Please take a moment to read this message carefully, as your input is important. Last year, we asked you to weigh in on a new fundraiser. The survey participation rate was high, and support for adding this new fundraiser was strong. Thanks to your support, we operated our first Dewey’s Holiday Store in 2019 with great success.

As a result of Covid-19, this year looks very different. The band’s biggest fundraisers typically rely on large crowds and events (State Fair Parking, PNC, PARCC, NCFC). This year, we must rely more heavily on our sales fundraisers to keep the band running and ready for full operation. While many expenses have been temporarily been put on hold (band camp and show expenses, bus rental and competition fees), other operational expenses like insurance on our semi and upkeep of instruments are incurred regardless of our activities and income sources. These ongoing expenses are covered by our General Fund, but without our usual fundraisers the General Fund has no source of revenue.

Last year, we shared with you our FUNDRAISING PHILOSOPHY: The best fundraisers are those which put money in both individual accounts and the general fund. Keeping a healthy general fund keeps EVERYONE’s expenses lower, and offering fundraisers that help individual accounts allows families to offset their personal expense even more. We are also tasked with balancing the availability of these fundraisers with time, interest and support for them from band families. Put simply, it doesn’t matter what potential a fundraiser may have if we don’t have the support to run it.

The Dewey’s Holiday Store provides a great balance of individual account and General Fund revenue and is the most profitable of all our “sales” fundraisers. It is perhaps our most important fundraiser for this unusual year.

The attached survey briefly explains how this year’s store would operate and then asks about your family’s level of interest in participating. We need each and every family to participate in the survey EVEN IF YOU HAVE NO INTEREST, so that we may get an accurate reflection of overall interest and ability of our band families to participate. Please complete only one survey per household. This information is essential in guiding our operational plans for this year’s store.

Answering this survey DOES NOT commit you to work a certain number of shifts. However, we will use this information to guide store operation for this year. This fundraiser relies on a great deal of people power, and the level of support from our families will influence its success.

Please click here: https://form.jotform.com/202516719854966 to complete the survey. We ask that you please complete the survey by Sunday, September 20th.

Thanks so much for your input and opinions and for your continued support of the Athens Drive Band Program!

Dewey’s Committee
deweys@athensdriveband.com