NEW PALESTINE — It takes money to make the music go around, but the New Palestine High School band is a little off key due to a lack of funds this year.
Jon Carney, director of bands, is in charge of the concert, marching, marching color guard, jazz, percussion ensemble, winter percussion, winter guard and pep bands, in which some 140 students participate.
In an effort to keep all the groups flourishing, Carney came up with an idea to create a “28 Days of Giving” fundraiser through snap-raise.com. The plan is to use any money donated for future operations, since they’ve lost a vast amount of financial support over the past nine months because of COVID-19.
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“This is literally a donation fund drive that we’re doing,” Carney said. “We’re simply reaching out to the community, band family and friends asking if they can support us.”
As one of the largest extra-curricular activities in county schools, the music programs count on the community’s financial support. This year, without competitions and other sources of income curtailed by the pandemic, the county’s biggest programs have had to get creative. Online fundraisers are not unusual, but they have taken on added importance as the programs struggle to raise money. Greenfield-Central’s band program also ran a successful fundraiser through snap-raise.com earlier this fall, and it has held a golf outing and a blood drive as well, according to the program’s Facebook page. Mt. Vernon High School’s program has sold laundry detergent, pastries and even mattresses to raise money.
At New Palestine, the 28 Days of Giving campaign ends on Giving Tuesday, Dec. 1. The campaign has a goal of $11,000. The money will be used to lower the cost to participate in band; provide food and meals for students; fund scholarships; cover travel expenses; and pay copyright fees for music, among other expenses.
The high school’s band program has not been able to hold a full-scale fundraiser since January, a major hit considering 70% of its funding comes through fundraisers.
“We’ve lost a tremendous amount of that money,” Carney said. “Our goal is now to offset those financial losses this year with the fundraiser.”
The Indiana State School Music Association, with nearly 200 schools participating in marching band events each fall, announced in July that all 2020 ISSMA events would be canceled due to COVID.
The organization hopes schools will be able to return to live marching band events in the fall of 2021 and help its member schools carry on a rich musical heritage, said Mick Bridgewater, ISSMA’s executive director.
In the meantime, ISSMA has offered virtual marching band assessments and is lobbying state officials to let them know school financing must not take a step back.
“The financial hit for these bands is huge,” Bridgewater said. “We’re trying to work with the eneral assembly and legislators to make sure we try to keep school funding at the current level, because schools are being hit hard and struggling music programs are being hit hard financially.”
Due to the canceled marching band season, county bands lost gate and concession funding, including 100% of their spring concession revenues from last school year.
While most people are well aware of the schools’ marching bands, the schools’ musical programs are much more than that. “Our winter programs are up and running, and we’re actually going through tryouts right now,” Carney said of the situation at New Palestine. “We’re planning on having a full season.” Those efforts are being funded out of the same pot of money, so fundraising can’t take a hiatus.
Mt. Vernon High School’s band program is also experiencing a very different year in terms of finances and performances. A little over 100 students are in the program, which consists of two concert bands and a percussion class along with extracurricular activities like marching band, winter guard and jazz band.
Jackie Nason, Mt. Vernon High School band director, said while the pandemic has limited the types of fundraisers the band program has been able to do, the program was able to have a mattress fundraiser in late October.
Nason and her colleagues are concerned that the school’s music department won’t be able to have its largest fundraiser of the year, however — the “Snow Whirl” dance typically held in December.
“We are currently looking at alternative dates in January or February in hopes of hosting a version of the event,” Nason told the Daily Reporter in an email.
Various fundraisers involving food products usually benefit Mt. Vernon High School’s band program, Nason said, but have been limited this year to prevent possible COVID-19 exposure. The program did raise funds by selling laundry detergent and Butter Braid Pastries, however, but scheduled curbside pickups to reduce exposure, she added.
Nason called fundraisers vitally important to the band program. They not only help lower student fees, she said, but also help cover large aspects of co-curricular and extracurricular budgets for marching band, indoor percussion, winter guard and jazz and concert bands.
“The money we raise from fundraisers helps to cover transportation, staffing, registration fees, equipment, costumes and more,” she said.
There are currently opportunities for donors to contribute to band programming at the high school. Indoor percussion and winter guard students are seeking pledges to help cover their respective budgets for this season. There are also sponsorship opportunities for patrons and businesses. Contributions can be made at mvhsband.bigcartel.com/product/support-the-band-campaign.
Nason said marching band performers were disappointed over not getting to compete this season.
“They were, however, thankful for the chance to work on a marching band production that they were able to perform several times for their families and the Mt. Vernon community,” she said. “I have and continue to be so impressed with how they handle safety protocols and keep pushing to make the best of a situation very much out of their control.”
The band program’s plan is to continue to provide performance opportunities this year.
“It may look different than before, but we are using the change of pace to try some new things, such as having our wind ensemble divide into chamber ensembles,” Nason said, adding a competitive winter guard and concert percussion group plan to compete in February 2021. Wind and percussion students are also slated to have virtual performance opportunities in the spring through ISSMA.
While the students who take part in the extracurricular activity do pay fees to be part of the band, the money just can’t cover everything. In addition to keeping this year’s bands going, a small part of the money raised from the current fundraiser will be tucked away to make sure the marching band season can kick off smoothly next year, particularly since they didn’t get to preform this year.
Greenfield-Central’s band director did not return calls seeking comment, but the school, whose band won a state championship in 2019, has also relied in part on online fundraising. A campaign that ended in September on snap-raise.com brought in $25,475. “We are hopeful to have a season down the road and strongly believe this online campaign is the safest way for us to raise money with the nature of things due to COVID-19,” director Chris Wing wrote in an appeal online. “We appreciate any support of our program….”
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Anyone wishing to donate to the New Palestine High School band program’s ongoing campaign may visit snap-raise.com/v2/fundraisers/new-palestine-bands-28-days-of-giving-2020# to donate.
Contributions to the Mt. Vernon High School band program can be made at mvhsband.bigcartel.com/product/support-the-band-campaign.
Contributions to the Greenfield-Central High School band program can be made through its website, which also has up-to-date information on programs. Visit gcbands.org.
More information about Eastern Hancock High School’s band program, which put on a socially distanced concert on Nov. 10 for Veterans Day, may be found on its Facebook page. Search for "Eastern Hancock Bands."
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