The 2002 Capital Area Minor Football Association Volunteer of the Year is Michele Madore.

Michele approached Capital Area Minor Football in December 2001
asking how she might be able to help. She had two nephews playing in the
association and was so impressed with the positive effect that football had
had on their lives that she decided to volunteer to help.

Capital Area Minor Football had grown from 125 players in 1995 to over 500
in 2002. This kind of rapid growth had lead to large equipment purchases and
the accumulation of a significant debt by the association.
Michele, who works full time as a stockbroker, was asked to become Capital
Area's first ever "Fundraising Coordinator". It was her job to put together
a plan and organization to raise enough money in 2002 to put a substantial
dent in Capital Area's accumulated deficit.

She had never done a job like this before and Capital Area had little to
guide her. It was clearly a case of jump in and "sink or swim". Well did she
ever swim! Michele took our lists of coaches, managers and players. She began working
the phones and the next thing we knew an organizational meeting of 25 people
from all parts of the Capital Area met in the dead winter of 2002 to plan
fundraising activities for the upcoming year.

She set up three fundraising committees: one each in Fredericton Northside,
Fredericton Southside and Oromocto. First event was an area wide bottle
drive in May that raised over $2,500. Next up in the same month was three
area wide yard sales of items donated by football parents. This brought in
another $1,700.

In the month of June a car wash netted $600. Grocery packing at the
Superstores in August yielded another $2,200. A fall bottle drive gave the
association another $4,000. In all these projects it was Michele who acted
as the driving force, organizing, calling, persuading and even threatening
people to volunteer.

Along the way she would find three sponsors to donate a total of $2,500 for
new team jerseys. During the entire fall season the Oromocto teams ran a BBQ and 50-50 draw at
the PeeWee and Bantam games. Michele organizized and worked at most of these
to scratch together another $1,000 for Capital Area Minor.
Michele organized and ran the first ever Capital Area Minor Football
Association Raffle. Prizes included a computer, a microwave, a meal at a
reataurant and an escape weekend at a local hotel. All prizes were donated
by area businesses. Using the players as the sales force this raffle
generated a $7,600 profit for the association. Michele also put together a couple of tag days at the Fredericton Farmers
Market to bring in another $1,000. Finally she found us $750 in government
grants from the a local program.

When the dust had settled and the accounts were tallied Michele's efforts
had raised close to $25,000 for Capital Area Minor Football. Her efforts
had, indeed, put a big dent in the association's debt.

Her performance made it no contest when it came to selecting the Capital
Area Minor Football Association "Volunteer of the Year".

Terry McIntyre, President
Capital Area Minor Football