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silverlakebruin brought attention to our band trying to raise funds to get as many kids as possible to Tennessee. I asked him to blog about it but decided to throw this post up for now after getting couple of emails from our readers as well.
First, this is what we have from the band's website re. 2009 season:
Highlights for the Fall 2009 season will include a full band trip to Stanford, and a 50 piece pep band trip to the Tennessee game.
Band Camp is tentatively set to begin on Monday, September 14th. Percussion, Flags and Staff will begin two days earlier on the 12th. The full band will perform at the UCLA vs. Kansas State game on Saturday, September 19th and we then take the day off on Sunday before resuming Band Camp on Monday the 21st. More Band Camp details later.
Re. the Tennessee game the band would like to send more than 50 piece pep band to Knoxville. I think safe to say all of us would love to see a big UCLA band presence while we are watching the game on national TV. However, here is the problem according to our readers.
Apparently the Tennessee officials are charging the band $60 for every seat. A 50 piece band will take up about 100 seats, which is pushing up the cost of this trip about $30,000 range (around OJ2's (alleged) salary as a "student-athlete" at Southern Cal). Given all the budget cut that is around horizon needless to say the band needs outside help more than ever. Apparently there is talk that the school might cut funds for their annual bay area trip as well.
So, if you all want to make sure that our football team is powered on by a huge band presence now would be the time to step up and help them out. You can make a contribution to the band online by going here. I would urge everyone here to chip in.
From what I hear the football team (actually all of our teams) love hearing the band on the road. However, at the same time the athletics department will not pay for their buses or flights. I know there are band members who read BN. I'd like to hear directly for them exactly how much resources the band need this year and I would encourage them to use BN as a platform to raise the funds as much as they can.
As an alum, I know how good it feels when we get to hear the band on the road. I am sure there are many other BNers who feel the same way. So, again I would encourage the band members to use BN as a platform to communicate what they are up to, how their camp is going, their experiences on the road through constant blogging via fanposts and fanshots. The more you guys keep the entire community here plugged in, I think the more everyone will get emotionally invested in the program and offer support.
So for now I encourage everyone here to show support by helping fund their Tennessee trip (and helping the football team in the process). FWIW we are posting this message on our twitter account. For all the band members who are on member are are on twitter would probably want to retweet that message so that the word gets around.
and also offer suggestions on how they can be more resourceful and improvise in the current tough times by engaging the larger Bruin community directly online.
GO BRUINS.