Band Raffle to Help Fund New York Trip

September 20, 2011
Filed under News

     The band is starting off their “Marching to Macy’s” Mega Raffle to help raise funds for the costly New York trip that they will be making to march in the 2012 Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade.

     “The goal of the raffle is to raise money that would go towards the students trip payments so that they can more easily afford the expensive trip. Our goal is to raise enough money so that every band member is able to go to New York,” Assistant Band Director, Albert Vela said.

     There will be a total of 110 prizes for this drawing. The winnings will be from $100 Visa Gift Cards all the way up to a brand new 2012 Toyota Camry, or 2012 Ford Explorer.

     “You have a 1 in 36 chance of winning. If you win a prize, your ticket will be put back in the ticket pool. So technically, you could win multiple times with just one ticket,” Vela said.

     There are multiple times you can purchase tickets and they are being sold for $100 each. The earlier you purchase the ticket(s) the more chances you have to win because of the multiple drawing dates.

     “You can purchase tickets at www.orhsband.org under the ‘Parade’ and ‘Mega Raffle’ links. Or there will be a booth set up on Tuesday-Thursday outside of the band hall. The booth will be available at 5:15-6:15 on Tuesdays and Thursdays, and at 4:45-5:45 on Wednesdays,” Vela said.

     The goal for the band is to sell all 4,000 tickets. Not only is the Oak Ridge Band selling tickets, but also the Cox, Vogel, and York bands are as well.

     “If you buy just one ticket, you are doing the band a huge favor. If we sell all of our tickets, the band will receive around $280,000,” Vela said.

     So far this is the biggest fund raiser that the band has done to raise money for the trip. However, they plan on doing as much more as they can to reach their goal.

     “We have a fund raising committee that consists of band parents, former band booster presidents, and even a former Oak Ridge City Council member that helps us run these fund raisers,” Vela said.

     Even the band students are trying their best to help raise money by actively participating in the fund raisers going on,”

     “I really enjoy helping the band raise money. I’ve already sold several tickets,” Junior, Heather Chambers said.

     The band is moving towards their goal, one step at a time. If they sell all the tickets they will be much closer to their $450,000 goal.

     “So far we have an estimated $30,000 from previous fund raisers. It doesn’t seem like very much compared to the total amount, but we’ve raised a lot since April, when we learned we were going to the parade,” Vela said.