Marching Band Fundraiser Set for March 7
By Chris Seymour | Correspondent at February 19, 2024 | 6:00 pm | Print
The New Britain High School Parents Music Association (PMA) will present the First Annual Gala Night of Great Jazz and Great Food—a fundraising dinner to benefit the Golden Hurricanes’ marching band—on Saturday, March 7 from 6:30-11 p.m. at the New Britain VFW Post 511 Hall, 41 Veterans Dr.
Tickets for the gala fundraiser—which will raise money to purchase new marching band uniforms, instruments and fund scholarships—are $35 in advance (they can be purchased at brownpapertickets.com) and $40 at the door.
The evening will feature food from the West Side Tavern (Brazilian fare) and the big band jazz of Mike Palin’s Other Orchestra, which is the house band at Black Eyed Sally’s in Hartford.
“You’re getting a lot for the price,” promises Vincent Celentano, the president of the New Britain High School Parents Music Association. “Ticket prices will include dinner, dessert, beer and wine—it’s an open bar—and a jazz performance by the Other Orchestra.”
According to Celentano, the PMA is hoping to raise $10,000-$15,000 for the historic NBHS marching band, which is celebrating its 80th anniversary in 2015.
With the funds it raises from the community’s support of the gala, the PSA would like to purchase new uniforms for at least some of the 150 members of the Golden Hurricanes marching band. “Most of them need to be replaced and they haven’t been replaced in their entirety in about 30 plus years,” said Celentano of the uniforms, which coast about $500 apiece. “Some of them have been replaced as needed over the years but the majority of them are in tatters.”
The band also needs to replace instruments that are not privately owned—such as drums and the euphonium, which is a brass tuba-like instrument. “They are old and they really need to be replaced and they cost between $2,000 and $3,000 apiece,” said Celentano of the euphonium. “Drums are very expensive too; they were replaced a couple of years ago but they need constant repairs because they take a tremendous amount of abuse.”
With respect to scholarships, the Parents Music Association typically distributes four $500 ones each year—but is hoping to be able to offer more money or scholarships to more students in 2015. “The scholarships are provided by the PMA and generally, this can vary, but four scholarships are issued every year; last year, they were $500 apiece,” explained Celentano. “So we are seeking to either increase the number of scholarships or the amount of money per scholarship.”
Celentano noted that the 80-year-old NBHS marching band has a “rich history” and over the years has played for four US presidents: Lyndon Johnson, Richard Nixon, Gerald Ford and Jimmy Carter. “They also used to play halftime shows for the New York Giants football team at Yankee Stadium and the Yale Bowl [when the Giants played home games at both locations in the 1960s and 70s,” said Celentano.
Celentano’s son Paolo, a 2014 New Britain High graduate/drum major in the marching band who is now a freshman at the University of Hartford majoring in Political Science and Fine Arts, participated in the marching band and he has another son—Marcello, a freshman on the drum line—who is a current member of the Golden Hurricanes marching band.
“It is one of the crown jewels in the City of New Britain and it’s known not only locally but regionally, and it’s one of the last military-style marching bands that exists,” said Celentano.
Tickets for the gala may also be purchased by calling Celentano at 860-229-7369.
