Wakefest is more important this year than ever before.
Wakefest 2014, hosted by the Gator Wakeboard Club, is the biggest annual fundraiser for the club. On Saturday at the Lake Wauburg South Shore, the team will gather students and alumni for a wakeboarding competition, raffle and live music.
Traditionally, the team operates within a $20,000 budget, said club president Jon Kistemaker, a 21-year-old UF biology student. But at the end of this fiscal year, the club will be left to raise the money needed to practice and travel to competitions on its own.
Due to budget cuts, RecSports told the team that in order to continue practicing at Lake Wauburg next semester, it must raise $3,200.
The team is sending letters to alumni and parents requesting donations. It’s planning car washes and social events and selling T-shirts.
The club will charge $25 to register in one of the competition’s five divisions and an additional $15 to compete in an extra division. Kistemaker said he hopes about 30 competitors will register.
Katherine Anderson, a 20-year-old UF health education and behavior sophomore, has been competing for the Gator Wakeboard Club since Wakefest 2013.
Although she enjoyed wakeboarding recreationally during high school, Anderson said she never competed until she joined the UF team.
Last year, she went to the event to connect with fellow student wakeboarders, with no intention to compete.
However, about 20 minutes before the women’s division began, a member of the team convinced her to register and get out on the water.
“Pretty much since then, I have been obsessed with the club and everyone in it and everything we do,” Anderson said.
As one of the first members of the team to hear about the budget cuts, she said she was both surprised and appalled.
“I was astonished because we have so much involvement and we are so successful in our competitions,” Anderson said. “We are second ranked in the nation, and our club isn’t short on participation.”
[A version of this story ran on page 5 on 4/3/2014 under the headline "Club to host Wakefest, combat decreased RecSports funding"]
UF’s wakeboarding club is hosting Wakefest 2014 at Lake Wauburg on Saturday. The club is dealing with budget cuts and using a raffle to help balance the finances.
