Although back in August the Pottsgrove School Board approved the use of its football stadium by the Pottstown Relay for Life, some concerns were raised about how the beneficiary of the Relay – the American Cancer Society – uses the hundreds of thousands of dollars raised there.
Despite the approval for use of the stadium in 2017, Relay organizers are curious if there are still questions and whether they should start looking for a new venue, David Nester told the school board Tuesday.
“They’re just nervous,” Nester said of the Relay organizers.
And once again, a lengthy discussion ensued – a discussion which ended with a decision to invite Relay organizers and American Cancer Society spokespeople to a future meeting of the board – although the date for that meeting has yet to be set.
But before that quasi-decision was made, board members once again rehashed their positions about the question.
Board member Patricia Grimm, a cancer survivor and longtime supporter of the Relay, argued that the Relay’s value to the community is about more than the money it raises for the American Cancer Society, but also about being a celebration of life and a memorial to those lost to the disease.
“It’s an honor for them to be here and it is a shame this has been brought up,” said Grimm. “I’m not saying that what (the American Cancer Society) executives make it is right, but that’s not our role to question that.”
According to the latest tax return form posted on the American Cancer Society web site, for the fiscal year that ended in 2014, the former CEO John Seffrin earned more than $1.4 million in total compensation. A compensation package for the new CEO, Jack Reedy, could not be immediately determined.
Laura Weis, senior director for division communications at the American Cancer Society’s Hershey office, wrote in an email replying to Mercury inquiries in August that out of $941 million in revenues in 2015, the American Cancer Society spent $151 million on research.
That works out to 16 percent of all funds raised going to research.
Other funding goes to advocacy, education and relief to cancer victims and their families.
Over the years, the Pottstown Relay for Life has raised hundreds of thousands of dollars for the American Cancer Society.
It has been held at Pottsgrove High School for 18 years, has hosted 14,000 registered participants and is considered one of the largest in the country and is ranked 15th largest in the world.
Further, Grimm said, if the board wants to begin questioning the financial practices of organizations which rent its facilities, it should apply the standard across the board, not just to the Relay.
“If we’re going to do it for them, we should be doing it for everybody from the Little League to a wrestling tournament,” Grimm said. “We’re should be telling them to open their books to us.”
School district solicitor Marc Davis pointed out, however, that district policy specifically exempts the football stadium from being used by outside agencies, so the Relay for Life is afforded special status by the board’s waiver of that policy, putting it in a different category from other outside groups which rent district facilities.
When questions about the American Cancer Society’s finances were raised back in August, the board resolved to form a committee to look into the matter more closely, but that never happened, Nester told the board.
Instead, the board will invite representatives from the Relay and American Cancer Society.
“I’m perfectly fine with having them come here and talk to us, but I never envisioned not allowing them to use the stadium,” said School Board President Matt Alexander. “I think its a great thing for the community and for Pottsgrove.”
Board member Ashley Custer said she too is fine with hearing a presentation, but added “you know were’s only going to hear one side of the story. They’ll tell us what we want to hear and it will all be rainbows and unicorns.”
Vice President Al Leach said when he raised concerns back in August, he was simply “bringing concerns that had been brought to me by constituents to the board.”
“I never said we should get rid of the Relay, I said we should determine if the community wants it,” he said.
