Good Afternoon Band Students and Families! 

I have a lot of information to share with you about our band fundraiser. This morning most of the bands were introduced to our Club’s Choice fundraiser that begins today (the other 6th grade band will get this information shared on Monday)! This fundraiser is optional for students to participate – it is by no means required participation - but I hope you’ll consider participating! This fundraiser includes two magazines of items – frozen food (pizza, cookie dough, cheesecakes, soups, and more) and “River City” (Fall / Winter / Holiday items). We work with Club’s Choice out of Eau Claire and we receive 40% profit from most sales. 

IMPORTANT DATES: The fundraiser starts TODAY and the end date for orders and money to be turned in is Monday, October 12th. Any checks should be made out to NRMS (not Club’s Choice). For all in-person orders or online orders that select “ship to school”, pick up will be November 11th from 3–5 p.m. in the middle school band room. More info will be shared closer to the time. Please mark that date (November 11th) on your calendar now, as it is the ONE AND ONLY DAY that you can pick up your orders - orders cannot be stored at school past that evening due to no freezer space.

WHY FUNDRAISE?: This year we are looking forward to our trip to Madison for 7th and 8th grade band members! The profits raised by your 7th or 8th grade student will be used toward your students' individual cost for our spring band trip to Madison this year (7th and 8th grade students only) and to support the band program and all the different events and activities throughout the year. For 6th grade, since they will not go on the Madison trip this year, the profits raised from 6th grade go directly to our band program for various supplies, and to support any activities throughout the entire year. (In the past, we have been able to purchase a tuba, various percussion instruments and equipment, new electric pianos, and other items and events throughout the year.)

• MADISON BAND TRIP: More details (such as the official date, official cost, and more) will come to 7th/8th grade families about the Madison trip soon. I am awaiting UW Madison to schedule their spring concert, which we depend on in order to schedule our trip. I can say that it should be a weekend (Saturday to Sunday) in April. We are still determining a final cost for the trip, but for reference, the trip cost $140.00 in 2025. We do, however, anticipate that this cost will be higher, due to higher bus/gas costs, travel, food, etc. Many students will be able to raise most if not all of the money for their trip - so I highly recommend participating in the fundraiser!

INFO COMING HOME: Coming home with your student today (or Monday) should be a white envelope with the product brochures and order forms (I have extras if more are needed or if someone didn’t get one or needs another). That envelope can be used to collect the money and hold the order form. Attached to this email is another sheet that will also be in that envelope, but I wanted to share it with you this way too. It has the overview of our fundraiser, the student reward program, as well as an option to sell items online. The online option is what I would highly encourage, because people can be given access to your online fundraiser page and can order online to choose to either ship to their house or ship to school to be delivered by the student. If you / your student used this last year, the same username/email and password should still work! 

• One misprint in their magazines is that the prices for the popcorn were not listed on those pages. The prices are printed on the front/outside of the order envelope and attached to this email separately. 

SETTING UP THE ONLINE PLATFORM: Selling through the online platform is truly the easiest option to sell items! 10 texts/emails are highly encouraged to be shared from the webpage every day to different family, friends, and neighbors no matter where they live. If you use the QR code on the attached document, it’ll take you directly to the online page for you to customize. You can customize the online page with a photo and/or video to explain the fundraiser for anyone you share it with. The online option would make your (and my) lives much simpler; people can pay directly on the website and ship to their house - even folks who live out of state! Then the student also doesn’t have to deal with any of the money or delivering of the products out of state! Online orders SHOULD NOT be recorded on the students’ order form in the white envelope. The link to your online page can also be shared out on social media in order to reach some of your family and friends – an easy way to reach a lot of people! Please see the attachment or paper envelope for more details!

 ***DONATIONS: Please note that there is a donation option online, however, the band only receives 70% of these online donations through the Club’s Choice platform. Therefore, if you know of anyone who would like to donate to the band, I would highly recommend that they just send the donation directly to the school so we receive 100% of that donation. Donations CANNOT be recorded on the students’ order form in the envelope as donations do not count as “items” toward the prize total. 

Thanks for getting through my super long email – I know I threw a lot at you. Please feel free to reach out to me with any questions and I will help you the best I can! Check out the attachment for some breakdowns and details from the company. Thanks so much for all of your support of your student and the band program – it is greatly appreciated!!! Have a great rest of your day! 

Sara Byom

NRMS Band Director