BY DONNA SWICEGOOD

A newspaper advertisement insulting the North Iredell High School press box launched more than a fundraising effort. It started an organization that has pumped hundreds of thousands of dollars into all sorts of improvements at the Olin school.

That organization, the North Iredell Raiders Capital Improvements Club, celebrated its 25th anniversary on Thursday night at the Statesville Event Center. The celebration, which included the club’s annual reverse raffle, paid tribute to the men who started it all.

Maurice “Mo” Lunsford, the club’s first president, said the organization  began with an ad in a newspaper from a high school in a neighboring county. Scheduled to play the Raiders, the school’s ad read “headed to North Iredell where the press box is an outhouse.”

“I took that personally,” Lunsford said. The late Jim Conger, a coach at North Iredell and a charter member of the club, came to Lunsford and said “we have to do something about this,” Lunsford recalled.

A few phone calls later, the club started to take shape. Lunsford called North Iredell High alumni Scott Haynes, an accountant who offered his services to help the group get started. Attorney David Benbow assisted the club in getting its 501(3)(c) status.

Within three months, Lunsford said, the club had raised $50,000. While an impressive amount, it was far short of the the funds needed to improve the press box. The charter members of the club all signed for a loan. “We had to borrow the money we wanted for the press box,” he said.

By the time the next football season rolled around, the new press box was built and paid for, Lunsford said.

Since that first effort in 2001, the club has raised close to $1 million to support North Iredell High. The school’s agricultural programs, JROTC, and athletics programs have all benefitted.

Lunsford stressed that while it was the charter group that got everything started, the entire community has played a big part of the fundraising success.

“This makes me really proud,” he said.

Lunsford, along with the other founding members, were recognized at the 25th anniversary event. Those members are Benbow, Haynes, Lunsford, Conger, Woody Childers, Jim Edmisten, Bill Howell, Charles Love, Scott Lunsford, Bill Moore, Bobby Morrison, Harry Myers, Charlie Payne, Ben Shelton, Dreisa Sherrill, Steve Sparks, Vaughn Sprinkle, Alan Williams and Ken Wilson. Several members were honored posthumously.

Scott Lunsford, who served as emcee for the evening and performed with his band prior to the start of the celebration, and Todd Williams were recognized for their contributions to the club.

President Van Galliher described Lunsford, a charter member, as “an all-in kind of person.” Williams, he said, is consistently one of the top ticket sellers.

“They embody what it’s like to be a part of North Iredell,” he said.

Current North Iredell Raiders helped make Thursday’s event run smoothly, Scott Lunsford said. Members of the school’s JROTC, Future Farmers of America and athletics department were on hand to welcome guests, serve drinks and food, and clean up after the event.