Booster Clubs

The pledge card looks like a thousand others. It suggests contributions of $50 to $2,000, with options to pay by installment or credit card. It's the cause that might come as a surprise: your local public school. "Our teachers rely on Booster Club funds to pay for teachers' aides, our physical education, drama and video programs, our technology program and our music program," reads the cover letter from the Westwood Charter School Booster Club.

Just read Bill Plaschke's piece on the Oak Grove Institute's Monarchs [Jan. 23]. What's wrong with Mark Hollis? Doesn't he know that high school athletics are about booster clubs, winning games, raising money, and getting scholarships? Those poor kids . . . playing sports for only the thrill of participating, learning teamwork, and developing a sense of belonging. What kind of lessons are those to be teaching, anyway? JIM REED Lake Forest

The Los Angeles Dodgers and Anaheim Angels Booster Clubs are challenging fans to support their team Saturday by giving blood at the first Freeway Series Blood Drive. Blood donors will receive a free T-shirt and have the chance to win Angels and Dodger memorabilia or to have lunch with an Angels player. The drive is in response to what the American Red Cross has called a critically low blood supply in Los Angeles and Orange counties.

You are a supporter of USC athletics. You return home from your Newport Beach car dealership one early June evening to discover your favorite school has sent you a letter. You smile and wonder. Hmmm, maybe it's from energized new football coach Paul Hackett, discussing the team's spring progress. Or, perhaps, it's about the baseball team's inspirational march toward a national championship. You hurriedly open the letter, expecting something light and fun. And out falls a rock.

As much as Sylmar players and coaches would like to forget last year's 30-6 loss to Taft, the Spartan booster club simply won't allow it. The club placed posterboards with hand-written notes along a fence this week near the Sylmar sideline to remind the players they were not at all pleased with last year's outcome. Said Michelle LaPorte-Gomez, club president: "They better not embarrass us again." One sign read: "What's the difference between the Coliseum and your TV? Taft." Another read: "30-6.

For only the second time in its 28-year history, El Camino Real High School will crown a king and queen and play a homecoming football game on its own turf tonight. Using mobile stadium lights donated by Musco Mobile Lighting Co. to illuminate the playing field, the school's varsity team will battle Taft High School beginning at 7 p.m. on the campus at 5440 Valley Circle Blvd.

Campus police ejected Birmingham High School booster parents who were attempting to sell "Save the Braves" T-shirts Friday evening on the campus in opposition to a Board of Education policy banning Indian mascots. Calling the school policy a case of "government completely out of control," parent Frank Arrigo said, "This is stupid." Arrigo and another parent, Jack McGrath, were spearheading the effort to sell the shirts and "save the Braves."

Campus police ejected Birmingham High School booster parents who were attempting to sell "Save the Braves" T-shirts Friday evening in opposition to a Board of Education policy banning Indian mascots. Calling the school policy a case of "government completely out of control," parent Frank Arrigo said, "This is stupid." Arrigo and another parent, Jack McGrath, were spearheading the effort to sell the shirts and "save the Braves."

A committee fighting to save the Birmingham High School Brave as the school mascot appears headed toward a confrontation today with American Indian activists and school district officials over plans to sell T-shirts at a school football game. Members of the Save the Braves committee said they plan to sell shirts with that slogan at today's game, despite objections by the school board that such sales are against its regulations. The committee is fighting a Sept.