“It’s like repairing a car over and over again.”
About 70 musicians, drill team members and majorette dancers make up the full marching band, which performs in at least 20 events per year — and is “constantly” being asked to perform more, according to band director and East High School alumni Siedia Woods.
But replacing uniforms and outdated equipment is also a constant expense. Woods, a former band student, recalls wearing uniforms with “holes in our pants.” Some of the instruments “have been there since I was a freshman in high school,” said Woods, 41.
While the district has provided the school with new uniforms and refurbished instruments in the past, “the district could only do so much,” Woods said, and the band needs a set of new instruments.
“You could only keep repairing the same instrument so many times,” Woods said. “It’s like repairing a car over and over again.”
Antoine Monroe, the band’s assistant director for eight years, attended the school from 2002 to 2005 and played the tuba in the band; he said current students play many of the same instruments from over 20 years ago. Wear and tear from playing can affect an instrument’s pitch, which impacts how the band sounds while playing in unison. This year alone, Woods said she has spent $5,000 of her own money to purchase new instruments, buy new uniforms and pay for miscellaneous expenses such as gas to transport students and water to keep them hydrated.
“I just want my students to have a quality experience and to know that somebody would go above and beyond to make sure that they’re successful,” Woods said. “That they look good, they sound good, they feel good about themselves and that they’re moving on to another level.”
A new sousaphone can cost anywhere from $6,000 to $16,000, Woods said, and the school would need more than $100,000 to replace all the old instruments along with mouthpieces, reeds, drum heads and other items that constantly have to be…
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