Lights on Avon fundraising pauses as country deals with pandemic

Temporary lights from portable generators illuminate the Avon High field for a football game against Tolland in 2015.

The Lights on Avon fundraising campaign to raise money for the installation of permanent lights around Avon High’s new all-purpose syntenic turf field has paused due to the COVID-19 coronavirus pandemic.

“In light of current circumstances, we are temporarily suspending the community portion of our Lights on Avon campaign,” Susan Rietano Davey, president of ACORN – the Avon Community Recreational Neighborhood that is coordinating the fundraising effort, wrote in an email. “Given the serious nature of COVID-19 and its impact on our work, home lives, and loved ones, we feel that this is not the right time to be fundraising.”

She did say work on applying for grants and other funding sources that can be done safely at home would continue.

The Lights on Avon campaign is an initiative of Avon Community Recreational Neighborhood (ACORN), a non-profit community organization dedicated to investing in resources to enhance recreation in Avon. The most recent ACORN was a fundraising project to install lights around the new tennis courts at Avon Middle School.

The campaign has currently raised $242,000 in just seven months. The goal is $400,000 to install state-of-the-art, energy-saving LED lights.

The town of Avon contributed $70,000 to install concrete light stanchions and the Avon Board of Education has pledged $30,000

Town residents voted in December 2018 to authorize $2.99 million to build the new eight-lane track and field facility and the synthetic turf field. Work began in April and most work was done by September to allow Avon High varsity contests on the field. The field was officially opened in October.