Hamilton Band Booster Newsletter
February, 2009
This newsletter is published monthly by the Band Booster Organization in an effort to keep all
BOARD MEMBERS parents informed of plans and activities of the Hamilton Middle School and High School Bands. It will
be sent to students’ home addresses; if you would like an additional copy mailed to another address,
President please contact Cindi Kooyers at 269-751-7326.
Joni DeNeef
269-751-7122 Schedules can, and probably will, change during the course of the year. We will update
joni@deneefinc.com this schedule each month in an attempt to help you plan as far in advance as possible.
Vice-President 2008-2009 High School Band Calendar
Dave Grofvert
269-751-4431
grofvert@charter.net Date Event Time (Tentative)
February 27 MSBOA District Festival 10:50am
New Date March 3 Boys Pep Band #5 5:30 PM
Secretary/Newsletter March 20 Hope College Final Four Pep Band TBD
Cindi Kooyers March 28 State Solo & Ensemble Varies
269-751-7326 April 23, 24 or 25 MSBOA State Festival TBA
cindi.kooyers@gmail.com April 28 Collage Concert Rehearsal 6:00 PM
April 30 Collage Concert 7:00 PM
May 6 & 9 Tulip Time Parades TBA
Treasurer May 13 Band Banquet 6:30 PM
Chris Kooiker May 25 Memorial Day Parade 9:00 AM
616-928-2203
catkooiker@charter.net
SPECIAL PROJECTS 2008-2009 Middle School Band Calendar
Special Projects
Coordinator(s) Needed Class Date Event Time (Tentative)
7th & 8th Grade Feb 25 District 10 Concert Band Festival at Wyoming Park HS
7th Grade Performance 8:25am-10:00am
UNIFORMS 8th Grade Performance 9:50am-11:15am
If you have any problems or 6th Grade April 27 Spring Concert 7:30pm
concerns regarding the uniforms, 7th & 8th Grade May 6 Tulip Time Volksparade 11:30am
please contact the following: 7th & 8th Grade May 9 Tulip Time Muziekparade 12:30pm
7th & 8th Grade May 18 Spring Concert 7:30pm
High School 7th & 8th Grade May 25 Memorial Day Parade 8:30am
Kim Mentzer
(616) 886-2529
or
Dave & Peg Jensen
269-751-2683
Middle School
Debbie Grofvert
269-751-4431
or If you are the parent or guardian of a band student, YOU are a band booster.
Kathy Burton WELCOME! The Band Boosters meet monthly and we’d love to have your
269-751-8997 participation and get your ideas and suggestions. Our next meeting will be
Monday, March 23, at 5:30pm in the High School Band Room. See you there!
FROM THE DIRECTOR’S PODIUM . . .
From the Middle School Podium:
MIDDLE SCHOOL
6th Grade Band: The sixth grade band members have completed many new concepts as presented in the method book.
All students are extending their range as well as their vocabulary of notes, rhythms, and time signatures. The percussion
students are vastly expanding their snare drum vocabulary with the addition of sixteenth notes, drum rolls, and their
various combination of arrangement. I wish to compliment the abundance of sixth grade students who are displaying
fantastic individual practice habits. Keep up the awesome effort. The dedicated effort you are putting forth at this time will
serve you well now and in the future years. In the near future, students will be receiving new sheet music which will most
likely serve as selections for our spring concert. The concert is scheduled for Monday, April 27, 2009.
7th & 8th Grade Bands: Congratulations with regard to the successful presentation of your festival programs on February
10 at the concert. Energy and the presentation of styles within your performances exhibited a high degree of
improvement. I compliment the super effort which you are putting forth. I look forward to working with the groups as we
move toward February 25 and our performances at the MSBOA District 10 Band Festival. Detailed information on
Festival was sent to home addresses and is also included later in this newsletter. Parents, we welcome your attendance
at the MSBOA Band Festival event.
As we move closer to the winter of 2010, it is time to draw your attention to the possible consideration of the band trip.
