A high school band from the Quad Cities hopes to travel to Washington D.C. next year to help celebrate the centennial of the Lincoln Memorial. The Davenport West High School Band has to raise 140,000 dollars to make the trip.
Band Directors Maggie Oates and Courtney Long say that will pay for four days and three nights, for 100 students and 12 chaperones. Oates says the band will play one concert by itself, and then join bands from the other states for the Centennial Celebration.
"I think it's really important that our students see the history of America, you know the same place that MLK did his "I have a dream" speech. It's important that every student in our program have the opportunity to experience something of this historical magnitude because a lot of our kids might not even leave the state of Iowa and if we can do this for them, then that's more important than anything."
A committee of band parents has already started contacting businesses and others, asking them to sponsor the trip, with a goal of raising about 1,300 dollars per student. Other fund raisers will include selling fruit, a trivia night, picking up trash for the city, and concerts. There's also a GoFundMe page.
The first payment is due at the end of May, with additional installments required through next February.
The Lincoln Memorial Centennial Celebration will be held in April, 2022.
