Community raises funds to send Morgan Park HS marching band to competition at Mississippi college

CHICAGO (WLS) -- In just a couple of days, the Morgan Park High School marching band will travel to a battle of the bands at Jackson State University in Mississippi.

It is a trip that did not seem likely to happen because of a lack of funding. But parents and the community stepped up, and the band will not be sidelined from this competition.

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Drums and horns filled the air as the Morgan Park High School Band of Distinction fine-tuned their set list.

Band Director Everett Newchurch is preparing the students for stiff competition ahead of the trip. For him, it is a personal mission.

Newchurch is an alumnus of Jackson State and played trumpet in the marching band. He says he wants his students to experience being on a college campus.

"It is, for a lot of our students, the first time getting out of the city of Chicago, leaving the South Side, leaving the state," Newchurch said.

The band has played at venues across the city, but traveling to Mississippi comes with a hefty price tag, according to Carmen Holiday. Her daughter, Victoria, plays trombone in the band.

"Our goal is $50,000. There's travel, there's uniform maintenance, it's instrument maintenance," Holiday said.

Holiday and other band parents launched a fundraising campaign which, so far, has raised nearly $20,000. That meant the trip, which looked iffy at first, was on.

That's a relief for student Kamille O'Bryant.

"It would be a great experience for us to get to see how a college band operates," O'Bryant said.

Student Xion Wilson says he is looking forward to meeting members of the Jackson State Sonic Boom.

"I felt like if people were motivated enough to do it, we could eventually go. And now, I see that's true," Wilson said.

Holiday says it is true thanks to the kindness of people who donate to their fundraiser.

"It just reminds us that community is there. They are listening and they do care," Holiday said.

A total of 40 out of the band's 75 students are going to the competition. Newchurch hopes to afford to take them all next year.