Fundraiser helps CVHS marching band with uniforms

A fundraiser to acquire additional uniforms for the CVHS marching band brought in over $2,000 on Monday and people who made donations got a meal out of it. Instigated by band parent Lisa Dutton, DreamDinners supplied ingredients for the bands’ families who assembled their meals and took them home.

“It’s a win, win situation,” said Dutton. The band received 100% of the donations, which are entirely tax deductible, and parents who participated didn’t have to shop or chop for their dinner.

Some marching band students swapped uniforms for aprons to assemble their family’s meal, though the event was mostly attended by more than half of the band’s parents.

The CVHS marching band has steadily increased in size over the last seven years under the direction of Matthew Schick. This year, the band acquired fifty new members. With only 107 uniforms, not everyone in the 120-member band received one.

The pit section of the band has experienced the most impact. Mallet, xylophone, triangle and other percussion players who perform on the sidelines must wear black shirts and pants, which reduces the marching band’s overall score during competitions. The uniform shortage also means there is little flexibility when it comes to sizing them for each musician at the start of the year.

Students pay a rental fee when the semester starts, but this is applied to dry cleaning cost and some repair, with a very small percentage toward acquisition. Each uniform costs approximately $500 and the band’s goal is to add twenty uniforms to their inventory. All of the current uniforms are approximately eight years old, and have an expected life of about ten years.

Lissa Mooney and Lisa Uhern, who opened a DreamDinners store in La Crescenta a year ago in November, donated over eighty meals for the marching band fundraiser. They have consistently helped community members and organizations with fundraising as well as offering meal solutions to customers. CVHS Marching Band Board President, Susan Stanley Cross, said the fundraiser was “the most painless way to give twenty five dollars toward uniforms.”

For more information about contributing to marching band uniforms for CVHS, contact Matthew Schick at 249-5871.