JET Band Winter Dinner, Concert, & Silent Auction

The annual Winter Dinner, Concert, and Silent Auction is set for Tuesday evening, February 9, 2010. 

Here is a complete run-down on the event, courtesy of Kathy Mienser, Freshman Mentor:
Tuesday, Feb 9th beginning at 6pm, you get the opportunity to hear our Taylor Band students perform AND enjoy a lovely catered dinner provided by Hasta la Pasta. The dinner is served in the Taylor High School commons continuously from 5:00 – 7:30 pm. Yes, it’s a fundraiser, but an easy one! You purchase a $12.00 dinner ($6.00 for children age 6 and under) and you enjoy yummy food and to listen to as many bands perform as you’d like. Simply retain your dinner / concert ticket for admission to the PAC. Please note that this is the only concert your children perform which requires you to purchase a ticket. This is a wonderful opportunity for you to invite friends and neighbors to enjoy some good food and hear your students perform.

Prior to the event the band directors post a suggested sequence for each band for the evening. For example, the JV band performs prior to eating their dinner while the Wind Ensemble eats prior to their performance. Look on the web site for the preferred schedule for your child’s band. You may arrange to eat with your student or not. (Many times the band students prefer to eat with their friends.)

Band performances begin at 6pm. Be sure to treat yourself to some yummy desserts at the bake sale and take the opportunity to shop the silent auction for lots of great stuff. Besides supporting Taylor Band, this event provides you a great opportunity to hang around with the parents of your kids band friends.

New this year –- $1 raffle tickets for THE band quilt and all of the various band gift baskets. Raffle tickets may also be pre-ordered with your dinner tickets.  Another new item this year -- A live auction will take place at the end of the Symphonic Band concert. The winner of the auction will conduct the Wind Ensemble playing "Stars and Stripes Forever" at the finale of the concert! Here's your opportunity to indulge your inner Toscanini.

Click here for the ticket order form.  Simply return the form, with your payment, to the band hall safe by Feb 2nd.  You can also pay for tickets online through Pay Pal (click here).  Remember to purchase a ticket for your band student to eat, too!

As usual, it takes lots of Taylor Band parents hands behind the scenes to pull off this big event. So, if you are able to spare an hour of the evening, here are some opportunities for you to serve. The order form includes a few areas where we're recruiting helpers. If you have questions about these service opportunities:

To help with the Silent Auction - Call Denise Mazurek 281-829-9244 or email auction@jetband.org
To help with the Dinner - Call Gretchen McCormack 281-492-8689 or email dinner.concert@jetband.org
To help with the Bake Sale - Call Cheryl Hollabaugh 281-398-3308 or email bake.sale@jetband.org

Please also think about how you can help with the auction donations.  This is the area of work which requires the most lead time.  Click here for the Silent Auction flyer to see how you can help!  We need auction donations AND band basket donations in by Friday, Feb. 5th!!!  We would so appreciate it if you would bring your auction donations to the Band Booster meeting on Tuesday, Feb 2.   

Band Basket Coordinators are listed below.  Please click on your student's band for more details:

Wind Ensemble, Sandi Dunlap
Symphonic Band, Penny Hafner
Concert Band, Tracy Winkelman
Cadet Band, Holly Meredith
JV Band, Paula Matthews
Color Guard, Martha Clark
Drumline, Dagny Rosas

Our band families are always generous, but ideally, we would like to obtain donations from the local business community.  The Auction Chairman and Band Booster Board members will contact businesses as they can, but it is much too big a job to rely on a few people to solicit all business donations.  Therefore, we ask all band families to please consider soliciting businesses that you patronize, or with whom you have a personal relationship, to ask for auction donations.  These donations are very important to us having another successful auction.  Click here for a letter you can use when approaching businesses for donations. 

Please e-mail Denise Mazurek, Auction Chair, at auction@jetband.org if you would like to volunteer and/or donate items for the auction or have any questions. 

Last year's Dinner and Auction combined earned well over $9,000 for JET Band, making it a vital fundraising event!  Let's continue that success this year!