Week of October 21, 2024

• Donation in Honor of Eric Quinn
• Upcoming Dates
• Marching Band Fees
• LaFayette Marching Competition
• Raffle Update: 2 weeks left!
• Concert Attire
• Hospitality Volunteer Needed
  
• Messages from Mrs. Hesketh
• Trunk or Treat!

For your reference:

• Meals on Game days
• Alumni Raffle Challenge

• Where to find Band info
• Help us promote Sponsorship

• Meet the Band Booster Board
• Meet the Band Committee members
• Marching Season Google calendar link
• All about CutTime
• All about RaiseRight
• All about the Band App
• Sponsor Spotlight

Thank you to Rebecca Lasley for her generous donation to the Band in memory of her brother Eric Quinn who passed on November 1, 2023. He was James Lasley's uncle and also a Norcross Marching Band Alumni.

Mon (10/21)

• Guard practice begins at 4:30pm
• Marching Band/Guard rehearsal (5:30-8pm)

Tues (10/22)

• Guard practice begins at 4:30pm

• Marching Band/Guard rehearsal (5:30-8pm)

Wed (10/23)

• Wind Symphony rehearsal (2:30-4pm)

Thurs (10/24)

• Guard practice begins at 4:30pm

• Marching Band/Guard rehearsal (5:30-8pm)

Fri (10/25)

• Report to NHS at 4:45pm
• Away game at North Gwinnett HS

Sat (10/26)

• LaFayette Marching Classic
• Students report to NHS at 8am
• Bus leaves at 10am
• Prelims Performance is at 1:20pm

_____________________________________________

Mon (10/28)

• Wind Symphony rehearsal (2:30-4pm)
• No Marching Band/Guard rehearsal

Tues (10/29)

• Friends & Family Show at 6:15pm in the stadium

Wed (10/30)

• Cluster Concert: 7pm at Norcross HS (Wind Sym & PMS perform)

Thurs (10/31)

• No Marching Band/Guard rehearsal (also, Halloween)

Fri (11/1)

• Report to NHS at 5:15pm
• Home game vs Brookwood (Senior Night) Concessions Opportunity!

Sat (11/2)

• Homecoming Dance at NHS (7-11pm)

Please note that all marching band fees are due at this time. If you were spreading out your payments, the final payment was due on Sept. 3. Students and/or parents, please check your account in CutTime and make final payments for the season. If you are unable to check your fees, you can email Katie Saleeby (katiesaleeby@gmail.com) or Catalina Correa (catalmco@gmail.com) and they can tell you if you have a balance.

The Band is competing in the LaFayette Marching Classic Competition on Sat, October 26th, at Fayette County High School.

Tickets: https://gofan.co/event/1962099?schoolId=GA4998

Website: https://waughbrandon.wixsite.com/41st-annual-lafaye-2

NHS Schedule: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1sW5MXz7UOSWmd0uGzxxCBSBORC8Y1xpGSMs1IVoP0_I/edit?tab=t.0

We will provide assorted snacks, water, and a pre-ordered meal at 2:45 PM after the preliminary performance. Students are responsible for their dinner (either bring money for food or pack a meal) and any specific snacks they want.

Things students should bring:

• Water bottle
• Sunscreen
• Towel to sit on
• Hat or umbrella for shade (the last competition was very hot)
• “2nd breakfast” to eat after warm up and before the buses leave in the morning
• Healthy snacks
• Money for dinner and concessions

The Raffle is wrapping up! Tickets and money need to be turned in by Monday, October 28!

If you've been waiting to sell your tickets, NOW IS THE TIME! Help us reach our goal!

Congrats to this week's drawing winner: Daniel Nelkin, who gets to pick out a gift card!

Link to google form: https://forms.gle/Bafw1oPrjvKyieTn9

It’s time to order concert attire for your students. Please complete the google form above to let us know if your student needs concert attire or has outgrown and needs to order any new pieces. Volunteers will be at the school during their band classes in the coming weeks. We do still have used tux items available for purchase. Also, please note: you will need to pay for concert attire before your student brings it home and some items will need to be hemmed.

If you are available to help with sizing students or coordinating disbursement of items once ordered, please reach out to Robin Whitesides (rjwhitesides@gmail.com) or Peggy Connolly (peggyconnolly01@gmail.com). Thank you!

Volunteer needed to organize the hospitality room for All State Auditions on December 14th! We need an individual or two to organize breakfast and lunch for about 40 judges for All State auditions. Breakfast includes things like bagels, pastries/donuts, fruit, juice and coffee. Lunch is pub subs, chips, fruit, water and soda. We also provide grab and go snacks like granola bars, etc. The time commitment is 7am to 11am on Dec. 14th.

