Saturday, April 20, 2024
GHS Band Booster officers, from left: Samantha Coppersmith, Susie Keeney, Shelia Stacher, Debra Smith, Teresa Johnson, Karie Bartlett, Mike Stacher and Amanda Branham. A fit basket with goodies will be awarded to a random lucky booster volunteer. Photo by Steve Pettit
Moving bulky and heavy equipment on and off the football playing field is one of the tasks Hornet Band Boosters tackle at home games. Photo by Steve Pettit
Teresa Johnson, GHS Band Boosters vice-president, distributes paperwork at the organization’s regular meeting. Photo by Steve Pettit
Mike Stacher and daughter Mackenzie, a GHS clarinetist, prepare cheese and chili in at the concession stand in preparation for a busy, food-filled home game at McKamie Stadium. Photo by Steve Pettit
Mackenzie Stacher readies the popcorn machine, a task she mastered as a12-year-old. Photo by Steve Pettit.
Teresa Johnson, attired in official yellow and black, busily arranges chairs in the cavernous Gatesville High School band hall. It’s 5:45 p.m. on a weekday and she’s collated paperwork, called to check up on her volunteer minions and assembled a wicker gift basket. For her, it’s just another meeting of the GHS Band Boosters.
“I’m not above bribery,” she said with a laugh, explaining that the gift basket, replete with swag, will be given to a lucky booster volunteer at the 6 p.m. meeting. Johnson is a vice president of the nonprofit organization and has become uber-creative in devising incentives that encourage member participation, especially regular attendance to meetings.
Walking briskly across the empty hall, she talked about her years with the booster club.
“I’m now on my third child, Eason, who’s a percussionist, to go through the GHS band. My daughter was the first and that was in 2011.”
As band parents arrive and take their seats, the other officers point out some of the organization’s activities. Students interested in private lessons on their instrument get 50% of lesson costs paid for by the boosters. College scholarships are offered, Johnson noted. “There are 5 different scholarships,” she said. “A committee reviews the applicants, and scores each using a point system.”
Student musicians who apply also must exhibit diligence to their instrument and be active in community service, among other requirements.
GHS Band boosters have a long record of financial service to the band. Fundraisers include a scented candle sale scheduled to start around mid-October, and a mattress sale early in 2023. “That’ll have mattresses of all sizes,” Johnson noted. “Basically, this huge room (the band hall) is turned into a mattress showroom.” All revenue from the sales is designated for use by the band program only, and she emphasized that the biggest money generator comes from sales at the concession stand.
Every four years the Hornet Band embarks on “a major trip” — an expensive and ambitious undertaking that ensures each band member will have a memorable travel experience. COVID-19 forced cancellation of last year’s excursion. Students and parents are eager to journey to Orlando, Florida for a visit to Disneyworld in 2023. Students pay their way with the help of various fundraisers, Johnson said, “and the boosters cover the cost of charter buses.”
A pre-game visit to the McKamie Stadium concession stand finds booster vice president Mike Stacher readying the facility for the evening game.
“One of the biggest parts of setting up is to get the cheese going,” he said as he carefully pours the heated product into stainless steel warming pans. The two flavors of cheese take 60-90 minutes to reach serving temperature and that’s important, Stacher remarked. “Our biggest sellers are nachos,” he said — and he was not kidding.
On a Friday night the boosters will use up to 16 cans, each containing 107 fluid ounces, of the cheese to satisfy hungry fans. That’s in addition to 40 gallons of tea, plus the ever-popular sausage wraps that regularly sell out.
Stacher, his wife Shelia and their daughter Mackenzie, a GHS Band clarinetist, pitch in to help the 20-plus boosters it takes to run the concession stand. Other boosters assist with moving large equipment for the halftime show. Oversize percussion instruments, public address system gear, steel stands for the drum majors and other bulky items are picked up and swiftly repositioned off the field. Then there’s the hour or so it takes to thoroughly clean up the facility. Stacher joked that he spends more time at booster activities than at his job with BNSF in Temple.
“It’s been eight years so far, but this is a great group of folks. Are you kidding me?” he said, laughing. “I love these people.”
Johnson echoed his sentiments, noting the musical gains achieved by the Hornet Band.
“They’re performing harder music,” she said. “During concert season they play college-level music. But, most of all, I love being around kids and the camaraderie with the other parents. We’re all here for the same reason.”
