Less than three months away from their departure to London, the Panther Marching Band achieved another goal in their fundraiser agenda, collecting $7,500 from a crowdsourcing website.
After their most recent fundraising goal had been met, 178 members of the band raised a grand total of approximately $9,000, not including family and friend donations.
The current balance will go towards offsetting the cost for band members by helping pay for transportation, shipping the instruments and uniforms and dry cleaning the uniforms once their week-long trip is over to start next year.
PMB will be in London Dec. 28 until Jan. 4 to perform New Year’s day parade, which will be televised to over 300 million people worldwide.
The PMB was hand-selected by the committee of the London New Year’s Day Parade earlier this year.
“They try to identify bands of a certain quality,” said Professor Danny Galyen, director of PMB. “We were recognized for our high quality and our high achievement level.”
The students going to London still have to pay the $3,100 bill each to participate but fundraising efforts will continue.
Only after all the payments have been collected do the students receive reimbursement for their efforts.
The PMB will hold their first indoor concert on Nov. 17. The hour-long concert will include all of their half-time and pre-game shows for the season. Tickets are $12 with $10 going directly towards the members’ expenses.
Alanna Verner, a second year member of the band and a sophomore real estate and finance major, along with other members in charge of fundraising activities said it was difficult to get people to start donating towards their cause.
“It was hard to get people on board, we had to say ‘hey this band from Iowa is going to London, want to help us go?’” Verner said.
In addition to the parade, PMB students will have the opportunity to visit other parts of England such as Stonehenge and the London Eye.
They will take walking tours of London and have time to explore on their own.
“Just being able to spend New Year’s in London with all of my closest friends is just so exciting,” Verner said.
PMB members are excited about their trip and the memories that they will create.
“The PMB is just a giant family,” Victoria Chargo, senior music education major said. “Just being able to spend New Year’s with them is going to be fun, it will be a great time to be with the PMB.”
