HAMPDEN – Dana Smith of Hampden has a new set of wheels. He was the lucky winner of a 2004 Ford F-150 four-wheel drive XL truck raffled by the Hampden Sports Boosters Club recently.

The truck is worth $28,000 and was provided to the Boosters at a discounted price by Darling Ford of Bangor. Smith’s ticket was one of 1,370 sold at $20 each.

The Hampden Sports Boosters Club, said President Mark Pierce of Hampden, was founded in 1971 by Mike Bordick Sr.

“Over the last 30 years,” said Pierce, who is in his third year as president of the organization, “the Boosters have supplied more than $500,000 to Hampden Academy athletic teams.” That money has funded many things during that time, including uniforms, awards banquets, resurfacing of the track and redoing the gym floor. “Every parent of every athlete is a Booster,” he added.

The boosters conduct a raffle each year. Other yearly fund-raisers include running food concessions at sports events, holding bake sales and selling Christmas trees.

“In the early 1990s,” Pierce said, “schools across the state cut their athletic budgets and booster groups were called on to fill more than the awards banquet gap.”

In those years the Hampden Sports Boosters Club spent approximately $15,000 per year on sports-related purchases and activities, Pierce said. This year, the Boosters will spend around $20,000, as they have since 2000.

The need for sports funding, Pierce said, is great.

“There are many sports, many kids involved and needs can get overlooked,” he said. That’s when the Boosters step in. “We take requests as needed.”

Hampden Academy teams supported by booster fund-raising activities include basketball, football, tennis, golf, cross-country, track, skiing, cheering, soccer, field hockey and softball.

To learn more about the Hamden Sports Boosters, or to participate in the club, call Coach David Shapiro, 862-3985, or Mark Pierce, 944-5616.