TEMPERANCE, Mich. — Greg Senyo, the man who walked from Temperance to Pennsylvania, finished his journey Thursday morning all to help out Bedford High School.
During that time, he raised over $4,700 through GoFundMe to be donated to the Bedford lacrosse Program.
For the last twenty years, lacrosse at Bedford High School has remained partially funded by the school.
For now, the school only covers the cost of bussing for students to and from games. The rest of the cost, including equipment, helmets, protective gear and more is left to the parents and boosters to cover.
"There's just lots of things that come along with it that are additional expenses for our families and for the school, and for the program and for the sport in general," Julia Porter, director for the lacrosse boosters at Bedford said.
Porter is also the parent of a player. From replacing equipment to registration fees, she says every year parents pay thousands of dollars to have their kids play.
"(The price for) just for a set of equipment? Probably a fair guesstimate would be five to six hundred dollars at least," Porter said.
The lacrosse booster club was only created a year ago.
This year, Porter said the boosters and parents have worked hard to raise funds. From spaghetti dinners to placing toilet seats in yards (which can be removed with a ransom), the students and boosters have worked to raise funds.
"So this year we were able to get equipment bags for both boys and girls, uniforms for both boys and girls, which were all very much needed," Porter said. "We've done a lot in six, seven months."
Now with the help of Senyo's GoFundMe, the boosters can do more.
"It's all for the kids, this is definitely all for the kids. The players, the athletes, they put the work in," Porter said. "It's all just to help the players, help the morale and help them have all the things they need to make this program successful."
Over the last few years, Bedford's lacrosse program has seen significant growth, leading the school to start conversations about fully funding the lacrosse programs.
"The school district is still considering investing further in lacrosse because of the interest level, because it's become a point of pride in our community and we know that it's a very expensive sport," Bedford athletic director, Mark German said. "I'm pretty confident that it's going to happen, it's just working out all the details."
German said the school is working on fully funding lacrosse, which would help parents financially.
"The funds are going to both to a general fund that will support both the boys and the girls lacrosse programs top to bottom," German said. "So what's needed is going to get purchased."