Carney Sports Complex

About Us

The Carney Betterment Association is a community minded organization with its goal being to better our corner of rural America for all of our citizens. 

As a group, when we formed almost 4 years ago, the Carney Betterment Association felt that the most important thing we could do to keep Carney vital is to help our school. We approached the board about bringing back a Music Department, Art Department and, for the first time in nearly 90 years, a Football Program. The second most important thing was to develop new business, and support the business we have in town. We are currently lobbying several chain department stores; Dollar General, The Dollar Store, etc. The shortage of housing in the area is a deterrent to growth, with many of our teachers living in Perkins and Chandler. People trying to move into the area are often turned away due to the lack of adequate housing. The CBA is researching grants to help improve the currently vacant properties, as well as develop new housing. The Town of Carney currently has a developer who has plans underway for new housing. This will be a great boost for our community.

Our first project was to bring Gary Ridley, Director of the Oklahoma Department of Transportation, to Carney. Growth and survival of Carney is somewhat dependent on Highway 177. Rumor had it that Highway177 would be routed around town. This meeting was set up so that our area citizens had the opportunity to be heard about the possible relocation, and to make ODOT aware of the dangers involved in travelling on Highway177 from Perkins to Historic Route 66. This meeting was a huge success, with standing room only in the Ruth's Carney Café meeting room.

From there, we set out to raise funds to field our first Little League Football Team. From that came the first annual Ice Cream Festival. This turned out to be more popular than we could have imagined, and is now an annual event that is very popular with our community. It provides an opportunity for great community fellowship and camaraderie. With a homemade ice cream contest, brownies and baked goods of all kinds, hot dogs and drinks, all for a donation, we fill Main Street on a beautiful first Saturday in August. There are vendor booths that are fun for all. The booths include a dart throw, water balloons, a cakewalk, dunk tank, football skills, contests and lots more. The first event raised $3,000.00. With this money, we were able to purchase enough equipment to outfit 24 aspiring football players and a Little League Cheerleading Squad. Pictures are posted on the events page of the Town of Carney's web site. townofcarney.org

The CBA then took on the publishing of a monthly newsletter. Our first edition was October 2007. While this is a fundraiser as well, we felt the most important thing was to publish a schedule of events, along with Carney history, features on our local businesses, and many other community minded articles. Anyone is welcome to contribute to the newsletter with news, history or upcoming events that all can attend. The Carney Monthly Newsletter is now a popular feature with our citizens, and many people outside of our area. Subscriptions are available to the newsletter.

The next project the CBA took on was helping the Fireman's Festival. The CBA had several booths and handled the vendor booths. Vendors were restricted to Carney organizations, churches and non-profit groups that operate in Carney. In short, let us keep our money here.

Our group was able to contribute a thousand dollars to the Carney School Music Program, through our fundraising efforts. One of our members, who has an extensive background in music, volunteered his time to rebuild band instruments that had been in storage for a number of years. From this effort the music department performed live, for the first time in years, at the Christmas Program in 2007.

The CBA sponsored a Halloween Costume Contest, in conjunction with the Fireman's Auxiliary. Again, we had a huge response to this event with over a hundred entries. The contest was divided into 4 age groups with a $50.00 savings bond donated by the CBA for first place in each age group. Pictures are posted on the events page of the Town of Carney's web site. townofcarney.org. This has now become an annual event for the entire community, and the children of our community look forward to this every year. Along with this event, there is a Pumpkin Carving Contest, and of course, all of the children receive candy. The Carney State Bank has gotten on board for this event, and now is the contributor of the savings bonds for the winners.

Once again, Karla Dimick and Maria Cox held the Christmas stocking auction at the Café. The money earned from this project goes to help fund the town’s Children's Christmas Party. With the help of those that purchased Christmas stockings and ornaments, we were able to purchase six bicycles in three sizes, a tricycle and a red wagon given out at the party. With the help of one person's anonymous donation, the CBA was able to provide Christmas Dinners and gifts for three families that would have otherwise had a bleak Christmas. From this effort, the CBA Secret Santa project was born and has become an annual event.

The CBA was also able to help fund the Carney High School's Fine Arts Show by providing funds for the refreshments. We would like to thank Mrs. Turner for all her efforts to reach out for grants to help develop the Arts Department in the school.

