Jed Test matched $1 for each $1 donated, donating a total of $10Challenges are a great way to show your support. Be the first!
Please consider supporting the expanding number of members in Western Thunder Marching Band with a gift on UW Giving Day. Together, we’ll help these students not only get a solid education but also have a truly incredible marching band experience.
The Western Thunder Marching Band has experienced tremendous growth during the off-season. Although our numbers have fluctuated as the result COVID-19, a virtual semester, and no Cowboy Football, at the peak of our summer registration we were up to 190 students! This is a nearly fifty-member increase from the last time we took the field at the Arizona Bowl. In my second year as band director, we have had back-to-back recruiting classes of more than 70 students and a retention rate of 85%. If this trend continues, the band will be over 200 members by next year!
As you can see, there is a lot to be excited about with the future of this program. I hope that you will consider supporting our continued efforts to provide a top-notch collegiate marching band experience for our students.
Investing in you, investing in our program—that has been my message to our students throughout this challenging time. Even with the increase in enrollment, I would like our program to have high-quality matching instruments that we own, maintain, and provide to every member of the band. Our students—as members of an FBS Division I marching band—deserve this!
Thanks to a successful 2019 UW Giving Day, we were able to purchase two new high-quality sousaphones for our band. In addition, in 2020, we purchased two new tenor saxophones. New instruments are investments that not only help the 2020 band but also sustain our program for years to come.
I have a vision of being in War Memorial Stadium with the crowd cheering, the team running out onto the field led by a charging cowboy carrying our beloved Steamboat logo flag, and Western Thunder Marching Band standing proud playing Cowboy Joe with matching gold instruments!
Thank you for your support for Western Thunder Marching Band.
Joe Carver, Ph.D.
Director of the Western Thunder Marching Band
