Hey Band! (and Parents!)

I hope you are enjoying your last few days of summer. The Directors have another fantastic marching show planned for this year and I know everyone is ready to get started. I realize we haven’t had competition in a while due to the pandemic, but the Cougar Band & Guard went almost UNDEFEATED in 2019, and this year’s show will be even bigger and better.

We are blessed to live in CSISD, which is very supportive of the Fine Arts. However, like other high school bands who compete at the top levels of marching band competition, we rely on additional fund-raising to put on the type of show that wins contests. Every year the Cougar Band & Guard has been in existence, the bar has been raised. In 2019 they were undefeated at competition, with the exception of Area, including first place finishes against some tough competition at the Blinn Marching Festival and Waller Marching Festival. This year, the competition will be even higher as we compete against the best 5A bands in the state to earn a trip to State Marching Contest! But we can’t do it without the support of our families, friends, and fans. Between our corporate donations and March-A-Thon, we need to raise approximately $50,000 to fund the marching show, props, travel, meals and everything else that goes into transporting 220 kids to approximately 18 performances this year.

At band registration night on Thursday July 22nd or Friday July 23rd, one of your stops was at the March-A-Thon table.  Hopefully you remember that this is our ONE AND ONLY fundraiser, so we ask everyone to participate in one way or another. This will be our fifth annual March-A-Thon and it is the easiest and most profitable fundraiser we have ever done. Unlike fundraisers where donors often are buying things they really don’t want or need and the band receives a fraction of the cost of the items, with March-A-Thon between 93-100% of donations go directly to benefit the Cougar Band & Guard.

We partner with Fund-Team.com to facilitate our donation campaign. They use PayPal to process donations and all the latest website security to ensure all information is strictly confidential. (If you have any questions about Fund-Team, visit Fund-Team.com and view the FAQ. It includes a link to a sample email and sample campaign donation page.)

We receive March-A-Thon donations in one of two ways:

1) Your student will have his or her own personal fund-raising website that they will set up during one of the first days of summer band. We ask each student to bring as many good email addresses as possible (hopefully at least 20) that they can enter into the Fund-Team system, and the system will send emails to those potential donors from your student. (Relatives, friends, neighbors, business associates are all great prospects.) Good news — if your student participated in March-A-Thon last year, they can log into their existing Fund-Team account and last year’s email addresses will be pre-loaded. They can simply edit the list, add any new addresses, and hit send! New students will have a little more work to do, but adults will be standing by to assist.

2) Fund-Team collects a 5% administrative fee for hosting the site, and PayPal charges a 2.2% fee to process the payment. If you prefer, you and/or any friends and family can bypass the Fund-Team system and write a check directly to “CSCBB”. If you choose this option, 100% of the funds will go directly to the Cougar Band & Guard. Some families choose option #1 only, some option #2 only, and many do both. Participation is not mandatory, but we hope every family that is able to participate will participate in some way. We will have informational packets for you at registration and be happy to answer any questions you may have. Here is a brief outline of the March-A-Thon 2021 timeline for you so you can mark your calendars.

**NOW** Please work on your list of at least 20 good email addresses and, band & guard members, be prepared to bring them to summer band on Wednesday, August 4th.

— Wednesday August 4th — Students will create their Fund-Team accounts (or log into their existing accounts), set up their campaign website and enter their prospect email addresses into the system.

— Thursday August 7th — The campaign will begin and prospects will receive their first email.

— Saturday August 7th, 8:30 — 10:30am — March-A-Thon performance. This year we will be doing a public performance at HEB Tower Point! Attendees will be able to request a mini-concert on the spot, and for a nominal donation the band will play requests from a selection of stand tunes, the Cougar Fight song, or the Aggie War Hymn.

— Saturday August 7th, 12:00pm — Hot Dog Howdy back at CSHS. After an exclusive preview of some of the 2021 Marching Show music, we’ll gather in the cafeteria for some lunch and fellowship. This will be a great time to get to know other band parents and members of the Band & Guard Boosters.

— Wednesday September 6th — Fund-Team campaign will close.

We held our first March-A-Thon in 2017, and we raised $25,000. In 2018 and 2019 ,we upped that to $30,000. Now that we are back to fully attended performances, our 2021 goal will be $35,000.  Please help us have a successful 2021 March-A-Thon! We look forward to seeing you at March-a-Thon and Hot Dog Howdy! As always, we appreciate your tremendous support of the Cougar Band & Guard. Feel free to reach out to me or anyone on the board with any questions or concerns.

Thanks!

Anthony Gutierrez, Fund-Raising Chair

Cougar Band & Guard Boosters fundraising@cshsbandandguard.com