The parents spend hours preparing hundreds of hot meals to make sure students are fed before marching in a competition.
Band booster parents sew uniforms throughout the season to make sure every student has a uniform that fits. They sell mattresses, candles and holiday decor to friends and concessions at football games to make sure the bands can buy what they need.
Marching band season is in full swing across the county and hundreds of parents are working behind-the-scenes to make sure their student’s band program has what it needs to succeed. The work of the band boosters gets intense during marching band season and continues all year.
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Band directors are in charge of what happens during a marching band, jazz or concert show, teaching the students music and movements in rehearsals and during classes.
But hundreds of band parents are responsible for making sure students have the props and instruments they need to perform, have a hot meal before shows and competitions and that some have access to the money they need to pay their band fees.
“Our ultimate goal is to grow the program and support the directors and staff,” said Sabrina Hickey, band booster president at Franklin Community High School.
Band booster groups in high schools across the county see their job as making sure that the students have everything they need to perform well and that the directors can concentrate on teaching the students what they need to know, band booster presidents said.
“We want our directors engaged with the kids,” Tracy McIntosh, president of the band booster club at Greenwood Community High School. “We do all those tasks for them.”
A large part of what band booster parents do is fundraising to get the extras that their students may need. Some band booster clubs will see $100,000 come in and out of their accounts in a school year as they raise and then spend the funds to redesign the band’s logo, buy new uniforms, feed hundreds of kids each week and offer scholarships to students who cannot afford the fees.
Participating in band costs hundreds of dollars at most schools. Parents are responsible for paying that money that often goes toward paying staff, buying music books and rights to music they learn and play during competitions and hiring show designers to help create a marching band show, Scott Harris, band booster president at Center Grove High School, said.
Most anything else that pertains to a marching band show is raised by that school’s band booster program. This would include props that the band uses, new uniforms, some instruments and food to feed the students, he said.
“It costs a lot of money to run these programs,” Harris said. “Anything you see out there, all of that stuff costs money.”
Booster parents often spend hundreds of hours over a school year to help raise the funds for what they need.
They look for sponsors, organize dine out evenings where restaurants give a portion of their sales back to the booster program, sell concessions at sporting events and staff marching band invitationals that can bring thousands of dollars to booster programs and are often cited as a band’s largest fundraiser.
“Our goal as band parents is to make sure that no student gets turned away,” McIntosh said.
Dozens of band parents also work to make sure that the band is supported in smaller ways that help improve a show and can help the morale of the band students.
Some band parents at Whiteland Community High School keep makeup and hair products on them before every competition and are in charge of helping students braid their hair to fit under their hats and that they are wearing their uniform correctly before they step out onto the field, Amanda Silas, president of the Whiteland Community High School band boosters said.
Parents also bring treats in for students on special days and make sure that the students have a hot meal before they perform, she said.
“(We do) anything they might need to make sure they are prepped and ready to go on the field,” she said.