Our next undertaking was the Chilli Cook Off held in March. Once again, the community turned out in force to make this a huge success, so successful that the ten entries ran out of chili in an hour and a half. Jason White (2003 OU Heisman Trophy winner) lent his fame to the cook off not only as a judge, but stayed to autograph photos and memorabilia for his fans. HotCo Oil Well Fishing and Rental Tools sponsored the trophies, Lowe's of Stillwater donated a new gas grill that was given away, and Cedar Ridge Blue Grass band played and entertained at no charge. This has now become an annual event, and grows with participation and excitement each year. The Cook Off held in March of 2010 was an even bigger success than last year’s.

The CBA is currently in the process of establishing our non-profit status with the IRS. We have been assured by them that any donations made before this process is finished will be tax deductible. As good stewards of the funds we receive through donations and fundraisers, the CBA board members are working to complete this process as inexpensively as possible.

The CBA hosted the Town Wide Yard Sale, providing advertising, yard sale signs and maps. Fundraising came from the sales of food and drinks at the Fire Station. The auction, of donated items, held following the yard sales, brought in $1,650.00. Over all totals for this event were $2,150.00. This too has become an annual event, and brings in people from all over the county, and beyond.

The Little League Football program has inspired our school to join in, and we now field a Junior Varsity team, as well as a Varsity team. In order for any of these programs to move forward, we had to have a place for them to play home games. The concept of a sports complex was born. The land was donated by Paul and Betsy Kuhn and Georgia Lee Schuning.

Construction of the sports complex got off to a good start. The Railroad Yard in Stillwater donated the tin horn for the new driveway. With the donation of the bulldozers by Luke Simon, David Knox (Classic Fab) and Jim Kinder (Kinder Dozer), fuel from Joe Simon, Kinder Dozer, Luke Simon, Sonny Pickett and Raymond Hemphill, we were able to get the ground ready. Operating hours were donated by Luke Simon, Greg Wilson, Bob Womack and Jim Kinder. Altex Energy Corporation has donated the use of their road grader and an operator as well. The complex began to take shape. The CBA would like to express a huge Thank You to each of them for their many hours of hard work.

Many positive things will come with this field; it is not just for football. The plan is to have a multi-use field, with a track around it. Being next to the new Senior Center, a track will give our seniors, and all of our citizens, a nice safe place to walk. The field may be used in the future for youth soccer, as well as holding festivals and other events. With proper funding, we have plans to build locker rooms that could also serve as emergency storm shelters for the community. These would be located right next to the Fire Station, which is where our emergency personnel would be during severe weather. We are currently focusing on installing public restrooms and getting the concession stand ready. The concession stand building was donated to us by the Iowa Tribe of Oklahoma. We invite you to vist their website at [IowaNation] . The CBA wants to extend a great big Thank You to the Iowa Tribe of Oklahoma. We were able to purchase bleachers, and have them erected. We have some wood to replace on them, and are hoping to get them painted in our school colors of orange and black. We have a temporary press box, but have plans to make this more permanent, and weather tight. The lighting and the scoreboard are up and working. We have some landscaping that needs to be done on an embankment, as well as all around the Sports Complex. We plan to put in picnic tables, with some trees to provide shade for these. We want to lay sod and plant shrubs on the embankment to prevent erosion, as well as for aesthetic appearance.  We have some fencing installed, but still have a long way to go. Quite often, we refer to it as “Carney’s Field of Dreams”, because we believe that if we build it, they will come. And they have. With our first season in so many years, the community came out in full force to support both our Little League players, and our school teams as well. With our central location in Oklahoma, it is possible that in a few years, we could be hosting playoffs for eight man football team games.

Due to our efforts, we have had state wide television coverage by News 9 in Oklahoma City, in an attempt to help us find contributors to our cause (video can be seen on the internet at news9.com, search term Carney). Any donor, whether individual, group or company that contributes to our Sports Complex, will receive recognition on our Donor’s Wall, or Walk of Fame. This will be located at the entrance to the Carney Sports Complex. Contributors will also be featured on this site. If you, your company or your organization would like to contribute, or can provide any of the necessary equipment or supplies, please contact us. It is through public support that makes all of this possible.

Due to the wide variety of projects we are involved with, if you would like to contribute specifically to any particular one of these, we are capable of making sure your funds go directly for that purpose.

If you would like to help in any way, please attend the next Carney Betterment Association meeting. They are held the first Thursday of each month, 6:30 pm at Ruth's Carney Café. You may also contact the CBA at P.O. Box 118, Carney, Oklahoma 74832, or please feel free to use our contact page to reach any board members.

Board Members

President:            Joe S****

Vice President:     Ken P*****

Treasurer:            Larry D*****

Secretary:            Debi R***