Mercer Island Schools Band Boosters

Sponsoring the band at this level helps ensure what All Island Band Night represents ... an inclusive no-cut performance by students from the 5th-12th grade bands. Your sponsorship at $5000 helps pays for scholarships for our students to ensure all students have access to band and its activities regardless of means. This is one of the main tenets of the MI band program - that any student who is interested in participating in band be afforded that opportunity. Period. Or it helps defray our administrative costs to free up our directors to work directly with our band students, which should be the goal of every band parent - to maximize the student-band director time and relationship. 

A donation of $2500 to the MI Band Program can be used in a variety of ways to boost our program and support the kids' adventures in music education. For example, it funds a day of Tutor Palooza, where our band students can sign up for free private tutoring sessions with professional instructors and tutors. This is wildly successful, with most of the available slots being filled by band students who were eager to improve on their instrument. Or it pays for artists-in residence to work with our students. Thinking back over the past years, the band students have had incredible opportunities to learn from masters in fields that they may not encounter after high school. The Japanese Taiko Drumming performance is just one example. Last year we had members of the United States Marine Corp Band work with our IMS and MIHS band students. It's this lower instructor to student ratio that enables our bands to be the Pride of the Island.

This year, our bands are playing together again! This is definitely worthy of celebrating! In addition to All Island Band Night, our 8th grade, Jazz, and high school bands are invited to perform at festivals throughout the year. Recently, the MIHS marching band had the honor of performing together at the Seahawks Game. Your Band Together Again donation helps defray the costs of transporting our band students to and from these events. Your support  is crucial. While we are lucky to have many parents volunteer their time, buses and drivers must be hired. Or it supports the instrument consultants who were hired to help the students get up to speed as quickly as possible. Or it supports our students ability to play together because of the instrument PPE we are able to provide!

A $500 sponsorship funds an instrument specialist for a month. Our students' mastery of their instrument is supported by our program, but also by specialists that come in to focus on a particular skill or set of instruments. One example is a percussion specialist. If you have ever been to a band performance or concert, you may have wondered how the percussion students learn all the instruments for which they are responsible: the xylophone, marimba, vibraphone, drums, cymbals, bell, woodblock, claves, tom-toms, maracas, triangle, or, on that rare occasion, the tambourine. Since the percussion section is often the heartbeat of the band, the role these students play is vital to a strong musical organization. Another example is the flute instrument specialist helping our fledgling flautists. These specialists help lower the instructor to student ratio giving them more focused attention.  The directors are always thinking of ways to supplement and broaden the musical experiences and education of every band member and your support allows these ideas to come to fruition.

A $250 sponsorship can be used in so many ways. It can support a month of Jazz coaching. Or it supports the opportunity to work with local Jazz artists such as Tia Fuller, including a performance at Jazz Alley. Or it can provide scholarships to students who wish to participate in the band program but who are not financially able. Although it was mentioned in another auction item, it bears repeating that our band program is open to EVERY MI student who wants to make music, regardless of musical skill or finances. This is something to shout from the rooftops because it is this inclusiveness that is modeled and taught to every band student. This lesson becomes part of the fabric of their character, not just during their time in our community, but for all the years to come. The MI band program helps to shape the people our kids are and who they become and, ultimately, this is what your sponsorship supports.

Every year, the band program brings in instrument specialists for students from 5th grade through high school on every instrument. That's a lot of instruments! $100 supports an hour of a specialists time. Or, a $100 sponsorship can be used to help maintain the band program's instruments that are rented out to students who need them. If you have ever come to the high school on the day that the instruments must be returned for cleaning over the summer, it is visually stunning to see the ocean of French horns, clarinets, flutes, trombones (and these are just some of the smaller instruments), etc. overflowing in the hallways. The band program sends these instruments out for professional maintenance and repair, when needed, so that they are in good working condition for the students the following season. The goal of the band program is to make every student feel successful on their instrument and this can't happen without the required yearly attention to these instruments.