In a suburban Coastal community on the Mississippi Gulf Coast, over 425 students participate in a thriving band program! An artistic community, Ocean Springs does all it can to support the arts and bring cultural opportunities to the area! Ranging from grades 6-8th, these students are spread across both an upper elementary and a middle school, and finally get to meet all together once they reach the high school level. Our entire band program (6-12th grade) is made up of around 700 students!!
Our band students have consistently earned "All-Superior" ratings at festivals, take private lessons weekly with instructors from around the area, and go on to rank in our All-State Bands (both middle and high school level) each year!
These kids work hard with the resources they are given and accomplish great things regardless of the large class sizes ranging from 50-90 per class! Not only do they excel in music, but they also shine in their classes and other extra-curricular activities like football, dance, theater, and cheer! Ocean Springs is full of talented individuals, and our band program is certainly evidence of people with a lot of artistic spirit!
My Project
Back in 2012, the OSSD moved the 6th grade into an Upper Elementary, splitting our band program across district to make for a total of three separate programs. Since then, we've been constantly working to make sure each school has the proper equipment to make band happen - from ordering metronomes for each class, dividing a limited instrument inventory across two schools, and making sure we have enough chairs to accommodate over 700 students 6-12th grade. For now we're trying to add a few more metronomes, sound-proofing materials for our classrooms, and a class set of advanced method books for our thriving musicians!
We need your support to help get basic supplies like sound-proofing materials, metronomes, and textbooks into our classrooms!
We are busting at the seams with students in both the UE and the MS band programs, and we need all the help make sure these students get the support they need! Most of our rehearsal spaces are basic classrooms - no soundproofing what-so-ever! You can imagine, it gets pretty loud. The rest of our project is basic supplies for our bands as they advance and show need to expand into more rehearsal spaces to accommodate the large class sizes!
Your support is greatly appreciated by over 400 students and their families who make Ocean Springs Bands ROCK!
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