As of today - 34 photos have been uploaded.

Photo gallery

Please send in your photos!

For parents who are accompanying the student trip to Washington DC in April, you are asked to make your check out directly to EDT (Educational Discovery Tours) and/or mail your monthly payment directly to EDT. For various reasons, it will be better if we keep these payments separate from the student accounts managed by the Band Boosters.

So when you receive a bill in the mail for the "parent" part of the trip, please handle that with a direct payment to EDT.

Student accounts and payments will continue to be maintained by the Band Boosters.

• Nearly 1,400 Festival of Giving tickets were sold - great job!
  
• Festival of Giving Mall Night Silent Auction baskets - students have information on this - ask them!
  
• Dec 9th: Game Night at the Senior Center at CenterPlace - see below for information
  
• December - Gonzaga Getaway raffle ticket sales starting soon
  
• Jan 7-8th: Christmas Tree Recycling
  
• January - Second Gonzaga Getaway raffle ticket sales kicks off
  
• February - Spokane Chiefs raffle ticket sales
  
• March 11: Auction
  

Other fundraising activities underway:

• Corporate sponsorship program is nearing kick off in the next few weeks
  
• A Paypal "Donate here" button will be added to this web site very soon
  
• Online sales of band related t-shirts, sweatshirts and other items is aiming to be set up in mid-December. This will become a permanent part of the web site to provide access to cool band stuff all year long.
  

All students should have brought home a packet of information on our Game Sales fundraiser. Chum Chum Games is generously donated a significant percentage of each sale to the Band trip student accounts. This is a significant opportunity to raise funds for the Cherry Blossom Festival Parade trip in April of 2006.

Each student received an individual promotional code identifier to use at the Chum Chum Games web site. When orders are placed using the student's unique code, proceeds will go to the student's Band account. Note that the web site is at http://www.alwaysgreatgames.com.

Many of these games will also be on display at the December 9th CenterPlace @ Mirabeau event (see next item).

A link to the Chum Chum Games web site has also been added under "Fundraisers" to the left of this page.

Everyone is invited to join us for a great night of games, music and refreshments. Come join us for a night filled with fun and music at the Spokane Valley Senior Center!

IT'S ALL FREE!

When:
December 9th, 7 pm to 10 pm.

Where:
Spokane Valley Senior Center @ Center Place
2426 N. Discovery Pl
(Just off of S. Mirabeau Pkway)

The West Valley High School Jazz band will perform a wide variety of jazz selections. Enjoy!

A special guest from locally run Chum Chum Games (board games) will be here with some great games for all ages - so bring the whole family!

All proceeds from the event will go to the West Valley High School Band trip fund to the Cherry Blossom Festival Parade in Washington DC, April 2006.

Our web site has not been "live" very long. In fact, we've been listed in Google for only 7 days. But we are getting visitors from 8 countries and well over one dozen U.S. states, plus most Canadian provinces.

Take a look at where our visitors live:



Thank you for stopping by! Please come again.

Marching bands passing up football. (Spokesman-Review article, paid subscription required to read the article.)

"The band puts energy on the field and into the game, Frame said. But marching band has become its own competitive sport, with little time left for cheering on the football team."
....
"We've got our own competition schedule to follow, and we work really hard," said University band member Evan Drassen, 14. "I'd like to see the football players out there trying to do it."
....
He remembers a time when the football game was the place to be on a Friday night, with the band helping the crowd cheer on the team.

Now, the crowd will often get bigger when the band comes out.

"The football team runs off the field, and then the cheering starts," Hartse said.

Wayne Splettstoeszer, Director of Bands at Torrington High School, Torrington, CT contacted me - they have put together a list of other high school bands headed to D.C. on their web site (page down - and yes, WVHS is on the list.)