On Saturday, April 15, the band and choir hosted its annual Play-a-Thon, in order to raise over 10,000 dollars for the music department. The event included a lively parade down Burlingame Avenue, along with vocal and instrumental performances in Washington Park. Families and students gathered in both the park and street to hear upbeat music.

From 8 a.m. to 3 p.m, all band and choir ensembles performed lively music, parading twice down Burlingame Avenue and only taking a break for lunch. Since the choir students had lunch at a different time than the band students, the music never stopped, and the “Play-a-Thon” lived up to its name.

“So pretty much [we’re] just playing for the community, and just jamming out, having as many people as possible listen to our music, and put ourselves out there. It’s a great, great experience for that,” senior and drum major Jonathan Kon said. “It’s also fun because everyone in the band really likes playing music, and we pretty much just get to do that for a whole day, so it’s pretty exciting.”

During the parade, choir students collected donations from families on Burlingame Avenue, and their parents sold baked goods along the sidewalks. Stands selling more baked goods, vintage tee shirts and a raffle auction booth with prizes were set up in Washington Park. Proceeds from purchases went to the music department and will fund festivals, uniforms, travel fees and more.

“The money is to help fund the scholarship for students, the music booster scholarship, also we need to replace some of the music instruments,” said music and choral director Kyoko Yamamoto. “We need to be visible in the community to get the support that we need.”

Although the band was $4,000 short of its goal, it still managed to get a lot of financial support from families and students. 

“I think other than [not reaching the goal], it was quite successful and I think we did still raise a lot of money,” senior and band staff member Minnoli Raghavan said.

During the Play-a-Thon, both the band and choir performed a variety of songs, many of which were staples from previous band events or classics from different time periods. Many choir students performed in groups and pairs, with two groups singing classic ABBA songs from the 1970s.

“So you might recognize them from the football games, and we basically went through almost all of [our prepared] songs,” Raghavan said. “Also, a lot of them are like pop songs, or sort of like 70’s, 80’s songs. And then the Jazz Ensemble performed a few of the songs they’ve been working on for their concerts and festivals, and I think similar with choir.”

Weeks before the Play-a-Thon, band students sold raffle tickets to their peers to raise money for the band, and a special treat. Each student received an envelope with 32 raffle tickets, which they sold and collected money for. Students then gave their buyer one half of the ticket and put the other half in an envelope. At the end of the process, students returned ther envelopes, with the raffle tickets going into the drawing at the event.

The fourth period concert band, which raised the most money from raffle tickets at the event, won a doughnut party for their hard work. 

“So there’s some competition within each band, and it’s pretty fun,” Kon said.

Overall, both students and families spent the sunny Saturday supporting the music department by listening to fun songs, buying unique tee shirts or trying baked goods. 

“There’s always fun when the music happens, right?” Yamamoto said.