Bet you never thought this space would be asking you to help send Alaskans to Washington, D.C. Well, I am.
Alaska’s only high school marching band remains on its own to raise money to cover a trip to Washington, D.C. , to march in the inaugural parade.
PALMER — The Colony High School marching band will have to continue raising funds for a trip to Washington, D.C., without monetary help from the Mat-Su Borough School Board.
The board voted 3-3 Monday on a decision of whether to give the band $15,000 to help cover expenses for a trip to play in the Jan. 20 Inaugural Parade.
The tie vote effectively becomes a failed vote.
Source: Mat-Su Valley Frontiersman
Board members opposed to covering the band’s $15, 000 shortfall said it would set a bad precedent and open the board to many more requests for special funding.
Marching band director Jamin Burton said he disagrees.
“How many other groups will be invited by the President-elect to play?” Burton asked after the vote failed.
That notion seemed to be one reason the board members in support of the funding found it to be a good idea.
“I think it’s the right thing to do,” Colver said of the funding. “It’s history in the making.”
Still, Welton, who said she received a threatening letter attempting to influence her decision, said setting a precedent where the board acts like a bank is bad.
“We cannot be the cash cow,” Welton said.
Source: Mat-Su Valley Frontiersman
However, the band and its supporters say the youngsters will march one way or the other and fundraising will continue.
The Colony High School marching band is the only marching band in the state, and was invited to play in the inaugural parade over scores of other bands that applied to do so.
Source: Mat-Su Valley Frontiersman
The band is receiving some help from Alaska Airlines, which waived its second bag luggage fee for the students. A church in Fairfax, Va., has agreed to lodge the band.
Burton said anyone who wants to donate money to help the band get to Washington, D.C., can still do so at any Wells Fargo Bank. There is also a Web site, www.chsmusicboosters.com., that will accept online donations.
So far, a gauge on the Web site shows 12 percent of the $45,000 the band still needs to get to the Inaugural Parade.
Source: Mat-Su Valley Frontiersman
You really cannot blame the school board and I am not calling them out on this. There are kids in bands in similiar situations all over the country right now. Part of it, I admit, is the irony. The other is that these kids will be representing kids from all over Alaska and they’d like to know the other states know they are here, especially on the 50th Anniversary of statehood.
Please send money.
Tags: Alaska, Colony High, Inaugural, marching band, Obama, palmer, parade, president, School Board, US Politics, Washington, World
