Parents, Players Start to Form Union Hill Booster Club

Parents and players interested in forming a Union Hill Booster Club have been asked to meet at the on Saturday, June 25 at 8:30 a.m.

Paul J. Bello is asking parents with younger players to attend.

"While it’s great that we have a good group of people to do all the work, we also need to recruit parents representing the younger aged players such that we can build a sustainable program and Booster Club Administration Team," Bello said in an email invitation sent out on Wednesday.

Those parents and adult players who already have volunteered to help have been sent copies of bylaws from other booster clubs in the city.

"We don’t need to re-invent the wheel and it will save us time in composing our own," Bello said.

While he's developed an agenda for the meeting, Bello has asked participants to suggest other issues for discussion.

The Alpharetta Recreation and Parks Department and the Engineering/Public Works Department had submitted a proposal to City Council to turn Union Hill Park into a combination Public Works materials storage facility–especially needed during winter months for salt and sand–and a potential future trailhead for the Big Creek Greenway near its probable connection to Forsyth County's greenway system somewhere along McGinnis Ferry Road.

That didn't go over too well with roller hockey enthusiasts in the area, whose children play hockey there. The park has become a popular place for school teams from North Fulton and South Forsyth to use for practices.

However, so few players signed up for the city's roller hockey league that the Rec and Parks Department hasn't had a youth program for the past two seasons. Director Mike Perry said a month ago that only 12 Alpharetta residents were members of the four teams in the city's adult league.

But the local residents who support the park told the Recreation Commission they realize it's now or never for them to build the programs back up and make them sustainable. What's been lacking at Union Hill is something every other park has–a booster club. They've even promised to keep the booster club board of directors filled with only Alpharetta residents.

So on Saturday at 8:30 a.m., these volunteers will get together under the covered rink to take another step in establishing the booster club.