The current seventh and eighth grade students will all be eligible for participation on this trip. Options for this trip are
currently being researched. While it is difficult to determine the total cost at this time and will ultimately depend upon what
is approved after any information has been presented, an estimate could be around $900.00. We might suggest the
possibility of students starting their own fund at home. A deposit of $10.00 a week starting at this point would most likely
fund your participation on this trip. Thank you.
-Kim Suhusky
FROM THE DIRECTOR’S PODIUM . . .
Greetings from the High School!
For this month I’m passing along just a quick note in regard to the details for District Band Festival. The Festival date is
Friday, February 27th. The students will be dismissed to come to the band room at the end of their 1st hour class and will
be back to school by the beginning of their 5th hour class. Our performance will be at Otsego High School. The concert
performance will be at 10:50 AM with sight-reading immediately following. As soon as we have our rating and materials
from the judges, we will load the buses and return to Hamilton.
Since this is entirely during the school day, all students must ride the buses to and from the site as a complete group. Any
parents who would like to attend and support their children will be greatly appreciated! We could also probably use a
chaperone or two yet if you are interested. Please either call or e-mail me if you have an interest. Thank you!
-Mr. Herrick
On Wednesday, February 25, the 7th and 8th Grade Ensembles will be performing at the MSBOA District Ten Band
Festival at Wyoming Park High School. The performance time on stage is 8:25am for the 7th Grade and 9:50am for the 8th
Grade.
Parents and interested individuals are invited and welcome to attend festival. You may attend both the concert and sight
reading portions of the festival that will be held in the Wyoming Park HS Auditorium and band room respectively. There is
no admission fee. If interested in chaperoning, please contact Mr. Suhusky at 269-751-4436 x437.
If you are attending Festival and would like to have your child ride home with you rather than ride the bus, please let Mr.
Suhusky know in writing by Monday, February 23, through a letter sent to school with your child. If a written note is not
received from a parent or guardian, the student must ride the bus home.
Uniform requirements for Festival are as follows. Band students should wear black pants, black socks or nylons, and all-
black shoes to school on the day of Festival. After reporting to the band room students will be supplied a polo shirt and
wind shirt. We annually receive very positive comments regarding our groups’ appearance. Please help us continue in
this positive direction.
Our bands will be traveling separately to Wyoming Park and an itinerary for each group is shown below. For our 7th grade
students, this event is the first field trip performance where we represent our program, school, and community outside the
school district. For each group adherence to uniform and behavior guidelines are an essential element to the enjoyment
and success of the event. Please refer to the Hamilton Middle School Student Handbook and band handbook).
7th Grade Itinerary:
7:25am Report to band room. Obtain remainder of uniform items.
7:50am Board bus and leave for Wyoming Park High School.
8:50am Arrive at Wyoming Park High School (2125 Wrenwood, Wyoming, Michigan).
9:25am Warm up.
9:50am Concert Performance.
10:25am Sight-reading activity in the band room.
11:00am Take care of instruments and wait for rating.
11:15am Board bus and return to Hamilton.
12:00noon Arrive back at Hamilton Middle School Return issued uniform items to Band Room.
12:15pm Report to Middle School cafeteria for lunch.
12:45pm Report for remainder of scheduled school day
th
8 Grade Itinerary:.
6:00am Report to band room. Obtain remainder of uniform items.
6:20am Board bus and leave for Wyoming Park High School.
7:25am Arrive at Wyoming Park High School (2125 Wrenwood, Wyoming, Michigan).
7:55am Warm up.
8:25am Concert Performance.
8:50am Sight-reading activity in the band room.
9:30am Take care of instruments and wait for rating.
10:00am Board bus and return to Hamilton.
11:00am Arrive back at Hamilton Middle School Return issued uniform items to Band Room.
11:15am Report to Middle School cafeteria for lunch.
11:45am Report for remainder of scheduled school day.
On Saturday, January 31, a number of our high school band students participated in Solo & Ensemble Festival at East
Kentwood High School. These students put in hours of extra practice and a great deal of effort in order to participate.
