I am looking for a couple of volunteers to help me with keeping the local area informed about how awesome our kids are. Let's face, the regular citizen basically knows nothing about what we do. Heck, many of them think that we do nothing after football season! 

The help I need is in writing press releases, posting pictures on social media, etc. 

If you are comfortable with writing blurbs for public consumption, please contact me directly at deanbarrow@theraiderband.com. I would like to get started asap. 

If the answer is no, then now is a great time to do it!  Please log in and to update student and adult details, interest areas, and check on how your doing on your donation goals!

Click here to be taken to the CHARMS info page. 

If you have a problem, email me directly.

db-

Well, school is about to start, and we are wrapping up one of our best band camps with our biggest band ever! The group only practiced 14 days this summer, and we are further along than usual. I believe it is going to be a great year!

I wanted to take a moment to remind everyone of a few things before this last week gets away from us. 

First, please check to make sure you have everything you need from the Member Necessities page. Things like gloves, lyres, khaki shorts, and band shoes take a while to arrive. You will need all of them the first week of school. 

Students should have their green books, dot books and black three-ring binders completed when they arrive on the first day of school. 

Everyone should make sure that they are familiar with our rehearsal and performance schedule for the fall. There are very few acceptable excuses for missing any event. Things like appointments, travel, student work, clubs, shopping trips, and vacations are not excused. The band uses the same attendance requirements as the school. Please make sure you are present and on time, for the whole time, every time the group meets. 

Make sure you are familiar with our fundraising goals and timeline. The band relies on us working as a team to fund this activity. There are plenty of opportunities for students to fundraise their contributions without parents ever having to pay anything personally. That is our goal. Please make sure you are actively participating in all fundraisers.

Speaking of fundraisers. Our second fundraiser will kick off the Monday when we return to school. We will have a fall BBQ plate sale. Our BBQ sales are always very successful for our students with many making several hundred dollars. This year, we are asking every student to sell at least 7 tickets. More information will be available next week. 

That is all for now, keep up the great work!

Thanks for a great summer. 

​db-

Did you know that the very best way to have all of the up to date info for the band is to subscribe to our official band calendar? That's right, you can all of the info you need about the band synced directly to your phone or other smart devices. That means no more relying on websites, emails, or even FaceBook! 

Of course, we make sure to keep those other resources up to date as well, but we've found it to be easier to have all of the information in your calendar. 

We also suggest that you download the FREE Google Calendar app. It's not the one that comes native on Android phones. It is a new standalone app that allows for more information to be packed into each calendar event. 

If you would like to add our band calendar, please visit our page here, to get full details and instructions.

Band picture proof viewing and band picture make-ups will be on August 20th., and 21st., from 4:00-8:00 p.m.

​

The Navarre Winterguard came in 5th place at circuit championships on Saturday capping off a great season under the leadership of Mr. Jesse Joseph, Mrs. Courtney Ford, and Mr. Michael Aylesworth. Earlier this season, the guard was bumped up a classification due to performing so strongly in their current class. They are also the 2018 WGI Regional A Champion. 

Congratulations to all of the members and staff on a fantastic season! A special thank you goes out to all of the parent volunteers who make their success possible. 

We will have a band parent meeting this Tuesday, April 10th. at 6 p.m. in the band hall. 

We will discuss in depth, the the following:

• This weeks BBQ Plate Sale.
• Parent involvement with Jazz Fest. 

We are in need of parents to help with the following this week at the BBQ Plate sale. 

• BBQ Cooks for Thursday overnight and all day Friday and Saturday.- It doesn't matter if you've never cooked before, we will teach you! Plus, it's fun!
• SIde Prep - We are hoping to sell 1,000 plates! That means 1,000 containers of potato salad and 1,000 containers of baked beans.
• Customer Service - We need help on Friday and Saturday from 10 a.m. - 6:00 p.m. to help prepare and pass out the plates. 

For Jazz Fest April, 18th. - 22nd., we are in need of parents to help run concessions as well as chaperone the students. 

If you are going to be involved in either event, please come to the meeting. I will do my best to keep it under one hour!

Thanks in advance,

​dean-

Parents,

We will have a band parent meeting on Tuesday, March 27th. from 6-7 P.m. in the band hall. The purpose of the meeting is to start planning for Jazz Festival, one of our largest fundraisers, and to discuss future fundraising events.

Please make plans to attend and be sure to bring your great ideas!

Thanks!

Members of the Navarre Winterguard are well into their 2018 season, and all of their hard work is beginning to pay off. At their first show of the competitive season, which started the last weekend of January, the guard came in third place. Since then, they have steadily improved their score each week and were named Scholastic Regional "A" Champions at the WGI Pensacola Regional held this weekend. 

Members of the Winterguard begin rehearsals the first week of November each year, the competitive season runs from late January through early April. 

The guard is under the direction of Mr. Jesse Joseph and Mrs. Courtney Ford. Both Jesse and Courtney are Navarre Alums. 

Congratulations Everyone!

​Raider Band Family,

For most of our members, and probably many of our adults, Friday night's bus fire was one of the scariest events of their lives. Thankfully, we are all safe and here to talk about it. 

I cannot begin to tell you how proud I am of everyone who was on the bus. When I asked you to evacuate, you did in a calm, and professional manner. Our parents and staff did a fantastic job of guiding you to safety. Those two elements, in my opinion, are the primary contributing factors that gave us our happy ending to what could have easily been a tragedy. 

Today, we are not mourning the loss of our friends and bandmates. We are only wondering how we are going to replace "things." At this point, I do not have any information on this subject and may not for a couple of weeks. As you know, we are on break, and it will be hard to get in contact with those who will help us resolve this issue. 

I do plan on going to see the bus next week to take inventory and calculate our losses. I will let you know what I find, and I will pass that information on to the administration as well. Several people have reached out to me with questions about recovering personal property. From what I saw on Friday night while standing inside the bus after the fire was extinguished, everything inside the bus was a total loss. While the pictures on social media and news reports look as though the front of the bus was not that badly affected by the blaze, the inside was, in fact, destroyed. Even if the fire didn't completely consume all of the items, they were heavily damaged by smoke, water, and the chemicals used to extinguish the flames. 

I know too that our community is very eager to help us replace our losses. Some have begun to set up independent fundraising accounts, like GoFundMe, etc. I would ask that we not launch such drives at this point or at least pause those activities if you have already started one. Currently, we do not know who is responsible for replacing the equipment and may not for some time. Ultimately, it will be the charter company, the school district or the band. But, until we know, I do not want to collect any funds as it could be misconstrued as fundraising in bad faith. Also, if I decide to launch a fundraiser, I would prefer it be sponsored by our boosters. While I know there are people eager to help us, there would be no reason to pull funds from our community that could go to more needing organizations or individuals. I want to make sure that we indeed need a fundraiser before asking for help.

Thank you for following my direction in this matter.

Lastly, let's not forget how fortunate we are and how much we should be thankful. I hope you enjoy your Thanksgiving break. I plan on turning off my phone, logging out of social media and enjoying time with my wife, kids, and grandbabies. 

Talk to you when we return to school!

Sincerely,

Dean Barrow, Band Director
The Navarre Raider Band