(Clarinda) – The Pride of Clarinda High School Marching Band may sport a new look this fall.
At its regular meeting Wednesday night, the Clarinda School Board approved funding for half the cost of new uniforms for the high school marching band. During her band report, high school instrumental instructor Courtney Ridge says the current uniforms have started to show their age.
“Typically, uniforms last about 10 to 12 years, and these last uniforms were purchased in 2006, so we’re going over 16 years, and we’ve done a really good job of maintaining them,” Ridge explained. “But at some point after all the changes, like the sleeves, you can’t change them anymore. Like this year, for some reason we had very long kids and we had a lot of visible cuffs because we had them modified for So many years.”
As with the band’s previous uniform purchase, Ridge informed the council that he would be charging half the cost of purchasing 100 new uniforms. But, she adds, they explored more options on which company to use.
“We met with two companies, DeMoulin and Stanbury,” Ridge said. “DeMoulin is the person we’ve bought uniforms from in the past and that was the first quote that was included, and Stanbury is just to get another idea, another supplier we met new for this time.”
Elizabeth Davison, representing the Clarinda Band Boosters, said her band would pay the other half of the approximately $50,000 cost through DeMoulin. Davison says she’s heard a lot of excitement from her daughter and other band members about the potential of the new uniforms.
“As a parent, you know, I love seeing kids excited about the band, just like Xavier (DeGroot) said, those kids are excited,” Davison said. “You know Addison (Moore) comes home all the time ‘oh my god, did you get to see the pics at the band recall meeting’, ‘Yeah I did, you know, you like, you are going to be the ones who wear them not me. But those are the things that turn us on, so when we ask for half, we would ask for it graciously.”
Ridge says the design process for the new uniforms was a collaboration between instructors, students and boosters. Xavier DeGroot, a student in the design group, says he hopes the new uniforms can help the group look as good as they sound.
“Our voice is heard at home football games on Friday nights, at the Clarinda Band Jamboree, at homecomings and at festivals throughout the fall,” DeGroot said. “I can vouch for the excitement of my friends and I. Since the samples arrived, we’ve flocked to Ms Ridge’s office to give our opinion and have heard many elders say they were disappointed not to be able to wear the new uniforms.”
Ridge says they plan to have the new uniforms in time for the 2022 fall marching band season.
In other cases, the board of directors…
–Approved the hiring of Melissa Crooks as a para-professional ages 7-12 effective April 2022
–Approved a Memorandum of Understanding with Morningside University
–Approved a donation to the Clarinda Youth Corporation Stopwatch
–Approved purchase of additional weights and equipment for $10,000 plus shipping from Pure Fitness Innovation
–Approved a 28E agreement with the City of Clarinda
–Approved an updated return to learning plan
–Approved the Class of 1970 using a school district bus and bus driver for a tour of Clarinda