Students who participated were:
Mackenzie Coyle Ashley Kooyers Courtney Tussey
Molly Coyle Derek Lampen Molly VanDeWege
Heather Foshaug Megan Lohman Richie VanVels
Michael Graverson Mackenzie Melvin Janell Williams
Rachel Hoffman Kyle Meppelink Rob Wood
Austin Fathman Rachel Schultz
Of the 12 events participating, six received a 1st division rating. Those events receiving 1st division ratings were:
• Molly Coyle & Molly VanDeWege, marimba duet
• Mackenzie Coyle & Rachel Hoffman, marimba duet
• Heather Foshaug, Kyle Meppelink & Ashley Kooyers, french horn trio
• Ashley Kooyers, trumpet solo
• Derek Lampen, tuba solo
• Rob Wood, trombone solo
Thank you to Linda Hemmeke, Nancy Jacobs, and Glenda Peters for their piano expertise, time, and dedication in
accompanying our students.
Congratulations to all of our students on their accomplishments!
On Saturday, February 7, the Hamilton Bands sponsored their annual Crazy Putt Miniature Golf
fundraising event. Thank you to all community members and families who came out to support
this event. A very special thank you to the many band students, parents and family members
who volunteered their time to help make this event successful. Also, we had a very good
response to donations of candy bars and pop to be sold as concessions; thank you for your
contributions.
It seems like we just finished soliciting officers to serve on this years Band Booster Board and it’s already time to begin
preparing for next year. We need to ask parents to give consideration to being a Band Booster Officer for next year. If
you wonder what being an Officer involves, plan to attend a Booster meeting to see what we do to make your students’
band experience the best it can be. Or, contact any current officer with questions. This year we will need to elect a
Treasurer and a Vice President. Both are 2-year terms; the Vice President will serve as President during their second
term. We must have a new Board in place before the end of the school year so you’ll be hearing more about this in
coming months.
Following is the schedule of Fund Raisers for this coming year. We have also noted where the proceeds of these
fundraisers will be assigned:
February-March: Bake Sales (all proceeds to Band Boosters General Fund). Details below.
March/April: Cin-dee’s Flowers (50% proceeds to students’ trip accounts; 50% to Band General
Fund)
May: Pre-concert Bake Sale (all proceeds to Band Boosters General Fund)
June: Parade of Homes (all proceeds to students’ band trip account)
August: Golf Battle of the Band vs. Golf Team (all Band proceeds to Band Boosters General Fund)
We have been holding Bake Sales during various basketball games during the month of January through March. Our last
sale will be Tues, March 3. It will also be the last game our Pep Band will be playing. Plan to attend the game on March
3 to hear our Pep Band perform and also pick up some tasty baked goods.
A reminder that the Band Boosters continue to collect Spartan UPC labels. Keep trimming and
saving your Spartan UPC labels. Deposit them in the Spartan cardboard trucks in the Middle
or High School Band Rooms. Every 1,000 labels earn the band $20 that we use for general
band booster funds. Earlier this year we received a check for $60 for our efforts so you can
see these really add up. Thank you and KEEP THOSE LABELS COMING!
As a band booster organization, there are sometimes occasions when we’d like to communicate with
parents in a timelier fashion than a paper newsletter mailing allows. For that reason we’ve begun
sending Emails to those parents who provided an Email address at the beginning of the year. We
promise to keep your Email address confidential and to limit Emails to only those that apply to band
communications. We have sent a few Emails in recent weeks; if you haven’t received one and
would like to be added to our Email mailing list, please send an Email to cindi.kooyers@gmail.com.
Log on to the Hamilton Community Schools website (www.hamiltonschools.us),
1) Click on “High School” and
2) Click on “Band” to see our newsletter, updates, schedule/event changes and other important announcements.
It is the mission of all those involved with the Hamilton High School Band Program to:
Create a positive & safe learning environment
Be a form of outreach to our community.
Help our students achieve at the highest level possible
Instill a love and appreciation of music.
Create a network of support and teamwork for all involved.
Hamilton Band Boosters
4580 Kooyers Court
Holland, MI 49423
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