District announces new name for stadium

Published 4:08 pm Thursday, April 30, 2009

By Teresa Herriman, The Courier-Herald

Superintendent Dr. Donald Eismann announced Friday that Sunset Chev, an automotive dealership at 910 Traffic Ave. in Sumner, has agreed to donate $504,000 to the Sumner School District for naming rights to the district stadium. The stadium will be known as the "Sunset Chev Stadium."

The stadium, adjacent to Sumner High School, is now used by the Sumner Spartans. It will also be home to the Bonney Lake Panthers when that school opens in the fall of 2005.

The school district's board of directors approved the agreement at their regular meeting on Dec. 17.

The gift will establish an annual scholarship in the donor's name to assist students in the pursuit of studies in automotive technology. The scholarship will be managed by the Sumner-Bonney Lake Education Foundation.

"The wonderful thing about this gift is that it creates a fund to support the replacement costs of the stadium field, allowing those general fund and capital project fund budgets ear-marked for the stadium to be used for curricular programs," Eismann said. "Sunset Chev's support puts more money back into classrooms for teaching and learning."

Sunset Chev is owned by Ray Sparling.

Teresa Herriman can be reached at therriman@cmg-northwest2.go-vip.net/courierherald