This year's Cougar Band program, "Pulling Out All the Stops", is based on thematic material from the Maestoso (Finale) movement of the "Organ Symphony" (Symphony No. 3 in C minor, Op. 78) by Camille Saint-Saens. It was arranged by Bruce McConnell, currently Director of Concert Percussion at Carmel High School.

Drum Majors will be Aaron Anderson and Abby Zinman.

This year, the Couger Band will be traveling for the first time to the Bands of America Regional held in the Silverdone in Pontiac, Michigan! This will be an overnight trip, with departure after school on Oct. 8. We will perform in the morning prelims and, hopefully, again in the evening finals on Oct. 9, returning to Bloomington late on the 9th.

See the website calendar for the rehearsal schedule! A newsletter with detailed information has been sent by snail mail also.

Adults and students, 15 or over, are needed to help staff a Boston Scientific employee picnic at the Monroe County Fairgrounds Aug.6-7 (note date change!) and earn $3,500 for our band program. What an opportunity!

We do not yet have the number of volunteers we need in order to earn the money for this event. Please check your calendars and consider signing up! If you signed up previously, please sign up again to confirm that the new dates are ok for you. It's just one day (or even part of a day on Friday) of your time that would bring in needed money for our outstanding BHSN Band Program! This is an excellent opportunity for families to work together. It's ok to get your neighbors and friends involved, too!

We need more than 100 volunteers to make this happen, so we need YOU!! Don't think someone else will do it. It's up to each of us to help if we want our band program to maintain its record of excellence! (These funds do not go toward the ECA fundraising campaign, but they will be used for operating expenses for the band program.)

The dates have been changed since the first emailed request for volunteers - from July 23-24 to Friday, August 6 and Saturday, August 7. Hopefully, these dates will work out even better for our band family with many of us back from vacations and other summer commitments. For those who already signed up to work, please email Nan Morrow to let her know if you can still work these new dates, and please include the following information in your response:

• Names of all volunteers
• Which date(s) you'd like to work (Aug. 6 or Aug. 7)
• Your shirt size(s) (they provide shirts for us to wear)
• Age of any kids working (must be 15 or over)
• Daytime phone number

• We need 24 Set-up Volunteers for Friday, August 6 (3 - 7 p.m.) and 77 Event Volunteers for Saturday, August 7 (9:30 a.m. - 5:30 p.m.). Must be able to work the entire shift. Must arrive 30 minutes prior to shift to check in and get a T-shirt. At least 25% of our volunteers must be over age 18.
• Friday night workers are doing set-up and should be able to lift 75 lbs or close to that
• Set-up duties include assisting with setting up tables, chairs, tents, signage, etc. Must be able to lift.
• Event duties include food serving, making sno cones, popcorn, cotton candy, nachos, etc., assisting with running interactive games like inflatable slides or carnival attractions.
• Breakdown duties include cleaning the event site, rolling extension cords, packing up equipment, etc.
• Dress Code: Khaki shorts, capris, slacks, no cutoffs, white tennis shoes (don't have to be all white); they provide shirts, which must be tucked in. Shirts must be returned. All workers with hair past chin length should have it pulled up out of their faces and off their shoulders. All piercings other than earrings must be removed, and male workers must be clean shaven. The dress code/clean shaven does not strictly apply to the Friday set-up workers, though they are expected to be neat and clean.
• No tobacco or cell phone use on the event site.
• All Saturday volunteers will receive a free meal during or after their shift. Friday workers will not receive a meal.
• Volunteers must be able to work the entire shift time. We cannot split shifts.

ECA Stipend Cuts

As you have probably heard by now, due to funding problems throughout MCCSC, all ECA (extracurricular activities) stipends have been cut for the coming year. For the band program, this has meant a loss of about $5500 each for Ms. Stockhouse and Mr. Wilson. These stipends are for all the non-classroom hours they put in on behalf of ALL the BHSN bands, including many, many hours for Marching Band. (Doesn't seem like much for all they do, does it!?) All expenses other than these stipends are covered by student fees and fund raising by the Band Boosters, not by the school.

On June 7, the Band Booster officers, parents, and a few students met in the band room to discuss recent developments. The consensus was to proceed with planning the marching band season (etc.) and to raise the extra money needed for the stipends, for one year, as a stopgap measure. Unfortunately, we discovered that, for legal reasons, the Boosters cannot pay the stipends directly. The money would need to be funneled through the MCCSC Foundation.

As reported in the Herald-Times, the Foundation has decided that the only fair thing to do is to run an "All for All" campaign to raise the money needed to fund all of the extracurricular stipends throughout MCCSC at once (everything from sports to Science Olympiad). The goal is to collect $750,000 by Aug. 1, via donations from parents, community members, and businesses. They have a great website at www.give4ECAs.org where you can find more information and options for donating!

Band Family Phone-a-thon

On July 1, a group of hard working band boosters came together and made a difference. Over the course of 2.5 hours, they reached out to current, future and alumni band families to raise money to replace 2010-11 ECA stipends and ended the evening with an impressive $7,000+ in firm pledges. Another 20 families made commitments with amounts still to be determined. When the numbers are totaled it's conceivable our effort could top $8,000 in contributions, or even higher.

Our thanks to:

• Karen Wyle, new to Band Boosters herself as a Color Guard mom, who called incoming band families
• Barb Hatton, who called those in twin sons Wyatt and Justin's incoming junior class
• Vicki Polanski, our new Band Boosters president, who called sophomore son David's classmate families
• Rosemarie McGerr, mother to Patrick who called fellow incoming senior families
• Esther Smail, now alumni mom to son Evan, who contacted outgoing senior families
• Wendy Lumsdaine, mom to percussion alumnus Ben, who contacted families from Ben's class of 2009
• Janis Stockhouse, director and phone-a-thon hostess, who dusted off her old directories and reached out to many band families from years past

The night did not have enough hours to get through the directory so to those families we missed, our apologies but with continued encouragement to contribute to this important effort. Feel free to contact any of us for information. And to those of you who pledged your support, a tremendous thank-you.

The campaign to raise $750,000 across the MCCSC ECA spectrum continues through this month. Contributions can be made directly through the Foundation's "All for All" website, www.GIVE4ECAS.org, or by mail to FMCCS, 315 North Dr., Bloomington, IN 47401.

Susie Graham
Band Boosters Vice President

4th of July Parade

The Bloomington 4th of July Parade featured an MCCSC Foundation parade entry with the theme "Strut Your Stuff to Save our ECA's." This entry included a combined North-South high school marching band and a walking unit of many students, parents, teachers, and coaches. Thanks to everyone who participated, showing their support for ECAs!!

Due to cuts in school funding at the state level, many MCCSC teachers have lost their jobs or been reassigned. Teacher stipends for extracurricular activities have also been eliminated for the coming year. The band program at BHSN has been impacted by these events in a couple of ways. First, Mr. Wilson will not be teaching as many classes at North in 2010-11. His time will be divided between North High School and Tri-North Middle School where he will replace Mr. Grifa, an excellent teacher who sadly did not have enough seniority to survive the cuts. Consequently, Beginning Jazz will not be offered at North in 2010-11, and our top concert bands will no longer be assigned two band directors. Secondly, the fate of Marching Band and all other extracurricular band events (contests) is uncertain. See the news article on ECA Cuts. Hopefully, donations will allow ECAs to continue this year, but relying on contributions is not a permanent solution.

A referendum will be on the ballot this fall, asking voters to approve a local property tax hike to replace the money lost due to the state cuts. Please be informed and turn out to vote when the time comes!