Youth football league still trying to raise money for equipment lost in fire

Bedford Bison Youth Football is still trying to recover after a fire burned all of its equipment. The league met with parents on Monday to talk about its options for the season.

The program is crunching numbers almost a week after every pad and helmet was destroyed in a fire. Parents and coaches are left figuring out how to fundraise and get them back on the field.

If there’s any good that’s come out of the fire that destroyed all of Bedford’s football equipment, it’s timing.

"If there's a silver lining, I'm glad it happened in February more so than August or July because that's going to give us a lot of time to get going,” League President Darren Cassidy said.

Kids are now questioning their coaches and parents as to whether there will even be a football season.

"I got probably asked, at least 10 different times, are we having a season? So, the little guys are definitely concerned on what's going on and surprisingly, they understood the magnitude of what happened. They know we have no equipment,” Cassidy said.

"Mom, I didn't think we were going to have football. I said, well this is what the meeting is about. It's about to get us new equipment so you can have football again this year,” parent Alisa Lingenfelter said.

As of Monday night, donations are sitting at nearly $4,300 dollars, but that’s more than $20,000 off of its goal to replenish the equipment burned.

"We've gotten calls from local leagues; leagues as far away as DuBois that have pledged either money or equipment. So, we're in better shape than we were a week ago, but we're still well off our goal,” Cassidy said.

With help from parents and businesses, the league is hoping this meeting will bring back the love of the game.

“Ultimate goal would be to leave this meeting with 4 or 5 different, good fundraisers that we can do, some local business contacts, and some ways to generate $24,000," Cassidy said.

"They're out there to do this. This is what they want to do, and without this, we would have a lot of upset, little kiddos,” Lingenfelter said.

The league said it’s willing to take used equipment like practice jerseys and pads, but with safety as the priority, helmets must be purchased new. The program is hoping to have enough money by the end of April.