PLAINWELL -- A donation by a fraternal group means that the Force Soccer Club can install electrical connections, dig a well and work on seeding field areas as the athletic group continues developing a new facility on leased land at the Plainwell Municipal Airport.

``This donation will help us a lot,'' said club coach Rich Vanderhoff. ``But there is still plenty to do, and we need to continue raising funds.''

The donation -- a $5,500 check from the local Modern Woodmen of America camp -- was to be presented to Force leaders in a ceremony July 31 at soccer fields along Eighth Street that are currently used by the Force group.

Founded in 1883, Modern Woodmen of America offers financial services and fraternal-member benefits to people across the country. Force Soccer Club group members in Plainwell, Otsego and Martin and surrounding areas  raised $3,000 of the donation via a June 16 raffle drawing that featured a large-screen television as the prize, said Thomas R. Holmes, a registered representative of the group.

The rest of the donation came from a matching-fund program in which the nationwide group will match up to $2,500 raised by local members for a cause, Holmes said. Volunteers started work in late April to turn a leased parcel on the southeast corner of the airport into playing fields for the nonprofit soccer club, which involves about 150 boys and girls ages 9 through 19 from Plainwell, Otsego, Martin and Cooper and Alamo townships.

Team members are selected in a tryout process each spring and travel across the region for games. The playing fields should be ready for games by the fall of 2009, Vanderhoof said. But the club still needs to raise funds to build a shed for storing game and field-maintenance equipment, erect an 8 foot- to-10-foot fence separating the fields from the airport and build a bathroom facility, Vanderhoff said.