Winning a new car for the cost of a $25 ticket, and all for a good cause is probably a great feeling. This year’s Rockford marching band program fundraiser was a raffle for a 2011 Chevrolet Malibu. According to Chris Vanzee, band booster president, this is the first year the band tried to raise funds by raffling a car. Volunteers sold a total of 1,344 tickets for the fundraiser, which supports the sixth- through 12th-grade band programs.
Band Parents president Chris VanZee and treasurer Keri Bean celebrate with the winners, Karen and Jerry DeBlaay, as they take their car home from Kool Chevrolet.
“We would love to thank the community for their support of our fine band program,” Vanzee said. “It takes lots of hard work and creative fundraising to bring in enough money to put together a competitive marching band show. Thankfully we have several volunteers to help us with this great task. We had people who were eager to pound the pavement and contributed to the success of this raffle. We also appreciate Ric’s grocery store, D&W Fresh Market, The Score, Thunderbay car wash, Buffalo Wild Wings, and the City of Rockford for allowing us to bring the car to their locations and sell tickets.”
The winner, Karen DeBlaay, is a great-aunt to one of the band’s trumpet players, Travis Van’t Voort.
It was very exciting for their entire family to see someone they knew win the car. DeBlaay was very excited and was shocked that she had won. She had stated that she didn’t intend to win, but just wanted to help the band. She is very excited and would love to see the marching band perform at their next competition, the Lakeshore Invitational on Saturday, Oct. 30 at the Ted in Rockford.
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