A Tale of a Middle School Band

   Recently, I interviewed Mr. Engle, the music teacher and band director, and asked him a few questions about the band, their fundraiser, and their performance at Dorney Park.

    I asked Mr. Engle what other performances the band does during the year. He told me that they do a Veterans Day performance, which is just seventh and eighth grade, the Winter concert, their Spring Concert, and the Dorney Park performance. I asked Mr. Engle how the audience reacted to the Dorney Park performance and he told me that there really wasn’t an audience at the performance, instead there was a group a judges and they had gotten the second to highest rating on their performance last year. I even asked what the greatest performance the band has ever given. He told me that their greatest performance they have ever given was their Dorney Park performance they had last year.

   Other question I asked was what brought the idea for the fundraiser that the band is having. He told me that the fundraiser was a tradition and that they have always done it. The fundraiser helps make money for the Dorney Park trip. After learning about the fundraiser, I also learned that when you sell items, you can win prizes.If you sell fifty items, you can get put in a raffle to win Beats Headphones. You also get a scratch ticket with twenty-four little squares and you scratch off six of the boxes and if you find the six keys you can win ten-thousand dollars.There are also other prizes like shoe keychains with money in them. It could be one dollar, two, three, ten, twenty, fifty, or even one-hundred dollars. You might even get a picture of Benjamin Franklin handed to you; also known by one-hundred dollars. They have many other prizes that would be amazing to win.  I asked Mr. Engle what the greatest prize was, he told me that he believes the greatest prize was forty or fifty dollars.

    A local sixth grader, Alexandra Feliciano, says that if she won the ten-thousand dollar prize, she would first give half of her money to her family that is struggling with money and keep the other half for her college. She plays the clarinet in the H.M.S.

     The last question I asked Mr. Engle what his most memorable memory was at Dorney Park. He told me that his most memorable memory was when he was riding a roller coaster with some band students two years ago.

    There are a lot of things going on with the band; their performances, and their fundraiser. Make sure you support your Hammonton Middle School Band.