Striking a High Note: Uniting for New Marching Band Uniforms

I love it when a plan comes together and our parent organizations join forces. There is a realization that we all wear the same jersey, share the same shade of blue, and belong to a community that supports our students across a vast array of activities.

Believe it or not, it's not like this everywhere. In some schools these activities are pitted against one another and positioning for precious resources can get adversarial. I have never had that feeling here. In fact, quite the opposite. There is genuine support and admiration for our students across all activity disciplines in our school. And when asked to help, we step up for one another. It is incredibly gratifying.

This willingness to rally together isn't just about funding a project; it's about honoring the shared experiences that define high school life. That spirit of community support is something that I hold close to my heart, largely because some of my fondest high school memories come from my time in the music department. From the early morning rehearsals for All-State to the pep band on Friday evenings, it really was the 'best of times'. Perhaps that is one of the reasons I chose music as my vocation when I first became an educator. I wanted kids to have the same kind of experiences that I did when I was in school. In that regard, I do hope that I have succeeded. At the same time though, I have to try really hard not to 'put my thumb on the scale' when it comes to the needs and wants of our music department here in Hudson. Whether or not that has been a fair position will be for others to determine. 

During my time in high school, marching band was a pretty big deal. I loved the precision of the marching, the power of the brass, and the crispness of a well trained battery. To this day, whenever I have the chance to attend a college football game in the fall, one of my favorite parts is the halftime show. 

When we hired Mrs. Davis as our band director, I knew we would be well positioned to reconstitute our marching band program. As someone with experience working with the Panther Marching band, it was a great opportunity to provide our students with a memorable high school experience. Those early years, we really had to start from scratch. We didn't have all the right equipment: marching sousaphones, battery instrumentation, or even flag poles. Slowly but surely we were able to add to the inventory, but the biggest missing piece was marching band uniforms. Fortunately we were able to acquire uniforms from a school district not too far away that was changing out their look. We jumped at the chance to get them! They were not quite right, but close enough? 

After Mrs. Davis left, I was clear that her successor had to not only sustain our marching band program, but to grow it and move it to the next level. Luckily, Mrs. Ramsey was the right person to accept my challenge! A bit less than a year ago she approached me with a slight problem: the 'hand me down' uniforms were on borrowed time. They were starting to fall apart. Also, it was becoming more and more apparent that the blue wasn't the right color of blue, and the black? Well black isn't even a 'close cousin' when it comes to our color palette. 

The conversation about new marching band uniforms had begun. Probably a bit later than any of us would have liked, but the reason we hadn't had that conversation was marching band uniforms are a very heavy lift. But I was all for it! Thanks to the hard work of the music AND athletic boosters we are ready to place the order. Students are now being fitted for the uniforms and we will have them in time for the next marching band season. Yes, it is still a year away but it will take some time to build these uniforms. 

Of the roughly $35,000 needed for these uniforms, the music boosters have raised $20,000 and the athletic boosters have contributed $10,000. That leaves a balance of just about $5,000 to get us over the finish line. Please consider joining me in contributing to this goal. Anything we raise in excess of this goal will be earmarked for our yet to be determined Color Guard uniforms. If you would like to help please select a sponsorship level by scanning the QR code in the graphic.