GREEN BAY (NBC26) — Bay Port High School Band uniforms are outdated and many are falling apart. The band hopes to raise enough money to replace them.
- The band needs to raise $120,000, and they launched a fundraising campaign at the end of last school year.
- You can donate here, or by reaching out to the district.
- The old uniforms are difficult to clean, and there are not enough sizes to fit all of the students.
Every year, Bay Port High School band director, Ashley Siegrist, faces the same dilemma– how to make the band's 20-year-old uniforms work for another year.
“At this point, we don’t have enough uniforms to fit every body type," she said. "This year we had to modify over 15 uniforms. So what we’ve done is we’ve had to actually add in fabric from old pants, to expand the size of the jackets.”
Siegrist says the band program is growing, and they're running low on functional uniforms.
“There’s a few of them where the shoulder pads in here have fully disintegrated into just a powder, so sometimes the kids will take the jackets off and they’ll wonder why they have dust on their shoulders," she said.
Siegrist co-runs the band program with her husband, Kyle Siegrist.
She says while the uniforms have been useful and appreciated the past 20 years, they are outdated and don't match the quality of their competitors at band competitions.
WATCH THE STORY HERE:
Junior trombone player, Jordyn Jacques, says they take pride in the uniform but still notice that the style is outdated.
“There are some wear and tear and they’re slowly fading," Jacques said.
Junior flute and mellophone player, Jason Davis, agrees.
"They are nice, and it feels really great to have the plume on them, but they definitely have aged a lot," Davis said.
So, last year, Siegrist and her husband designed a new uniform
“The new uniforms are going to last and look really sharp for a long time," Siegrist said. “It needs to be comfortable, it needs to make them feel proud, and it needs to be something they’re excited to wear.”
They have one sample uniform of the new design, which they hang on a mannequin in the band room.
The students say they're excited with how it turned out.
"I think they look really cool," Owen Strehlow, a junior trombone player, said.
"They look so good, I'm really excited," Olivia Schiller, a sophomore trombone player, said. "I feel like it looks more professional too."
To afford the new uniforms, the band launched a community fundraising campaign at the end of last school year. They need to raise $120,000 for the uniforms.
“These uniforms are kind of like our classroom supplies," Siegrist said. “If anyone is feeling the urge to give, we’re certainly very grateful for that.”
While it’s a big investment, Siegrist hopes people see that it’s much more than just a uniform.
"Those kids, when they put the uniform on, that really means something, and they feel really important and special and like they’re a part of something," she said. "We are a huge part of our school community environment. We build school spirit.... There’s a lot of symbolism in the uniform, both on a student level, on a school level and on a community level.”
You can donate to the fundraising campaign here, or by reaching out to the district.
