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Written by Administrator
Friday, 07 September 2007
Booster Blog evening 11-21-09 Where did I leave off? Oh yea, we just met with Mr. Rogovin. I do remember that as we all walking out to meet with him, one of the kids yells, hey Mr. Ritz, we’re gonna throw you in the pool. I replied, If you win, you can ALL throw me in the pool! Dinner was served at 4, we had Subway. All the kids are now preparing for the show. The buzz is in the air. They are all on the bus on time and they seem to have their game faces on. We get to the dome and it is business as usual. The parking lot is pretty full. The finals are in full swing. Everyone is focused; we have been through prelims so the equipment crew gets the props to the holding area, the chaperones have the water ready, the guard moms have the uniforms ready, we are pumped. The band finds an area to stretch, it’s a small area but it will do. Stretching is over and it’s time to head to warm up A. just like last year, a crowd starts to gather in front of the band as they are practicing. I notice Jed, the percussion instructor for Park Vista watching too. The kids sound great. Time to move to the gate. Everyone in place. They all turn to the back of the stadium so they are not watching the big screen. Man are they focused! West Boca is performing and we are waiting. West Boca is done and here we go. The equipment crew helps with the props and pit and the chaperones high tail it to the dug out. Looking up in the stands we see lots of the Santaluces family. The Announcer – “from Lantana FL, Santaluces High School Marching Chiefs” Lots of cheering. “Drum Major, is your band ready?” Again, Big Chip Trinemeyer shouts “THEY’RE ALWAYS READY!” That just echoed in the entire stadium. Yasmine salutes and here they go. I gotta tell you, I LOVE THIS SHOW! The guard looks awesome, the pit is cool and the band sounds great. I can’t tell you how many times I got goose bumps. My personal high point of the Finals show was Chip Trinemeyer nailing his solo. The crowd reaction throughout the show was crazy. The end of the show is so cool. They finish and Yasmine turns around to salute again and she has a huge smile on her face! She knows they did great! Everyone off the field and outside we go. The look on the faces of some of the kids, you could tell they were pleased with themselves. As I was walking out, I was watching the staff, Mr. Rogovin, Darren, Mr. Bridges all had that look. Outside Mr. Bridges addresses the band. He tells them that he felt the prelims show was better in his opinion but what they lacked in some areas they made up in others. Mr. Rogovin asked the kids how they felt and they all cheered. He told them to head to the buses, put their instruments away, take care of the props, get some water and line back up. The excitement, I can’t explain it. The way the kids were when they were lining up, even the equipment crew was feeling it! I was talking with big Chip Trinemeyer, he was telling me how he was crying in the stands after the performance. I know he was not the only one. He said the kids in the stands next to him were commenting on the show. I heard many stories of kids around Santaluces parents in the stand saying that was the best marching show they have ever seen. I heard of people walking up to Santaluces parents saying “we loved your show” or “your show was so good!” The band walks to the dome to go watch bands. That walk is so long. We are finally inside and sitting down. We watched one band and then half the kids get up to get something to eat. Before you know it, the kids are getting up and heading to the back of the stadium for Olympic style retreat(entire band on the field). Before I go on, I have to tell you a quick story. On the concourse of the stadium, there is a booth for Mr. Video. He is the person you can buy your state videos from. Anyway, I heard some of the band kids were at the booth watching their show, they were so loud with excitement that the person on the booth had to quiet them down. The kids made the person play it again. Afterward the person had to ask them to leave the booth area because they were so loud. To me that was a true indication that they liked the show. Back to retreat. The line up all 25 full bands on the field 1A to 5A. They fill the entire football field from endzone to endzone. What a sight! They give out some awards they could not give out during the semi finals and then they give out some scholarship awards. Now on to the class placements. They do 1A, 2A, 3A. I am sitting with some band parents almost in front of our band. The anticipation is killing us. Now onto 4A. The announcer – in 5th place with a score of 79.32 Colonial High School, in 4th place with a score of 80.65 Eastridge High School, in 3rd place with a score of 83.15 Lakewood Ranch High School. This is the time where I said in my head, it is between us and West Boca. The announcer-your 2009 FMBC class 4a Runner up with a score of 85……………………..West Boca High School. The parents all around me let out this scream and then they quickly hushed and clapped for