MCHS Band Raises Cash For Hurricane Relief

The McDonald County High School marching band raised money to help a high school band affected by Hurricane Harvey.

"We, as a band, wanted to find a socio-economically similar school to ours and similar in diversity as well," band director Laurie Kinder-Lang said. "Because my students have been through floods, they kind of get it. We decided to adopt a school from Beaumont, Texas. I contacted Angie Brewer, assistant superintendent, and she helped connect our bands because she used to work in Beaumont."

The school the band adopted is Cy-Fair High School.

Kinder-Lang split the band into two teams, Team Tony and Team Gabe, named after two of her drum majors. They started Sept. 5 collecting dimes as part of a dime challenge and turned it into a fun competition between band members, she said.

"We're putting the money on a debit card and our Band Boosters will get it to their Band Boosters," she said.

The effort raised about $2,000, according to Carla Hottinger, president of the Band Boosters. Team Gabe was the winning team.

Tony Jaquez, senior drum major, said, "We reached out to as many student organizations as we could and as many junior highs as we could to get them to be on the team. We've been working our hardest to get it out there. We've been asking our friends outside of band to bring change. The competition is a good idea because it pushes us to be our best."

Gabe Ledesma, junior drum major, said, "We went to a lot of businesses in the county and asked if we could put in a jar. We started selling bon bons. Those sold very quickly. We got help from multiple groups. My team members have been very supportive, very enthusiastic. They brought change and filled up the jar in three days. In two days we raised over 100 pounds."

Autumn Hottinger, sophomore drum major, said she found an idea on Pinterest to fill a two-liter pop bottle with dimes, but she thought they could do better so they started filling five-gallon buckets.

"Everyone started on a mad search for dimes, and the banks were running out of rolls of dimes. We were having to go to Arkansas," she said.

Jaquez said, "We amped up the competition by poking fun at each other on social media."

Kinder-Lang said, "This competitive spirit always brings synergy to our band and our entire student body that helped us out so much."

Jaquez said, "All the competition was nice, but the important thing is being able to help Cy-Fair High School. We're glad to be able to help out and we're eager to offer continued support."