Musicians spend money, time in music program

Friday night football games, half time shows, great sounding music: these are all things that involve the marching band.

There are 170 students in the marching band and about 137 of those march in the show every week.

“Solid student leadership, parent support, and student buy in [make a good marching band],” band director Glen Lambert said.

Aaron Daniel is the assistant band director for The Pride of the East.

“Good timing, sound, players, marchers, a well established show, well designed show and over all concept [make a good marching band],” Daniel said.

The marching band practices every day except for Tuesdays with a total of eight hours a week. To learn a show, band members practice for about 160 hours.

“The hardest part about being in marching band is not having time for tutoring for classes in the morning,” junior Jacob Ward said.

The marching band spends at least $19,000 during the marching season on props, drill books, music, additional instructions, equipment and consultation. The band also spends an additional $22,500 on transportation. The cost to be in marching band is about $350 for a band member and around $700 for a color guard member.

The way the band raises money is by helping with concessions, the marchathon, cotton candy sells and ad program sells.

“We put a lot of our time and effort into this band so that we can succeed and in the end, it’s not about the money, it’s the time that we spend doing things that we love,” junior Kailee Zercher said.