Please reach out to peggyconnolly01@gmail.com with questions or sign up in CutTime. Thank you!

Check out this video by GCPS about the Gwinnett County Marching Exhibition at Peachtree Ridge HS on Oct. 7th! The NHS Band is featured at 0:45 https://vimeo.com/1020297600

Students are invited to audition for the Gwinnett County Youth Wind Symphony!

The Gwinnett County Youth Wind Symphony (GCYWS) is a wind band open to students in the sixth through twelfth grade. They perform standard professional repertoire with standard woodwind, brass, and percussion instrumentation. The conductors are assisted in preparation for concerts by selected members of the band faculty, area professionals, and private teachers. Students selected to be members of this group would focus on musicianship, expression, and the aesthetic qualities of the music studied. Members will exhibit the etiquette and rules of conduct of professional musicians.

Students auditioning for the Gwinnett County Youth Wind Symphony and The Gwinnett County Youth Symphony will fill out the following google form. Your GMEA All-State 1st Round Audition will be used as your placement audition. If you are not auditioning for All-State, please submit a video of you playing the GMEA Lyrical Etude and your chromatic scale.

The form lets us know to look up your lyrical etude and chromatic scale score. Let us know you want to be considered for the groups by December 14, 2024.

https://tinyurl.com/GCYWS2025

https://forms.gle/cSUdDkF2jqrRRCJj7

Join us on Tuesday, October 29th at 6:15PM for the Friends & Family Show! The marching band will perform the entire show (props and all) just for us at the Blue Devils Stadium.

After the show, join us under the portico outside the commons for Trunk or Treat!

We invite Band families to decorate their own table and provide the goodies for our families. We will set up your table and provide a tablecloth. Sign-up for your table here: https://www.signupgenius.com/go/10C0E48A4AE23ABF9C25-52369601-trunk

We hope to see you there!

What are my kids eating before and at the game?

Every football game, we provide your student with a 3rd quarter meal (pre-order), and for home games they also get a pre-game meal.

Pre-order meals for HOME games are always a choice of hamburger, cheeseburger, hotdog, pepperoni or cheese pizza with chips and a drink. Away game choices are determined by the hosting school. Ms. Nelkin always posts a google form on the band app for all games. If you are curious about the choices, check with your child or check the band app regularly.

Pre-game meals used to be pizza, but the school recently received a grant that provides meals to our band students on Fridays. Each students must scan a QR code even if they choose not to eat the meal that week as meals are provided based on numbers who eat them the previous week. Scanning the QR code ensures there is enough food for all students the following week.

We may get info on what the meal is a couple of days in advance at the most, but it is not guaranteed. If your student is a picky eater or has food allergies, we cannot guarantee the meal would be to their liking. It would be best to plan an alternative meal for them.

We've kicked off a fun challenge to reach our alumni who attend UGA or Ga Tech! See below for more details and share these four slides on social media! If you sell tickets to Norcross Band alumni who go to UGA or Tech, make sure you write the college they attend on the ticket you turn in!

😃

There are 3 important places you can find specific Band info:

Our website https://www.norcrosshighband.org/ has newsletters & the google calendar for the year

CutTime has volunteer sign-ups, student account info, and will alert you to a new newsletter

The Band App has any last minute changes to schedules, important reminders, photos from practices & games, and you can post any questions you have!

We are actively looking for local businesses who would like to sponsor the Band! You can see the sponsorship level opportunities below. If you know of a business that might be interested, or have one in mind we should reach out to, contact David Lee on the Band App! Help us spread the word!

https://calendar.google.com/calendar/embed?src=norcrosshighband%40gmail.com&ctz=America%2FNew_York

We heard back from CutTime and for those of you who would prefer email notifications for the weekly newsletter, you can change your preferences! CutTime uses SMS texts as the primary mode of communication, but if a member or guardian has both a cell phone AND an email, they can reply "STOP" to CutTime's phone number(s) to opt out of receiving text messages and designate email as their preferred communication method.

Note: An individual's preferred communication method currently cannot be designated in CutTime - they must reply STOP or START to toggle their preference. Hope this change is helpful to some of you!

