WELCOME! To all of our new freshman band members, Centralettes and their parents, as well as a Welcome Back to all our returning member of the Tribe of Pride, Centralettes & Band Boosters. We are happy to have you join us this year and are looking forward to a spectacular and very exciting marching season.
Those of you who are sending in your Fiesta Bowl trip payments, please continue to do so. All payments due ($100.00 per month minimum) on or before the 20th of each month. You should have a minimum of $500.00 paid into your account. If you do not have that much paid, please bring your account up-to-date by June 30th. Mr. Cook has to make progress payments to the Fiesta Bowl in order to maintain our accounts. Those of you who have not been paying on your account are putting him in a bind as there is nowhere to obtain these funds except from the payments being made by the students. Don’t forget, $165.00 of this money is now due to pay for Band Camp which is only a little over a month away. Band Camp Is Mandatory for the marching band and must be paid in full before your student(s) can attend. Final payment are due by mid-November for the Fiesta Bowl. If you have any question concerning the trip please contact Mr. Cook.
The "Pit ? Construction Crew" is already busy and hard at work on this year’s field show. They are in need of extra helping hands both male and female, and whether you are handy with either a hammer, paint brush, or just a broom your help would be greatly appreciated. Please contact Mike Ziemkewicz 322-4843 or Steve Hodges 736-7742.
There is also a need for help sewing this years flags and costumes, as well as covers for many of the percussion instruments. If you can help, please contact Bonnie Wells at 365-5186. If you can’t sew, they still need help pinning and cutting out the fabrics, ironing, etc.
We need coordinators who can line up workers for the Concession stand for the home games and someone to be in charge of lining up the chaperones for the marching season trips. Anyone interested contact Joanne Nordin at 322-8941.
Anyone interested in helping chaperone for the parades next week, please call Joanne Nordin at 322-8941.
We will be having 2 car washes as fund raisers on July 12th at Jiffy Lube on 41 in Schererville, and Walt’s Foods on Sheffield in Dyer. The other will be on July 26th at Fazolli’s and the other location to be announced . Bring all your vehicles out to have them washed and support our kids.
Don’t forget the MANDATORY BAND CAMP MEETING FOR ALL PARENTS AND STUDENTS ON WEDNESDAY, JULY 30TH. Instructions and details for band camp are discussed at this meeting. The CAR RAFFLE drawing will also be held at the end of the meeting.
Be sure to come out to all the parades and cheer for our kids. See the calendar for schedules, and check the itinerary the kids bring home. YES, THEY DO GET ONE!!!
After the Dyer Parade on Sunday, June 29th there will be a picnic for all band kids and families from 3:00 p.m. to 6:00 p.m. at Redar Park in Schererville. The Boosters supply the burgers, dogs, buns, condiments and pop. Bring your own plates cups, and silverware. Sign-up sheets are being sent home with the students. Bring a dish and /or dessert to share with the group. Bring bats & balls, lawn chairs and enjoy a day with the family.
We will also have a booth at Pheasant Hills Park on the 29th and will be selling Raffle Tickets. If you can help out for an hour or so that day contact Judy Schweikert at 865-3945.
Speaking of the Raffle. Everyone should have received their packet of 10 tickets to sell for this very important fund raiser. We have lowered the price of the tickets this years per your feedback from last years raffle. This should make the tickets easier to sell, but we need to sell more tickets to cover the cost of the prizes and then to make a profit. The Prizes this Year are: · 1st Prize - 1997 Pontiac Grand Am · 2nd Prize - 4day trip to Las Vegas · 3rd Prize - 27" Color TV These prizes should help us sell more tickets, as there is something that appeals to most everyone.
If you need more tickets to sell, contact Joe Putigna at 322-8249, Ted Piekarz 322-5001, or any of the Booster Officers.
Anyone wishing to help with uniforms contact Laura Hodges at 736-7742 or Shirley Nelson at 322-4843.
Here is the Web site address for those of you who are on line. You will be able to find the Booster information as well as the itineraries for the band while they are in Phoenix. For the next week or so they will be doing some reconstructing of the activities as far as the order of each event. The thing that are on the itinerary will still be part of the package just on different days. Everything must be typed in small case with no spaces in between. The web address is:
After typing this in, explore from there. When you go to the BANDS of the Fiesta Bowl, you will find Lake Central. After clicking on Lake Central you must type in the Band password. Again in lower case with no spaces, the password is:
lakepcj
The High School already has a Web page, and we would be interested in how many families have the internet at home and would be interested in receiving Band information and possibly your newsletter via the internet. Let us know.
