By Glenn Kahl Reporter gkahl@mantecabulletin.com 209-249-3539
POSTED February 6, 2014 1:29 a.m.

The installation of the proposed all-weather Ripon High School track is virtually a certainty with a $300,000 donation from an anonymous community resident on Tuesday.

Stephanie Hobbs, leader of the Ripon Community Athletic Foundation, said the donor came to her door and offered the funds to finish the work with one condition: The name.

Hobbs said the money is contingent on the fact that the track will not be named after any one person.  Instead it must be known as “The Ripon High Track in the Ripon High Stadium.”

She said she will present the name request to the Ripon Unified School Board in the near future for its approval.

After about $1 million in donations, the RCAF has all but completed Phase I of the renovation at Stouffer Field.

Work on the stadium located at Ripon High consisted mainly of the infrastructure for future phases of the project.

Next up is Phase II of the project. Included will be the $350,000 synthetic track. The $300,000 donation will almost cover the entire tab.

“An all-weather track will improve the safety, health, performance, aesthetics, and raise the revenue for Ripon,” Hobbs noted recently.

More than 800 local donors and volunteers have invested in the project.

The big RCAF fundraiser will again be Rina’s Run planned for May 10.

Sponsors are being sought for the 7th annual event consisting of 5-kilometer and half-marathon runs.

Donations can be made to: RCAF, P.O. Box 863, Ripon CA 95366 or dropped off at the Ripon Chamber of Commerce, 929 W. Main St.

For more information, call Hobbs at 209-599-6861 or log on to www.rcafsite.com or www.rinasrun.com.

RCAF updates are also posted on the social media site, Facebook.

We are excited to announce the Ripon Unified School Board's decision to allocate $150,000 immediately to help us finish Phase One. The all-weather surfacing that is to cover the "D" area behind the end zones has gone out to public competitive bid and should be ready to install by mid-February.  We are now working extra hard to get everything ready for track season and to prepare for that pour.

Some of that $150,000 will pay for the handicap-accessibility issues to be addressed throughout Ripon High's campus. We already did quite a bit of it, but have asked the District to finish it.  We were also pleasantly surprised by Mike Fisher's push to have $100,000 allocated for future bathrooms!  The stadium bathrooms are so bad that most people are preferring to use the porta-potties rather than the existing bathrooms. (now that's BAD!)

Some of our volunteer crew framing for pits in the "D". This prepares it for all-weather surfacing.

We are still working hard to install more fencing and concrete.  The Ripon Quarterback Club has donated money to cover an access gate off Maple.  We have also received a pledge from Doctor's Medical Center Modesto for $5,000 to help with labor costs for framing and fencing installation.  All our costs are at a deep discount with materials obtained at cost.  Most labor is donated, but they can't afford to donate all of it.  (C&G Fence, local owner, have already given over $10,000 in labor and materials discounts!!)

That's our update for now. Getting ready for Rina's Run. It's going to be awesome this year with the addition of a half marathon, tech shirts, nice blingy finisher medals and finish line in the stadium with a health fair and the Ripon Rotary breakfast burritos!

We are still in need of funds to cover the rest of the asphalt for access and concrete for ADA access to the shotput and discus events. The track team is also in dire need of new hurdles.  We don't have a budget for that, so if anyone is interested in sponsoring one they are about $135 each.

Looking back in Thanks...and Ahead with Anticipation

As 2012 comes to a close, we at RCAF are in awe of our community and the power of giving, both in-kind and monetarily.  Your support during the past year has made a life-changing difference for the students of Ripon schools in an amazing and positive way.

2013 holds our vision of completion of Phase One of the Stadium Revitalization in the coming spring in time for track season. Please consider using the last chance in this calendar year to make a tax-deductible donation to RCAF.  You can make a lasting impression in someone's name with a stadium brick.  Or get a head start on a New Year's resolution of health by registering for the 2013 Rina's Run.  Your gift this holiday season will make a huge difference next year for the community we serve and is truly the gift that keeps on giving!  Happy Holidays!

In 2007, the Ripon Community Athletic Foundation (RCAF) was formed as a non-profit to start a grassroots capital campaign. Our goal was to bring a regulation length track to our town for the first time since the 80’s, as well as sidewalks and a field that would bring our “homeless” soccer teams home to their own campus for the first time. Over 564 donors and volunteers have partnered with RCAF to bring us SO CLOSE to finishing Phase One of a new track and field plus infrastructure for future phases.

