JANUARY 2025 UPDATES

HAPPY NEW YEAR EVERYONE. HOPE YOU ALL HAD A WONDERFUL HOLIDAY SEASON, HOWEVER YOU CELEBRATE. HERE’S TO A GREAT 2025!

QMS UPCOMING EVENTS:

Mini Guard Rehearsals: Mon/Fri 6-8:30; Saturday check calendar for times. NO Practice Monday 1/20 for MLK day.
Mini Friends & Family Performance: Friday, Jan 24th @ 7:30pm
Mini Guard Competition: Saturday, Jan 25th, Salem. More info to follow.
QMS 6th grade concert: Thursday, February 6th @ 6:30pm – QMS Auditorium

MHS UPCOMING EVENTS:

MBPA meeting CHANGE – meeting this month will be on Tuesday January 7th as there is a Town Hall meeting on the 9th.
NO winter percussion on Thursday January 9th / RESCHEDULED to Friday January 10th from 6-9
Winter Percussion Practices Tues/Thurs 6-9 & Sat 10-4
Varsity Guard Rehearsals: Tues/Thurs 6-9; Saturdays check calendar for times.
Jazz Band Practice Thursday’s 2:15 – 4:00
Varsity Guard Friends & Family Performance: Friday, Jan 24th @ 7:30pm
Varsity Guard Competition: Saturday, Jan 25th, Salem. More info to follow.
Senior District Festival – held January 10th & 11th. If your student is participating you will receive more information from Mr. DeJoy.
All State Auditions – January 25th. If your student is participating you will receive more information from Mr. DeJoy.
Jr & Sr SEMSBA Auditions – February 1st. If your student is participating you will receive more information from Mr. DeJoy.

WELCOME OUR NEW TREASURER:

We would like to welcome our new treasurer Jeff Kobs to the board. The vote passed unanimously at the November meeting. His term will run through June 2026. Please join us at a meeting to welcome him.

CREDIT MEMOS & INVOICES:

Please remember to submit payment for any outstanding invoices that you have. If you have an outstanding invoice and need financial assistance, please reach out to Jeff (treasurer@mansfieldbandparents.org) or Mr. DeJoy as soon as possible so we can assist where needed.

SENIOR FAT HEADS

As we have done in the past – we would like to provide you information to purchase Fat Heads for your senior. This has historically been a winter percussion/guard purchase – but anyone is welcome to purchase one for their senior. These are a fun addition to bring along to competitions, class day, graduation, and more.
- Go to www.fathead.com – suggest signing up for their emails to get a discount code.
- Click on Custom Foam Core Big Head
- Suggest choosing Medium Size of 18 x 24. They are $29.99
- FOR SHORT HAIR – Choose Short Hair (this will give you just the head)
- FOR LONG HAIR: I suggest using Include Long Hair otherwise it will cut their hair off
- Upload your photo
- It requires you to put something in the designer box – you can simple put “No Designer Notes”
- I would also suggest using the senior images that Chris Jones took as those will have the best upload quality. But you are welcome to use whatever photo you want. You can find these pictures HERE

FUNDRAISING:

Our fundraising goal for the 24/25 year is $20,000 (not including Gillette). We have raised approximately $5,500 so far and appreciate everyone’s support. Remember that your student doesn’t need to be in marching band to benefit from our fundraising effort. Even if the avenue to donate is through something the marching band or winter group is doing ALL band students benefit. With the funds raised, the MPBA is able to provide the truck for MICCA festival, tech equipment used by students during concerts, reduce cost of field trips, reduce cost of end of year banquet, create senior send-off banners, and much more.

APPAREL STORE We will be opening up our winter swag store in the next two weeks. Please be on the lookout for an email with all the information.
CLIMBING FOR CLEOPATRA is currently being refreshed with a new theme. We should have these flyers for distribution soon. This is a great, easy way for family members to help support your student in doing what they love.
CAN DRIVE We will plan on having another drop off can drive in February. Until then you are still able to bring your cans & glass bottles to the Redemption Center located on Forbes Blvd across from Stop and Shop. Cans and plastic bottles can be in bags but glass bottles should be returned in either boxes or their original packaging. You should have a count to provide them with of what you are delivering. You can either let them know it is for Mansfield Band or provide them with this printed form

GILLETTE:

Our current Gillette season has come to a close. A new contract will be created in February for the next (gillette) calendar year of events. We encourage everyone to please consider signing up for just one event. Just one event for each student’s family/friend will help cover the calendar of events with little repeats. These funds are vital to keeping our concert and competitive groups top notch and with a low cost. If Gillette went away, each marching band family would see an out-of-pocket uptick of $400+ and if your students did marching band and a winter group it would be closer to $1,000+ to cover all their costs. For concert bands there would be a cost associated with festival participation to cover the cost of the truck rentals. This Gillette Info Sheet will help outline just how the money raised from Gillette helps.
If our overall profit from Gillette continues to decrease all the things that make band fun and exciting will simply no longer happen.
Consider becoming a stand manager so that Guy & Katherine don’t have to bear the burden alone. If you are interested, please reach out to gillette2@mansfieldbandparents.org and they can give you the run down of responsibility.

Next MBPA Parent Meeting is on Tuesday, January 7th @ 6:00pm (THIS IS A CHANGE) held in the Chorus room at the High School

HOW TO GET IN TOUCH WITH MBPA:

Calendar: mansfieldbandparents.org/calendar

Facebook: Mansfield Band Parents Association

Web: www.mansfieldbandparents.org

Board Members: