Saturday, Jan. 21, 2012

Schools win sweet reward

Pepsi grants will provide funding

Rubber bands hold instruments together at Leesville Road High School in Raleigh.

Fees for winter guard at Broughton High School in Raleigh range from $300 to $500 per student.

At Baucom Elementary School in Apex, 960 students must share two playgrounds.

Faced with budget cuts, these schools have turned to alternative funding to pay for programs: the Pepsi Refresh Project.

By forming an alliance, the schools secured $5,000 to $25,000 each to help fund new band equipment and a state-of-the art playground.

Four Wake schools, including Panther Creek High School in Cary, are finalists for Pepsi Refresh Project grants and will be officially named winners Monday, pending application verification by the company.

The schools’ parent teacher groups and booster clubs applied for the grants and then ramped up the advertising.

They made YouTube videos, handed out fliers, fired off email blasts, opened Facebook pages, sent text alerts and exhorted friends and family by old-fashioned word-of-mouth to get votes in the competitive grant process.

Each school community supported the others in the campaign for votes.

Voters were allowed five votes per day, but only one vote per project, so it helped to have friends.

Welcome grant

The chipped drums, scratched saxophones and antique-looking trumpets were featured in Leesville Road’s YouTube video submission for the $25,000 grant to replace their aged equipment.

The student-produced video generated about 1,775 hits. Panther Creek High School also submitted YouTube videos and won $25,000.

Leesville Road’s equipment dates to 1993, said Lisa Wetzel, vice-president for fundraising for the band’s booster club.

The band gets about $4,000 a year from the school. The club raises about $150,000 annually to pay for trips and uniforms through concession sales and fundraisers, she said.

Until the boosters heard about the Pepsi grant, there were no plans to replace the equipment.

About $50,000 worth of equipment needs to be replaced, she said.

The $25,000 will help buy six new cornets and percussion instruments, Wetzel said.

“We’re excited,” she said. “This is the easiest money that’s been raised to date.”

More opportunity

Broughton High School is set to receive $5,000 for new winter guard uniforms and a choreographer, said band director J.R. Richardson.

The $5,000 will help defray the student fees, which cost $300 to $500 and include uniforms, equipment and traveling costs.

With the grant, the fee will drop to $100 per student, Richardson said.

“That’s major. We never want to see a kid say ‘I can’t join because I can’t afford it,’ ” he said. “This will give them a chance to participate and build awareness about the program.”

The high school is also a past recipient of a Pepsi Refresh grant. In September, the school won $25,000 to help the marching band travel to the Tournament of the Roses in Pasadena, Calif.

“You see budget cuts all the time,” Richardson said. “Band programs don’t get the same funding as other programs.”

Leesville Road High School supported Broughton in their September bid, and this time around Broughton High School made sure to return the favor.