West Boca. OH MY GOD, OUR KIDS WON! The Announcer – Your 2009 FMBC class 4A State Champions with a score of 88 SANTALUCES HIGH SCHOOL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! WOOHOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO At this point I am crying like a baby. We look at the kids and Yasmine is crying too. Out comes the trophy and the banner. We get to take another banner home!!!!!! The parents give the kids a standing ovation! We want to high five each other but we are Santaluces! We will do it in private. I am numb at this point and don’t hear the 1st 5A band announced. Palm Beach County was well represented at State as well as South Florida. Palm Beach Central , Jupiter and Park Vista made finals. In 3A Stoneman Douglas won 1st place. We are still rooting for Park Vista in 5A. The announcer then says Park Vista took 4th place. We are very proud of them and give them a standing ovation too. They announce the rest of the 5A bands with the 1st place bands score being 87.4. If they awarded a grand champion for the entire event, it would have been us with an 88. Mr. Rogovin was also given an award in excellence. Darren and Mr. Rogovin go down to the field and give the kids a big hug. The Drum majors from Park Vista came over and congratulated our kids. By now, some of the bands had started to exit the dome and some of the band parents made their way onto the field until security stopped the rest from joining. In typical Santaluces fashion, they exited the stadium last and met outside. Mr. Bridges addressed the band telling them how proud he was of them and giving his usual words of wisdom. Personally, I think he is great! Mr. Rogovin addresses the kids told them to finish the night at the hotel. Yasmine brings the group to attention. Mr. Rogovin says for the final time for the 2009 year as Class 4A State Champions……….Yasmine – clap clap clap clap BAND DISMISSED! The band let out the loudest YEAAAAAA! With that, Marching season is officially over! Hugs, kisses and tears everywhere for the next 20 to 30 minutes. In typical Santaluces fashion, we celebrate privately. We are practically the last band to leave. Next the kids line up and march back to the bus. Yasmine and Chelsea are holding the trophy and carrying the banner as they march. On the bus and I just have to do it. I pick up the microphone and I say “ Listen up” I hit the button on my cell phone and out comes “We are the Champions” from Queen. All the kids join in singing and at the end they all cheer. I did this on every bus. Very cool! Next thing I hear is Mr. Ritz, You’re going in the pool! The bus ride back had the taste of sweet victory and when we arrived at the hotel, WOW! There seemed like a million Santaluces band parents there to greet and cheer for the kids. They had banners and signs, it was great. I could tell the kids really enjoyed this. Chelsea says let’s go Mr. Ritz. By the time we got back to the hotel, it was well after 1AM and the hotel would not let us do the pool thing. Somehow, I don’t think this is over yet. Lights out as soon as possible. The kids are all riled up and I am sure most will not go right to sleep. The chaperones try to round them all up and get them in their rooms, that was tough. Seemed like everyone wanted a soda or something. Finally get them taped in by like 2am. Boy am I tired! I do know someone put caution tape on Mr. Rogovin’s door(I won’t mention any names)Such mischievous adults. I wanted to write in the blog while it was fresh but it was way too late. In bed by 2:30 with a wake up call at 6:45. The boys floor seemed very noisy, My wife and I had a room on the girls floor. That floor was very quiet. The plan was to wake everyone up at 7 and have them on the bus by 8:20. Doug Swan, Vic Breffle and I took care of the boy’s floor. It took a while for the kids to answer their doors. They were all dead tired, I know how they feel. The hotel was making waffles again for the kids and everyone was making their way down to breakfast. I personally had to make 2 trips down for coffee for the boss as she was really tired too. Before you know it, the lobby was full of suitcases and kids ready to ride rollercoasters. The chaperones did a final room check as the kids all checked out. Room by room, can you imagine what a hotel room looks like that had 4 teenage boys stay in it for two nights??? I know you are picturing it. Anyway, we make our way to the lobby to say thank you to the hotel staff, they have been great to us and I am certain we will stay there again next year. Out the door and on the bus. Universal Studios here we come! On bus three, the kids were sleeping or watching the movie. The bus ride did not seem that long. Once there, Mr. Rogovin gets on each bus and tells each bus where to meet and what time to meet back at the buses. We all walk through city walk to the entrance of Islands of Adventure. Mr. Rogovin goes to the group ticket window and picks up 170 tickets. He and the chaperones hand out the tickets and their off!!!! Throughout the day everywhere you turned, you saw someone from the band. It seemed like everyone had a good