CHS Band Day gets ‘boost’ from many

When it comes to nurturing young talent in the marching band, support from the Sampson community and the Clinton Band Boosters are second to none. That was made even more evident last Saturday as they hosted the 25th Band Day at Robert-Lewis Field.

“This is probably my fourth or fifth, planning and executing of Clinton High Band Day and I couldn’t be more pleased with all the help that we have,” Jan Usher, co-president of Clinton Band Boosters, said. “The community comes out to support and it’s just amazing what we do and get accomplished with good people in place.”

“We have chairs for our committees, and they plan out their communities, they speak with their volunteers and it just kind of works together and flows together,” she added. “It just makes for a great day.”

A great day it was, one with fierce competition happening all day into the evening as 16 bands graced the field. Each battled it out within their respective class from A to 5A, vying for one of the 1st, 2nd and 3rd trophies for Band, Horn Line, Percussion, Drum Major and Color Guard.

Competing this year was, in Class A: South Columbus High School, North Duplin, Fike High School; Class 2A: Triton High School, Terry Sanford High School, Hobbton High School, Harnett Central High School; Class 3A: Cape Fear High School, Seaforth High School, Seaforth High School; Class 4A: Jack Britt High School, Overhills High School, Athens Drive High School, Dixon High School; and Class 5A: Midway High School and Topsail High School.

Along with the other trophies, four highly prestigious awards were bestowed to a select few of the bands. These included Grand Champion Band, Ed Taylor Pride of Clinton, People’s Choice and Coolest Band Director. The winner of those were:

Grand Champion Band — Jack Britt High School (Repeat Winner)

Ed Taylor Pride of Clinton — Hobbton High School

People’s Choice — Dixon High School

Coolest Band Director — Cape Fear High School

As this year’s event was the 25th, it points to the success and longevity of CHS Band Day, an event that has withstood the test of time even despite the hiatus it had to take during COVID. Usher spoke on the importance of that longevity, crediting all the support they continue to receive year after year that makes that possible.

“As many know, we went for a couple of years without having it and of course COVID came along,” she said. “So last year getting Band Day back started, we were all very nervous about it and unsure how it was going to go or if the community would still support it. That, however, was totally opposite of our worries — they were on board.”

Usher noted that as long as that support continues, and the community stays on board, they’ll continue to host Band Day for many more years to come. It is an event and tradition they hope never stops growing.

“I will say our athletic department, our Clinton City School board, everyone has jumped on board to help us have this day,” Usher said. “Our concessions ran great, Miss Keisha Wilson does a great job lining that up, which is a big endeavor for anyone to take on. Mr. John Lowe is our technical support, plus he works with our judges. Then we have seasoned band presidents that came back and help us in any areas that they can help out with. Even parents come back from 20 years ago, whose kids are not even in the band, just to lend a helping hand. We really appreciate them all as well.”

“We have great staff on board with Mr. Tart and Kevin Byrd, we even hired a couple other students this year that are helping us with our different areas,” she added. “We’re very on board with supporting the program and helping it to grow. So we hope that the longevity of Band Day will be there for many years to come, an ongoing continuing tradition, that’s what we’re hoping for.”

“We plan to have Band Day as long as we can have it,” she added. “Marching band is an art and art can sometimes miss out on longevity. So we’re hoping that having this day will support the marching band program and that the marching band program keeps growing.”

While CHS Band Day has being significant is growing the band program, it’s had just as much of an impact on the community.

“As a whole for Sampson County, you see the growth as more people come this event and support our area businesses,” she said. “We try to advertise as much as possible for those area businesses that support us like Domino’s, Pizza Inn, Performance Ford, just all the many businesses around that are very supportive, those are just a few. It shows those who are visiting that community support is very important in supporting an event like that. I just feel like that parents are going to support their children, whether it’s football, marching band or dance competition, so we’re very excited that parents, siblings, grandparents, and all that that entails, come out and show support to see all the hard work that these students have done.”

“Marching band is not a two-month sport, it’s a year-long dedication and commitment and our students start in February and they don’t end til December,” Usher said. “They might get a month off, so they work year-round and we’re very proud that the parents and community comes out and supports this.”

Speaking of those sponsors, there were many. As for the corporate sponsorships, this year’s CHS Band Day included the following:

Dark Horse Level — Domino’s of Clinton; Gold Sponsors — Smithfield Foods, Mariana Sanderson; Silver Sponsors — Star Communications, Williamson Gas, Prestage Farms, Bass Painting, First Bank; Bronze Sponsors — Travers Auto Sales, Clinton Appliance and Furniture, Michael and Ruby Hudson, Sampson Regional Medical Center, Colonial Heights Church, Colonial Heights Youth Group, Jeffrey G Bell, DDS, PLLC, Turkey PFWN Church, Carolina Urology, El Jacalito; Miscellaneous Sponsors — Bodie Noell- Hardee’s, Bojangles, Sampson Community College; CHS Athletic Boosters — Deacon Jones of Clinton, Quick Care of Clinton, Starbucks of Warsaw, Pizza Inn of Clinton; Tractor Supply — Performance Ford, Lowe’s of Clinton, Butterball, La Hacienda, Best, Mar-Cel Company and Southeastern Foundation.

“The corporate sponsorship, we’ve had donations and we have what’s called hospitality bags,” Usher said. “Those bags are given to our directors and it’s really a good advertisement of our county. We even had one Dark Horse level sponsorship and that’s our largest sponsorship, which is Domino’s of Clinton. All them were very supportive.”

There were a total of 73 trophies handed out for the 25th CHS Band Day, all of which were completely sponsored by members, organizations and business in the community.

Those sponsors included: Bobby Denning Properties LLC, Butterball, Abby Waters, Brittany W Ackerman DDS PA, Horace Mann Insurance Amy Rose Agency, Pizza Inn of Clinton, Hayley and Dr. Theresa Melenas, John and Vevlyn Lowe, Southeast Foundation and Crawlspace Repair LLC, Allen Jones, M. Shelton Bordeaux Surveying, Joel and Rebecca Woodard, Michael and Kerri Bordeaux, Entrusted Auto Transport Inc, George Manuel Family, Sampson Middle School Band, Debbie Manuel, Lorrie, Manuel Reid, Mario Funes, Rusty Knowles, Faridah Jones/Randy Welch, Diana Santos Johnson, Vanessa Manuel, Nikki Thompson, Donnie Lamm, Anitra Goodman Royster, Frank & Kristin Bradshaw, Jolly Davila, Jillian Oakes, Bass Painting, Domino’s Pizza, Wilson Family and Usher Family, Amanda and Edgar Santos, Bobbie Joe Rosenberger, CAFE, Clinton Police Club, Kimberly Ashley, Carr Piano Studio, Maie L. Parker, Clark and Rebecca Hales and Spell’s Landscaping Inc.

“Another thing I wanted to say is that the area schools, they’re all very supportive of our Band Day, as well as we are supportive of their ventures in a marching band competition,” Usher said. “We have a little bit of that team rivalry, but also we like to support each other so we appreciate them coming out as well.”

“The exhibition from UNC Pembroke was also amazing,” she said. “Two of our former students, one of which is our percussion instructor Oscar Bennett, he and another student that graduated last year are in UNCP’s band. That’s nice for our younger students to see that, so if they’re still interested in marching band they can move forward with it when they get to college.”

“As for me, I’ve not had a child in marching band since 2022 but I’m very proud to support this organization and work with this great team of volunteers in the community,” she added. “Overall, it was a great day and we’re hoping to have it on point for next year on Oct. 5th, provided there’s no storms.”