The Caroline County Foundation for Education, Recreation and Wellness has presented the Caroline Band Parents Association with a $4,000 check.
The money will go toward new uniforms for the Caroline High School marching band and puts the band’s recent fundraising campaign “over our initial goal,” said CBPA president Tim Payne. With the School Board’s promise of a $13,200 match, the total funds raised by the band amount to about $29,800.
“This is an amazing moment,” Payne told the School Board. “We thought we might get it done in December, and we got it done in three months.”
CHS bands director Kevin Coleman agreed: “The support of the board, the support of the community, has just been incredible,” he said.
Foundation member and local realtor L. J. Moyer, who handed off the check to Payne, said that her group was especially impressed with how hard the band members and parents had worked to raise a portion of the money themselves.
“We’re not here to give money to people who don’t have skin in the game,” said Moyer.
Band members and parents have sold hot dogs, popcorn and soft drinks at a number of public events over the past month, including the Virginia Bazaar and the Tingler Insurance–sponsored movie nights in Ladysmith. They also recently held a donation drive at Lake Caroline and a car wash in Ladysmith May 30.
“We’re nimble, we’re well-organized, and we’re very motivated,” Payne told the Progress.
Many people in the community, said Moyer, had not realized how old the band uniforms were.
“We were stunned that the band uniforms were older than some of the kids that were playing in the band,” she said. “That shouldn’t be.”
“When they travel, the band represents the people of Caroline County. It is important that they look good,” Moyer told the Progress in a different conversation.
The CBPA is now focusing on raising $3,600 needed to purchase new hats, plumes, gauntlets, gloves, and uniform bags to carry the new, longer uniforms.
“We are not stopping,” Payne told the board. “We will be everywhere you can imagine between now and forever.”
The Caroline Foundation for Education, Recreation and Wellness was originally formed about two years ago with the aim of, among other things, helping retire the debt of the Caroline Family YMCA, which, for a variety of reasons, did not prove feasible.
Today, the philanthropic organization supports projects exclusively in Caroline County that help youth and contribute to the quality of life in the county.