The AFHS Marching Band Competed in Grand Nationals(Like the Superbowl for the Band)
We Need Your Help in Taking the Next Step
Dear American Fork Business Owner,
The chance to make a life-changing difference doesn’t come around often. And even more rare – the chance to impact more than two hundred lives at once.
Now you may be wondering how being in marching band can make such a huge difference in the life of a young person.
Let’s see what some of the students, as well as their parents, say.
“Marching band is just a life-changing experience. It gets you better at academics, you get better at school, you get better in so many things. You have so many friends, like so many.” Lincoln Nelson.
“When we arrived here in Utah, and Garrett was able to join the American Fork Marching Band program, we saw a huge change in him. We saw an instant community of friends. We saw an ability to be able to work hard and have the people standing right there next to you work just as hard. And that’s something that’s really hard to teach your children.” Neal Robison.
“Knowing her story before where she was really, really shy and didn’t really put herself out there, the band really, really helped her express her voice, and it made her really, really proud of what she did.” Brett Boulter.
“What I’ve noticed as a parent is that his work ethic has just grown exponentially, you know, and what more could you ask for as a parent to watch your child just, you know, work hard and love it, you know. And that’s not something you can say about every program.” Amy Nelson
And that’s just a few of the many hundreds of testimonials we could pull from.
The truth of the matter is these kids work hard – really hard. They put in hundreds of hours of work outside of school hours to master their show. And their work ethic is apparent to everyone who knows them. In fact, more than one business here in town will hire any marching band student, because they are such good workers.
Marching band teaches students:
- Confidence
- A killer work ethic
- Responsibility
- Ownership in their efforts and results
- The desire to excel at what they do
- Time management (with all of that time they put in, they still must maintain good grades, more on that later)
- Social skills
- And many of the ‘soft’ skills that are so sorely needed
Time and time again, those students who participate in marching band experience an improvement in their grades...their social life...and their ability to complete tasks at or above expectations.
You want team work?
Try being a part of a 200+ strong team – all working their tails off for the same goal.
You want leadership?
Marching band provides plenty of opportunities to develop those skills.
How about the ability to get along with others?
“For me, music has just completely transformed the type of person I am today. I just kinda struggled with social connections, and I struggled with making close friends. It just helped me to have an outlet, I guess, and a place to express myself and to become comfortable with who I am.” Kyla Hansen.
How about learning to bring passion to the task at hand?
“Well, it kinda brings out your passion being in the marching band and to be able to put passion into something is a great skill no matter what kind of a career pathway you go into.” Kimber Moyes.
How about concern for others?
“I had a completely different personality when I started then I do now, which I’m so grateful for, ‘cause I wouldn’t have met as many people as I do now and literally, I love people so much.” Kimber Moyes.
There’s no doubt that being in the marching band is a life-changing opportunity – one that produces students with skills that are often lacking in the rising generation.
We could go on and on about how great things being in the band does for these kids… but this is how you can help.
This year the band had the opportunity to represent not only American Fork, but the entire State of Utah at the premiere event in the marching band world – Bands of America’s Grand Nationals. This is a competition among the best of the best of America’s high school marching bands. It’s held in Lucas Oil Stadium in Indianapolis.
Just imagine what it would be like to march out under the bright lights of this superb venue – which was built with marching competitions in mind – to the thunderous roar of the thousands gathered there…
And then performing the show that you’ve put in blood, sweat, tears, along with hundreds of hours.
As you can imagine, such an endeavor is not cheap.
Now the kids each paid around $2000 for this opportunity and they covered the costs...the hotels, transportation to their many competitions throughout the season, and guest clinicians who have flown in to help make the show as good as possible.
Most of them put in long hours to earn that kind of money through jobs and fundraisers. And that was on top of the hundreds of hours of rehearsals.
But we are at a distinct disadvantage. The bands that compete for the top spots year in and year out all come from Indiana or states near Indiana. They are very familiar with the venue (those from Indiana compete for their state title at Oil Lucas). Plus, they don’t have to pay anywhere near what our kids have to pay because of less traveling expenses.
And that’s not all. Many of them have annual budgets topping the $1 Million mark.
Ours pales in comparison. Most years it runs between $200,000 - $300,000. But trips to Grand Nationals basically doubles that. And the kids (and their families) work hard to come up with all that money each and every year.
So, here’s where you can really help us out. We want to up our game...make it into the top 10 bands...and go back every other year to build continuity.
Now in order to do that, we need to build up our endowment so that we can even the playing field as far as budgeting goes. Our goal is to build up this fund so that we can augment what the kids bring in… and have a budget closer to that million dollar mark.
As a token of our appreciation, we will include your ad in our concert programs, on the side of our trucks, or on our fence at the band field (or some combination of the three).
An added bonus is that all donations are tax deductible.
Any amount is appreciated and we won’t say ‘no’. But if you could donate more, we’ve lined up certain perks for you. (See the enclosed ‘Donation Rewards Schedule’.)
So please donate if you can. Open your heart...Do it for the children. You will be amazed at the difference even a small donation can make.
✓ Yes, I will donate to make a life-changing difference. I understand that my donation is tax deductible and will earn me certain rewards based on the amount I donate. Please contact our band director, Mr. Orien Landis at olandis@alpinedistric.org
Orien Landis,
Director of Bands,
American Fork High School
P.S. As a surprise extra bonus, I’ve made arrangements to make decals that you can place in your store, on your vehicles, or anywhere you’d like to put them that let’s the community know that you’re a proud sponsor of the American Fork High School Marching Band.
Your donation of $100 gets you a beautiful ‘We Support American Fork Bands’ sticker to proudly display.
Your donation of $250 gets you a quarter page color ad in the Mt. Timpanogos Marching Band Competition Program (seen by 5,000 - 7,000 people).
Bronze Donors ($500) get a half page color ad in the Mt. Timpanogos Marching Band Competition Program and their logo on all concert programs for all American Fork High School Band events.
Silver Donors ($1000) get a full page color ad in the Mt. Timpanogos Marching Band Competition Program, a 5’ X 3’ banner on the marching band field at American Fork High School (banner supplied by business), and a quarter page ad on all concert programs for all American Fork High School Band events.
Gold Donors ($2500) get the full page color ad placed at the front of the Marching Competition Program, their logo placed on the back of the band equipment trailer for 1 year (this trailer is seen at many community events year round), an 8’ X 5’ banner on the marching band field at the high school (banner supplied by business), and a half page ad on all concert programs at the high school.
Platinum Donors ($5,000) get a the full page color ad in middle of the Marching Competition Program, their logo on both the side of the marching band trailer for 1 full year and on the band equipment trailer, a full page ad in all concert programs, and recognition at all concert and jazz band events at the high school.
Maestro Donors ($10,000+) get two full page color ads in the middle of the Marching Competition Program, their logo both on the side of the marching band trailer for 2 full years and on the side of the band equipment trailer, a full page ad at the front of all concert programs, recognition at all concerts, jazz, and marching band events throughout the year, public recognition at all marching band events, and they get to book the jazz band or marching band for a public event of their choosing.