RaiseRight has introduced a new way to shop and earn money for your student account! Visit the website or update your app and you will see a new option to “Shop Online.” When you select this option, you’ll see a list of online stores and the rebate that you will earn when you visit one of these online stores through your RaiseRight account. This is a great option for those of you who prefer not to pay the credit card transaction fee or connect your checking account to your RaiseRight account. Once you click through to your choice of store or brand, your online experience should be the same as when you go directly to the store site – but when you make your purchase, a percentage of your purchase will be added to your student account. No need to purchase a gift card before shopping! You can read the terms and conditions on the RaiseRight site – there is a good FAQ with additional information.

RaiseRight is a gift card program that you can use to help fund your student’s band account. When you create your account & link it to the NHS band program, the rewards you earn will be credited to your student’s band account to help offset band fees. Anyone can join, so you can also invite grandparents or other family members to set up their own accounts & help fund band activities.

Here’s how it works:

RaiseRight offers electronic and physical gift cards for a wide variety of restaurants and stores. When you purchase a gift card, a percentage of that purchase goes to your student’s account. Each vendor decides on their percentage, and percentages can change - think of it like a sale. So one month, you may purchase a gift card for Home Depot for $100 that offers 2% — that means that $2 goes to your student’s account. The following month, you purchase a $100 Home Depot gift card that offers 3% — and your student account gains $3. Percentages can vary widely - recently,

L.L. Bean offered a 19% reward! Consider downloading the app so that you can easily check on current percentages for your favorite vendors.

These numbers may seem small, but they can add up quickly — and all you are doing is using gift cards to make purchases that you were already going to make. RaiseRight is a great way to fundraise for your student throughout the year, without having to ask for donations.

Ecards and Physical Cards

The program is flexible and allows you to buy electronic cards that you can store on your phone, or physical cards that you can keep or gift. If you choose to buy an electronic gift card, you can use it right away. That means you don’t have to plan ahead, or buy cards that you think you might use in the future.

If you decide to order physical cards, they will be mailed to our RaiseRight coordinator, Mary Gibson. We will provide a deadline for ordering physical cards to be included in our monthly shipment, tied to band booster meetings whenever possible. At each band booster meeting, Mary will be present distributing the pre-purchased gift cards that are part of that month’s shipment. You can pay online when you order these cards, or you can bring cash or check to the booster meeting. The band also pre-purchases physical Publix gift cards and these will be available to purchase from Mary at these meetings.

To learn more about which stores and restaurants accept RaiseRight cards, go to https://www.raiseright.com/brands.

To set up your account, go to www.raiseright.com and follow the instructions to create your account. Be sure to use this enrollment code to link your account to the NHS band: AD2EE1C314469.

If you have questions or need help, contact Mary Gibson at marytgibson@gmail.com.

For those of you using RaiseRight, please be aware that RaiseRight has updated its fee structure:

• RaiseRight has increased the convenience fee for gift card purchases using credit cards, effective on February 1. The current fee of 2.6% will increase to 3% when a credit card is used to make a gift card purchase on RaiseRight.com, and on the mobile app.
• This increase does not apply to debit card purchases (1% per transaction) or to linked bank account purchases ($0.29 per transaction).

Please keep in mind the following ordering deadlines for your physical gift cards from Mary:

Deadlines to be announced soon!

If you have not had an opportunity to download the BAND app please do so.

To join the Marching Band group, please click: https://band.us/n/a9afA4TfU6Ia0

To join the Concert/Symphonic Bands group, click: https://band.us/n/a4a2A2T6UcIbo

On the app, you can see posts from Directors and parents, ask questions, and share info and pictures. This will be where notifications will be posted for parents (i.e. When are the kids getting home from an away game? Volunteer opportunities? How do I access CutTime?). Photos from Band Camp have been posted here as well. It's a great resource for you to be able to access our Band community. Come band with us!

Thank you, Dr. Shyn of Link Dental Care, for becoming a Platinum Sponsor at the $2,500 level! https://linkdentalcare.com/

Thank you, Pond and Co., for becoming a Gold Sponsor at the $1,000 level!

https://www.pondco.com/

Thank you, City of Peachtree Corners, for becoming a Silver Sponsor at the $500 level!

https://www.peachtreecornersga.gov/

Thank you, Norcross Dental Associates, for becoming a Silver Sponsor at the $500 level!

https://www.norcrossdentalassociates.com/

Thank you, Spalding Animal Hospital, for becoming a Bronze Sponsor at the $250 level!

https://spaldinganimalhospital.com/

Email: norcrosshighband@gmail.com
Website: www.norcrosshighband.org
Location: 5300 Spalding Drive, Norcross, GA, USA
Phone: (770) 326-8066
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/NorcrossHighSchoolBand

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/norcrossmarchingband/

https://www.instagram.com/norcrossbands/