Many of you wonder just what we are always raising money for and why we have all of those "fund raisers". First of all, the budget for this year is a hefty $88,500. Much of this money goes for the show we put on during the marching season. Entry fees for all of the competitions takes a big chuck of money, along with transporting our huge semi-trailer and cargo van which hauls all of our instruments, uniform racks, props and scenery used in the field show, flags, rifle and saber boxes, music stands, and large pit / percussion instruments and whatever else we need at the shows. We are fortunate to have Carlos Ruiz who uses his truck to haul the semi-trailer for the cost of fuel and truck expenses. Other expenses include underwriting the cost of the staff (graduates) who help Mr. Cook, Mr. Dallas, and Mr. Mathis with each of the sections and teaches our students to march, play, dance, and whatever is choreographed for our show. The staff work for us, go to band camp and spend every evening working with the band during the summer. We use the money to put on a "Homecoming" dance just for the band kids as we are away at a competition for the regular homecoming dance. We have a banquet in the fall which is partially underwritten by the Boosters, and another one in the spring, where awards are presented to students as well scholarships given to graduating seniors. There are many other little things that take a great deal of money and we hope you will back us and help with all of the fund raisers during the coming year. These fund raisers benefit all of students and we need to support them.
Parents, please encourage your students to participate in the fund raisers which put money into their accounts. These funds can not only help them pay for the Fiesta Bowl trip, but others things thru out the year. One Centralette sold enough Discount Cards to fund the whole cost of her trip, and has a $600 credit. So it can be done with a little effort, and help you and your family’s budget too.
We are in the process of purchasing software will allow the Booster, Mr. Cook, Mr. Dallas, and Mr. Mathis get a message to you concerning upcoming events or information normally handled by the telephone tree. This was not always dependable and many messages never were received. Our new software will continue calling until it gets a human voice or an answering machine and deliver a pre-recorded message. We still will have to make some phone calls for some things but this will save our group many man-hours. So watch, or shall I say, LISTEN for our new message service in the near future.
Dan Dillon is still collecting the Corporate Donations questionnaire. Forms are available in the band room. For more information call Dan at 365-2532.
Orders for Hats, Jackets, T-shirts, & Sweatshirts for parents and families at the Mandatory Band Camp Meeting. Be sure to place your order that night to ensure delivery by our first competition. Details will be given that night. (July 30th).
Your new Band Booster officers for 1997-98 are: * President: Brian Johnson * 322-4959 * Vice Pres.: Shirley Niebling * 864-0458 * Vice Pres.: Joanne Nordin * 322-8941 * Treasurer: Denise Miloshoff * 791-9211 * Secretary: Judy Schweikert * 865-3945
Market Day forms were enclosed with your Raffle tickets. We are one of the few groups having ordering during the summer. The products are excellent for your cookouts and easy summer meals. If every one would order at least one item a month, we could eliminate one of our smaller less productive fund raisers. Give it a try, you will not only be helping out the band but enjoying some great food too…
From the Desk of Mr. Cook: We are off to a great start this summer with the 1997-98 version of the "Tribe of Pride." I hope that the new parents and students are not finding this to be too overwhelming. Please don’t hesitate to contact the band office with any questions you might have.
Plans are moving ahead for band camp and the Fiesta Bowl Trip. Any new information will be given to you at the MANDATORY BAND CAMP MEETING ON JULY 30TH AT 8:30 P.M.
Just a reminder that we are trying to give the band members as many opportunities as possible to raise money for their individual accounts. It is also imperative that the parents continue to do the booster fund raisers to enable the band and guard to maintain ins winning ways. If every family would participate in the fund raising, a smaller group of people wouldn’t have the burden of raising such a large amount of money and running into "booster burn out."
We look forward to seeing everyone at the upcoming parades throughout the community. Remember that if anyone has any questions about anything, band or guard related, call 365-8551 extension 278.
From the Desk of Kevin Mathis: The Centralettes just recently completed three days of summer dance camp at Lack Central from June 16-18. All members of the team reported for the optional 8 a.m. - 5 p.m. dance camp taught by six staff members of the Universal Dance Association. I was especially pleased with the outcome of this week. Last year only eight girls got the opportunity to go away to Northern Illinois University for summer dance camp. Because we were able to host a camp at LC, all fifty of the girls were able to benefit from the dance camp experience. After rehearsing the 8 a.m. - 5 p.m. shift all the rookies reported to the even marching band rehearsals from 6 p.m. - 9 p.m. Like years in the past, the veterans were excused from the fist week of marching rehearsals. This allows the guard staff the opportunity to better prepare the rookies while preceding at a pace which supports their developing needs.
With 35 returning and 15 rookies I feel the
Centralettes are well balanced as we prepare for the 1997-98 campaign.
The year’s team is more mature and is physically stronger than in years
past. It is my hope that these characteristics will transfer into a faster
developing team. This yea’s design staff will be down from our customary
2-3 contributing artists. Mike Blade will be returning as our weapon designer
and will be assisted by technical assistants Kristen Wisniewski on rifle
and Nicole Krucina on saber. Nicole and Kristen are past commanding officers
and Mike worked with the marching band and winter color guard last year.
With a line of 10 guns, 10 sabers and 30 flags (sorry, no kites) we will
once again be at full strength. Good luck to all members of the "Tribe"
in the 1997 marching band campaign. *