over the years in helping set the groundwork for a successful program. As many of you know, it has never been all about results for us. As happy as I am that we have seen on-field success recently, the most important thing has always been instilling a strong foundation of character in our players, teaching them lessons to be successful in life, and providing them with an enjoyable experience. I like to think that we’ve done a decent job of that in our program over the years, and this year, I’d like to take it one step further.

I have always wanted to find a way for our program to give back in some charitable way, and I believe that I have finally landed on a way to do that. Last season, we began carrying the American flag to games. A Marine veteran, and current parent from our program, presented a flag to our team and spoke to our players about the importance of honoring the flag, those who have served, and those who continue to serve our country. He showed us the proper way to display our nation's colors with honor. He showed the team how to fold the flag for transport. He also made a custom flag pole out of a defensive shaft to display the flag. Each week, a different player was chosen to carry the flag based on displays of character on and off the field.

This coming season, we will expand upon this. This year we will hold our first annual Salute to Service game. At this game, we will honor and recognize those who have served and continue to serve our country. There is no time more fitting than leading into Memorial Day weekend. This year’s game will be on Thursday May 29, 2025. In the weeks leading up to the game, our team and players will raise money for a military related charity that we will choose together at the start of our season. I have a ton of ideas for our team to raise funds for the charity that we choose come season time and I’m excited to see how the event evolves in the coming years. However, I’m reaching out for some help as we kick off the first year of this event.

An Invitation: First off, I’d like to invite you to this year’s game. We are hoping to make this first year and every year after, an exciting event. We are going to challenge our opponent to compete in raising money for the charity. We will be playing Mahwah this year, where one of our alumni (Alex Hufford) is on staff. I have some other ideas in mind to make the day special and pay respect to members of our military as well.

Some Informational Help: As part of this initiative, we are going to have a plaque made that honors all of the Voorhees Lacrosse alumni that have served our country over the years. This plaque will be displayed in our locker room to remind us of how fortunate we are to have the freedoms that we do and to honor those who protect them. I am attaching a spreadsheet below that I was hoping our alumni families could update with any alumni who have served in any branch of our armed forces. Those players will be recognized on the plaque. Please add any alumni players that you are aware of who have served from any generation of Voorhees Lacrosse. Please feel free to share this spreadsheet with any other alumni families who might be able to help with the information collection.

VHS Lacrosse Alumni Military Service Spreadsheet

A Donation Request: In order to kick off this initiative and build some excitement around the cause for the current players, I am attempting to raise funds ahead of time to purchase a set of themed jerseys to surprise the players before our first Salute to Service game. My hope is to reward the players for their anticipated efforts in fundraising. I know I might be putting the cart before the horse here, but it is my hope that if I can do the front end work and raise the funds to purchase the jerseys, we will then have the motivation for the players to repeat the fundraiser each year. This year, the jerseys will be a surprise, but in future years, players will only be allowed to wear the jerseys if they raise a specified amount of money towards the charity that we choose at the beginning of that season. So although my initial fundraising efforts will go towards the jerseys for our team, the initial investment will be compounded through our team's fundraising efforts each year going forward, and our team will be able to raise a much larger amount for the military affiliated charities in the future.

Fundraising Goal: To make this all happen, I am setting a fundraising goal of $3,500. I anticipate the cost of the jerseys to be around $3,000 and the cost of the plaque and engraving to honor our former players who have served to be around $500. My plan is to recognize all donors in some way next to the plaque in our locker and on our social media accounts. I am personally going to donate the first 10% towards our goal of $3,500 to kick start the fundraising campaign. Any funds raised above the costs of the jerseys and plaque will go directly towards our first year’s charitable fundraiser. If you are unable to donate at this time, I totally understand. Our program and I would be so grateful for whatever you may be able to give. Every little bit helps!

Thank You: I appreciate your time in reading this and your consideration in helping me and our team get this off of the ground. I think that it could grow into something really awesome and will be a way to honor those who have and continue to serve, pay tribute to our country and our freedoms, and give back to charitable foundations. Please feel free to share this with others who may be willing to support the cause. However, if you could try to keep it away from current families and players, it would be appreciated. I don’t want word to get back to current players and families as I’d like this to be a surprise to them this season! Thank you in advance and I appreciate your support both in the past and present! Have a very happy and healthy holiday season, Happy Hanukkah, and Merry Christmas!

All My Best,

Nick Perkalis

GO VIKES!!!