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From the desk of the President:
Fortunately, this first newsletter will be short.
Wow, I am going into year 3 as the President of your Fredericksburg Nationals Booster Club!!! It is amazing how time really does fly. I has been a wonderful and very fulfilling journey! Trust me, the job has been made much easier having the greatest group of board members, and a fantastic group of booster club members!!!
As the President of the 2025 Fredericksburg Nationals Booster Club, I would like to personally thank each and everyone of you for making this season a complete and total success!
2024 CAROLINA LEAGUE CHAMPIONS !!!!!!!
After everything that went on since 2020, It made this year feel so much better. I am excited to see what 2025 has in store.
Third, I would like to thank you staff and management of the Fredericksburg Nationals and the Virginia Credit Union Stadium for allowing us space, assistance and logistics for our various fundraisers. We could not ask for more from this group!
THANK YOU TO EACH AND EVERYONE OF YOU!!!!!!!
As you know from previous emails, elections were to be held in October 2024. We voted on extending the term limits to 2 years. Also, to prevent losing all 4 seats at once, and ensuring retaining experienced board members, the voting was to be staggered. President and Vice President was for a 1 year term, Secretary and Treasurer was for a 2 year term. In the fall of 2025, the only seats that will be on the ballot will be the President and Vice President, therefore staggering the voting to alternate 2 years terms.
With that said, there were no opposion to any of the Board seats this year, so the following Board members will stay on throughout 2025:
President Randy Newkirk
Vice President John Lambert
Secretary Toni Bruffey
Treasurer Joanie Griffiths
AT-Large Kelly Gutridge “Communications”
At-Large Clint Novak “Entertainment and media”
2025 MEET THE PLAYER BANQUET
To those who were there, the 2024 Meet The Player banquet was an absolute success! We are looking to continue the tradition, and make the 2025 “Meet the Player Banquet” even larger and more fun!! We may have a surprise or two up our sleeves, never know !
To stay in line with the Booster Club values of, “giving back to the players”, we will once again have a 50-50 style raffle. Just like the 2023 and 2024 banquet, the winner once again donated all the money back to the pool of money we handed out to the players!!! Donating the money back is not necessary, but a really cool thing to do.
A silent auction will also be held on the side tables again, with some pretty nice items that have been gathered throughout the previous 4 years here with the Fredericksburg Nationals. These raffles allowed us to return funds back to the players.
Once again, we are hoping to have management from “down the hill” to come up, speak and be part of the nights fun!!!
2025 will also present a new test for the booster club, as we now have a new head coach. I won’t go into what Coach Jake Lowery meant to us and the fans, since it would make this letter about 9 pages long. We re all wishing Jake a ton of success in Wilmington !!!! As the President, I would like to welcome head coach Billy McMillon to the Fredericksburg Nationals. I’m sure Billy knows already, but he has some pretty big shoes to fill this season here in Fredericksburg. I am looking forward to meeting with him, and getting to know him. I’m sure he will be as nice and open to the booster club as Jake was!
Spring training is not to far away everyone ! I am looking forward to traveling down south to mingle and interact with all the players in the Washington organization. I know I will see a large contingent of Nationals and FredNats fans while I am there.
One last thing before I go. As a lot of you have heard, we are planning a fan bus road trip to Wilmington Delaware to see the Blue Rocks (who have nearly a full roster of ex-FredNat players), on Saturday May 17th, then getting a hotel and for the night. On our way home on Sunday, we are stopping at Frank Perdue stadium in Salisbury Maryland to see the FredNats play the DelMarva ShoreBirds!! This will be a really fun trip. We have done two previously, (Salem and Lynchburg), but this will be the first overnight trip. Altho one bus is already full (56 passengers), we are 6 deep into bus #2. If this is something you may be interested in, get hold of me and I will be honored to add you to the list!
To close out this winters newsletter, to everyone that has been there to help out, that volunteered, that donated to the club, that provided their time over the past 3 three seasons, I want to give you a very heart-felt thank you to each and everyone of you. Without you, the Booster does not continue! Thank you all for a great 2 years and I am looking forward to year 3 with you all!!
LOOK FORWARD TO THE NEXT EDITION OF THE FREDNATS BOOSTER CLUB NEWSLETTER