Donations poured in this week for a Pennsylvania high school rifle team after the school board rejected money from the National Rifle Association.
The NRA had offered the Stroudsburg High School team a $4,730 grant to help replace equipment dating back to the 1970s, the Allentown Morning Call reported, but on Monday the school board voted to not accept the donation.
Donations then filled the team's coffers after a GoFundMe campaign by State Rep. Maureen Madden collected $8,700. Another fundraising effort by local businesses took in another $6,750 for the team, the Morning Call said.
The team will purchase new rifles and vests with the funds.
"It is important to note, they are all members of the NRA and strongly disagree with the school board’s decision and further attempt to politicize guns in this country, on the backs of our kids," said Brian Winot, president of Northeast Site Contractors, who raised funds with Tim Primrose, president of Primrose Landscaping.
"Guns and hunting are part of the very fabric of the Pocono community," Winot said.
Cosmas Curry, Stroudsburg school superintendent, said the school board supports the rifle team but some of its members did not want funds from the NRA, WNEP-TV reported.
"There's not a board member that doesn't believe in the rifle team," Curry said. "The fact that there is equipment needed, it's part of my job and my responsibility to find what resources are out there and what those opportunities could be."
Mike Qendro, coach of the high school rifle team, told WNEP-TV he applied for the NRA grant in December and just recently found out it was available. He said the donation had to be approved by the school board since it was in the district's name.
"The kids were very upset and I was upset myself," Qendro told WNEP-TV. "I was like, 'OK, we really need this, and it's great we got it,' and then, all of a sudden, 'No, you can't have it,' but out of that sprung up local community members, just grassroots to take care of the team."
The NRA Foundation said on its website that it has awarded more than $369 million in grants since 1990 in support of educational and public service programs relating to the shooting sports in local communities.