Wildcat Band
Commitment to Community

For more than a dozen years, WHS Band and Color Guard members have volunteered to collect food donations for our town’s Food Pantry.  Over the years, the needs of the Wilmington Food Pantry have grown. At present,  more than 75 families in town rely on the pantry for assistance.
Our food drive is traditionally held on the Saturday before Thanksgiving. For many of our students, this is their first “free” weekend since the beginning of marching band season in August. Food Drive Day begins at 8:00 am and continues for seven hours, as rotating shifts of band and guard members greet shoppers with a list of the Food Pantry’s needs and cheerfully collect donations as the shoppers leave the stores.  This year, the students were especially touched by a father and his two young daughters who purchased and donated four of every item on the list.  Other shoppers chose to donate cash, which students used to purchase large quantities of potatoes, apples, onions, apple juice, and pasta for the food pantry. At the end of the day, WHS Band proudly presented the Wilmington Food Pantry with 282 full bags of groceries.
Next to US Postal Workers, who collect food donations in the spring, we are the largest source of donations to the Wilmington Food Pantry each year.  However, the giving does not stop at Thanksgiving.  Several years ago, during difficult economic times, the Food Pantry ran out of food and their volunteers struggled to collect basics, like cereal, bread, and peanut butter & jelly.  At a meeting of the Band Parents & Friends Organization, a suggestion was made to increase the cost of concert ticket prices from $2.00 to $3.00 with the extra dollar going directly to the food pantry.  It was unanimously supported and has become a tradition at all of our concerts.  In addition to food purchases, the cash donations from concert receipts have provided for the replacement of a failing freezer at the Pantry.
The motto of the WHS Band and Color Guard is; Effort, Commitment, Pride. This motto extends not only to our musical goals and performances, but also to giving back to our town and community.