ULL band seeks sponsors to fund Macy’s parade trip

LAFAYETTE — The University of Louisiana at Lafayette’s Pride of Acadiana Marching Band is making a final push to raise the last $60,000 needed to cover expenses for a trip to New York for the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day parade.

“We have about 50 students who are having difficulty raising some or all of the money,” band director Brian Taylor said. “I’m hoping enough kind people come along so that we don’t have to tell some kids that they can’t go.”

Donors will be paired with a student who benefited from their generosity, and in turn, the student will keep the donor posted about pre-trip events and offer a first-hand account of the experience upon the band’s return, Taylor said.

“It’s not just writing a check,” Taylor said. “They’ll get to know about the effect that donation had on the student.”

Of the band’s 275 members, 242 of them plan to make the trip, he said. Those who opted not to join the band for its Nov. 22 parade appearance had various personal reasons unrelated to financial constraints, Taylor said.

Because the band performs at a Nov. 17 football game at Cajun Field and needs to return to Lafayette in time for the Ragin’ Cajuns’ Nov. 24 game with South Alabama, members opted to charter a Boeing 767 jet airliner for the trip. Donations will be used to pay the $16,000 fuel surcharge bill the band recently received, Taylor said.

Band members have already raised more than $300,000 through the sale of Pride of Acadiana Marching Band apparel, the Adopt a Band Member campaign and from business contributions. But some students still need help, Taylor said.

Each student was asked to come up with $1,500 with half of that going toward airfare. The remainder will be used to cover meals, lodging and transportation by bus.

“Some kids owe as little as $250,” Taylor said. “I’m pushing as hard as I can to get all of them to go.”

The band is one of only 10 marching bands selected to appear in the parade. It’s the second time that the band has been selected for the event. In 2005, the band made its first appearance in the nationally televised parade and also was invited to perform on NBC’s “Today Show” prior to the parade that year.

During the trip, the band is scheduled to perform on the USS Intrepid, a World War II aircraft carrier at the Intrepid Sea, Air and Space Museum.

Along the two-mile parade route, the band will perform Christmas, Cajun and zydeco tunes and plans to perform “Let the Good Times Roll” in Herald Square.

To make a donation, call Taylor at [phone] or visit http://tinyurl.com/ulbandtomacys-com.

Comments

1) Comment by Regina Thomas - 07/11/2012

The UL Band is made up of a wonderful group of hard working young people. This is a high honor and chartering a plane, though expensive, will make it a lot easier to get all of the students and all of the instruments and equipment where they need to be. Possibly , some things could have been done differently. I don't know because I didn't plan it. However, I don 't think at this point in time those wonderful young people need to be reading negative comments. They are almost there and we do not need to make them feel bad about what they are doing . Let's support their talent and the honor of being invited to march in the parade.

2) Comment by TommyRucker - 02/11/2012

These band members voted to character this jet along with this expensive surcharge and they are going to have to learn to be responsible for their choices (at least that is what we used to teach our kids, but maybe we are into bail outs and entitlements today at these universities). The lesson is you should not order something, like a trip, if you cannot pay for it and EVERYONE needs to follow thru on their commitments. Apparently many have been bailed out of similar situations in the past and are counting on someone with deep pockets to come thru again (sort of like China continues to bail out the united States). Eventually the 'donors' are worn out and then BLAMED for not giving the people who ordered these things their DUE.

3) Comment by TommyRucker - 02/11/2012

Maybe they need to talk to Tom Benson or one of the other two people who gave 30 million to Tulane to build a football stadium. They obviously have money to burn and this is a very very expensive trip. It seems that $300,000 could be put to better use. These trips are nice but this is just to expensive and will need some sort of rich sugar daddy like Tom Benson to come up with the money as he did for Tulane. Why are we spending this much money on such an activity when people in this state are going without medical are, etc. We have our priorities mixed up. Maybe they should have considered making a sacrifice and donating the money to charity, even $150,000 would have helped a lot of people in our state. These sort of things are nice if and when you can afford them and right now Louisiana nor the nation can really afford these sort of expensive trips. It would be interesting to see how much the 'cash starved' university of Louisiana is contributing to the cost of this trip as that was left out of the article. Bottom line-this is to expensive of a trip when the state is suffering financially. Maybe they can talk China into giving them a 'loan'.