2022 End of Year President's Report

Another year has come and gone, and much progress has been made here at the Rome Sports Hall of Fame. We are well under way with the 5-year plan, as stated in last year’s message. We have been working on several projects throughout the year.

Our primary goal has been to complete the 3-tier system within the entire building. This system is a project to better understand the significance of each artifact in our possession and to ensure that we have the corresponding historical documentation for each artifact. We are halfway finished with this project. It has been no easy task and will continue to require much help from Board members and volunteers for its completion.

Several other “mini” projects that are a work in progress include cataloging of yearbooks, scrapbooks, program books for many sports, scanning of annual team and individual photos, data entry to our web- database (Airtable), and more. We continue to seek out grants for the funding of our interior re-design and the outside drainage work that needs to be done.

Thanks to our generous supporters and some fundraising efforts (golf tournament and BBQ), we have been able to fund a portion of those projects. However, we are still in great need of financial support to see these projects to completion.

We are very grateful that over this past summer we were able to induct our Class of 2020 finally and officially, after a long hiatus from COVID. We continue to honor our athletic teams, outstanding high school athletes, our Ruth Demers Scholarship winners, youth programs and much more.

On behalf of our Board of Directors, we wish all of you health and happiness and hope that you come and see us when the doors open up again in the Spring. Thank you for all you do to continue with and promote our Rome legacy!!

Grateful Acknowledgements

● A huge thank you goes out to the Roman Runners Organization who hold their annual Thanksgiving Run, with proceeds going to the Hall.

● We thank the Stewart’s Foundation for their donation through the Holiday Match Program for our student programs.

● We thank the RFA Yearbook for helping us fill the gaps of the missing yearbooks in our library.

● We appreciate our Summer Intern Tommy Dunn for his assistance this past summer. He worked on several projects including; updating sports records, cataloging program and sport statistics books, and so much more. At summer’s end Tommy returned to Utica University to continue his studies.

● A special thank you to Rocky Corigliano who conducted live interviews with several current Hall of Fame Inductees through his show The Rockpile. Each of those interviews attracted many viewers via YouTube and Facebook. We thank Rocky for bringing the Rome Sports Hall of Fame into the limelight with the work we do and the wonderful community we serve.

Financially Speaking

The Rome Sports Hall of Fame and Museum is very grateful for the outstanding support that we receive! Many thanks to our many generous supporters who help our organization continue to grow. In fact, approximately 48% of all income comes from donations.

These donations come for a variety of different purposes: Individual and family supporters, corporate supporters, direct donations, donations via various fundraisers, bequests from dedicated friends and supporters of the Hall, and In Memory of and in Honor of loved ones. In addition, we once again held our major fundraiser this year – our annual Golf Tournament. It was very successful thanks to our hard working board members and other volunteers and, of course, the many golfers that played! The tournament accounts for 23% of our income.

There are a lot of expenses that are necessary to operate our facility. Our major expenses include utilities (gas, electric, water and sewer), insurance on the building and its contents, maintaining the facility and paying for our summer intern. In addition, we are embarking on a major renovation to the inside of the building to upgrade the facility and improve flow. We are excited about the future of the Hall even though this will be costly.

We continually seek new grants and other funding opportunities and are very grateful for the past financial support we have received from all of you as well as the entire community. Without continued support we will not be able to keep our organization financially solvent and we hope that you will continue to keep us in your financial thoughts and giving as we approach the holiday season.

Please remember that we are a 501(c) (3) organization and all donations are tax deductible. Our facility is a gem here in Rome, New York as we are New York State’s only sports hall of fame and museum. All donations that we receive are earmarked to maintain our quality facility and to continue to celebrate and promote our athletic Roman heritage. We sincerely thank each and every one of you!