United Way for Cortland County accepts sports complex as member agency

CORTLANDVILLE, N.Y. — The J.M. McDonald Sports Complex announced the United Way for Cortland County has accepted its application to become a member agency.

The J.M. McDonald Sports Complex is the “doing business as” name of the Cortland Sports Complex, a nonprofit organization located at 4292 Fairgrounds Rd. in Cortlandville.

J.M. McDonald is “excited” to join this collection of nonprofit organizations that are focused on helping those in need, Tamara Demeree, executive director of the Sports Complex, said in a news release.

 “We believe this important step in our organizations development will help expand awareness of the Sports Complex as a not-for-profit organization and build future opportunities for sustainability,” said Demeree.

The agency highlighted three “key” programs that are housed at the sports complex in its application. They included the CHAMP Afterschool Program, McDonald Summer Camps, and Cortland County Youth Flag Football.

The CHAMP program is short for Cortland Homer Afterschool Mentorship Program. It provides grade-school students the chance to interact with local college students who provide student mentoring.

The college students are pursuing physical-education degrees at the State University of New York College at Cortland, the sports complex said.

The J.M. McDonald Sports Complex provides a “valuable” service to the Cortland community through family support and health programs and activities, Cindy Eberhart, executive director of the United Way for Cortland County, said in the news release.

“We are pleased to now have the opportunity to work with the Sports Complex board of directors and staff to help spread the positive news of their efforts and collaborate on future United Way events. We look forward to a positive relationship between our two organizations,” said Eberhart.

Contact Reinhardt at ereinhardt@cnybj.com