Demolition began May 24, 2012…Approximately $1 million in donated improvements later, we now see this...

For the first time, this 70+ year old facility has side-walks for easier accessibility. A $100,000 double-sided scoreboard donated by PG&E is a beautiful centerpiece as well.  But notice the D-shaped asphalt spaces behind the end-zones?  RCAF needs $45,000 by January 15, 2013 to install all- weather surfacing there in time for the Track Team to start practicing in February 1, 2013.

Rina’s Run 5K & Half- Marathon is pursuing sponsors now to help us reach our $45,000 goal for this January 15th deadline. This year’s event -05.11.13- will be a huge success, with a finish-line party/health fair in the stadium.

What are the benefits to investing in this now?

• Instant gratification: SEEING how your money is spent immediately and efficiently (no prevailing wage, all discounted materials/labor…)
• Ripon High Track Team will be able to host more meets this year (potential revenue)
• Tax deduction for 2012
• Feel-great marketing for businesses (We love to boast about our donors!)
• Permanent recognition of all donations in stadium
• Scoreboard message board Hwy 99 freeway-facing side recognition available
• Gives our kids a safe place to compete and do P.E.
• Brings economic benefits to Historic Downtown Ripon & improves Ripon's quality of life
• A great way to memorialize a loved-one or a championship title/memory in the stadium
• Join a local group of over 560 donors who also invested in this project
• How awesome will you feel at the stadium dedication ceremony when you walk out there knowing you helped make it possible?

By Tracy Correa
POSTED August 31, 2012 / News and Perspectives from Pacific Gas and Electric Company September 5, 2014

‘Ready to go’

“Everything is ready to go. We’ve had several practice runs over the past few days,” said Stephanie Hobbs, president of the Ripon Community Athletic Foundation. She said the primary concern was making sure the system operators practiced using the LED screen.

She said the scoreboard is the focal point in the stadium renovation and would not have been possible without help from PG&E. In addition to the $87,000 to build the scoreboard, PG&E purchased the steel used to support it and supplied the crews to install it – bringing the total donation to more than $100,000.

“PG&E went way above and beyond, they absolutely knocked my socks off,” said Hobbs. “I can’t say enough about their generosity, their professionalism and their positive can-do attitude. … And, for catching that vision of understanding how much the scoreboard will benefit the entire community.”

Last week, crews from PG&E’s tower department worked over several days setting the scoreboard in place. They set the support I-beams 20 feet into the ground with concrete, welded steel supports and installed the double-sided scoreboard — which had 10 different panels.

“They were amazing,” said Hobbs, of PG&E workers led by Glenn Price.

PG&E’s relationship with Ripon

PG&E’s Dylan George, a government relations representative who worked with the Ripon Community Athletic Foundation on the scoreboard project, said he was proud of the work by PG&E crews. He said he is equally impressed by the entire Ripon community.

The D-shaped space behind the endzones are incomplete. They obviously need 300 tons of asphalt to prepare for the next step. The most urgent aspect is the outer curb (being poured Saturday 8/11) with fence posts. We need $16,000 for fencing. We are working diligently to install a concrete sidewalk from the ticket booths to the bleachers. This sidewalk will make access for spectators much safer and cleaner. The concrete pad you see being poured in this picture is a performance pad for the Quarterback Club TriTip BBQ and the Clerk of the Course for track meets. You can see we've taken down the old scoreboard and flagpole. We will not have a flagpole installed for the first game, but hope to install it soon thereafter.

A huge milestone has been reached at Stouffer Field. West Coast Turf has given a generous $8,500 discount on the 78,000 square feet of Bermuda Grass. This winter the Bermuda will be dormant and yellow, but this is only temporary to give the roots a chance to dig deep. Next year we will start overseeding with Rye to make this a beautiful field year-round. Thanks to Gary Hendrix at Normac and Josh Nash at Rainbird we have a state-of-the-art sprinkler system. N&S Irrigation of Ripon took care of our connections while Volvo Rents in Salida provided a lot of the equipment we needed to get it all done. Bobcat Central provided our trencher, and Stewart Property Services donated a lot of the wire we needed to make it all work. We had over 50 volunteers show up on sod day - mainly football players and cheerleaders.

Here are some links to help you find your running result!

Rina’s Run 2012 May 12, 2012

5k overall 2012

5k age division 2012

10k overall 2012

10k age division 2012