Zydeco Bands Aid Opelousas High School Band
Event To Be Held on April 23, 2015 at
the Yambilee Building in Opelousas, Louisiana!
March 31, 2015
by Cheryl Devall
The Daily World
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| Concert promoter Dustin Cravins, center, welcomes zydeco musicians Keith Frank, left, and Chris Ardoin to the band room at Opelousas High School where they announced a fund-raising concert for the school band’s planned trip to the nation's capital. (Photo: Freddie Herpin, Daily World) |
All proceeds from an April 23 concert at the Yambilee Building will go toward sending the Opelousas High School marching band to the national Memorial Day parade in Washington, D.C.
“We’re doing it big for Opelousas Senior High and its band,” concert promoter Dustin Cravins told students assembled in the school’s band room Tuesday.
He asked how many band members had visited the nation’s capital. Two raised their hands.
“Well, we’re gonna get all y’all there,” Cravins said.
The son of the city’s former mayor Donald Cravins Sr. said that after Hurricane Gustav, his family has sponsored an annual coup de main — helping hand — charity concert and directed the proceeds toward a different organization each year.
Earlier this year the marching band got an invitation to represent Louisiana in the Memorial Day parade. Getting more than 70 students, their teachers and chaperones onto two buses will cost $20,000, band volunteer Mary Jackson said. By the end of May the band also will have to raise enough money for lodging and some meals.
So far, members have washed cars, scheduled a dance-off for April 11 and planned to sell dinners so they can help cover expenses to Washington. Band alumni have also set up an online Go Fund Me campaign that’s raised about $4,870 of its $10,000 goal, Jackson said.
Opelousas High School students have asked the St. Landry Parish Council and school district along with the Opelousas City Council for money to help with the trip. While parish president Bill Fontenot made a personal pledge, state law prohibits the councils from contributing money. The school district can offer no more than $1,000 under its rules.
For that reason, the assist from the upcoming zydeco concert could be a big deal, said band director LeRoy Ventress, who has accompanied the Tigers to parades and competitions throughout the state. He had nothing but praise for Cravins, Frank and Ardoin.
“I think it’s fantastic to donate their time for these kids,” he said. Although local councils may not have intended to send the message, Ventress said, their inability to contribute suggested to the band that “they don’t feel we’re important enough.”
Tuesday’s announcement had the opposite effect on sophomore clarinetist Markayla Guillory. “I think it’s amazing,” she said. “It makes us feel kind of special.”
Frank, who came up in his father Preston Frank’s band and includes several relatives in his Soileau Zydeco Band, called Opelousas “like a second home.
“I know these kids. I know their parents,” he said. That’s one reason he and Ardoin, leader of the NuStep zydeco band, said they responded to Cravins’ call to help.
“I approached them,” Cravins said. “We all know there are so many worthy charities. But this was such a pressing thing, with the deadline (the band) was up against.”
He praised the students for making an effort so far, and he asked them Tuesday to help with advance ticket sales. Previous coup de main concerts have raised as much as $30,000, Cravins said.
“I hope the community deems this as worthy as we do,” he said.
Clarinet player Guillory, who like most of her bandmates has not visited Washington, D.C., said she hopes to demonstrate that worthiness beyond Opelousas.
“I just want to go and see new things and see how people react to us,” she said after the announcement. “I think they’re going to be mesmerized.”
Want to help?
To learn more about donating to the band’s trip to Washington, D.C., call band director LeRoy Ventress at 337-942-3370 or donate online at gofundme.com/my3epc. OHS band members will soon have Yambilee concert tickets to sell at $10 each.
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