time. At the end of the day we were all walking towards the exit and were directed to our buses by Thing 1 and Thing 2. Doug Swan and Kelly Breffle, our guard moms had Thing 1 and Thing 2 shirts on. You couldn’t miss them. They stood guard at the exit to make sure every member of the band went the right direction while the other chaperone took role on the buses. It was amazing, everyone was back on time this year. We called Doug and Kelly and the buses pulled out. We are on our way home. We really have some awesome parents. While we were traveling, much was happening in the background. The INCREDIBLE Shilah James had contacted the television and newspaper crews. Bonnie Christie was creating a huge banner. Shilah contacted me to say News Channel 5 would be there when we get there. Most of the kids on bus three slept. The bus ride never seems very long when you are watching a movie. We get to Okeechobee Road and we start to wake the kids. We tell the kids about the cameras being there so they will look presentable when we arrive. As we pull up, there seemed like a hundred people standing by the road with banners and signs cheering for the State Champions. We get off the buses, Mr. Rogovin is being interviewed. Next the kids are all standing behind the big banner and Yasmine, Chelsea, Brittney and Sukie are holding onto the FMBC banner. The camera turns off and it is back to business as usual, unload and clean the buses. As I am standing there talking with Vic Breffle about getting the water off the bus and all of a sudden I am DRENCHED – SOAKED TO THE BONE! Someone or many someones poured buckets of water over my head. I think this was the next best thing to the pool. Anyway, I looked up and all the kids were standing there. I let out a yell and they all screamed. I told them if they win, they could throw me in the pool. I love these kids! It was well worth it! I will say I was freezing for a little while. We finished unloading and putting everything away. The kids had their parents pick them up and we head home. WOW, WHAT A WEEKEND! A few personal thoughts (even though this all my personal thoughts) I didn’t get a chance to finish this until 9pm Monday night. It is amazing how many great videos and pictures have been posted on Facebook. I hope you followed us on Twitter because Mr. Rogovin and I kept sending Tweets throughout the entire weekend. A wise band mom and I were talking while resting in Universal Studios. She said something that really hit home. She said we all complain about how much our fair share is and some of us put that payment off but remember that our fair share payments are used to pay the staff that teaches our kids how to march and put on that awesome show. WELL THEY ARE NOW STATE CHAMPIONS! Looks like we are getting a pretty good deal! I, for one think we have the best staff in the state. I want to personally thank each and every one of them for what they have taught my children. I have loved being involved with this program and wouldn’t have traded it for a million dollars. It has been a wonderful marching season! Thank you Mr. Rogovin! Booster Blog evening 11-21-09 It is 2:35am on Sunday morning. We finally got all the kids taped in their rooms. It has been an incredible day. We are FMBC Class 4A State Champions. We go to Universal Studios in the morning. I am really tired and I promise I will finish the blog Monday evening. I have some really cool things to tell you. Thanks for understanding. Blog afternoon update 11-21-09 6am wake up call and some of the faces as they come to the door, whew, not a pretty sight. Anyway, I haven’t spoken about the hotel. This is a great place to stay if you have 130 kids. It is 5 floors. The boys are on the 3rd floor and the girls are on the 4th floor. The lobby is small, oops, I guess I am speaking as a chaperone and from a chaperone point of view, this hotel is perfect. We performed at 10:20ish this morning. This leaves a bunch of free time at the hotel where the kids have nothing to do. Let me just say the kids have been great! Back to the kids, breakfast downstairs. The hotel has set up an area and is making waffles for the kids. In halves and on the bus by 7:35. Take roll and on the road. I have never been on the bus with the seniors and I kinda like it that way. It is always cool when the freshmen see the dome for the 1st time. The look on their faces, the kids all going whoa, that’s cool. We get to the dome and it’s business as usual. The award winning equipment and prop crew starts unloading the equipment, the kids get off the bus and get their instruments, the equipment crew loads the cases back on the trailer. I know you feel like you have seen or heard this a thousand time before, Every away game, every competition, they have been doing this all year long. Off they go to stretch and start warming up. 9:38 is official warm up time in warm up C. The kids sound great. We leave warm up C and start heading to a 10:20 gate time. The equipment crew had already set up the props right near the back entrance to the stadium. Next thing you know, we are on the baseball warning track of the stadium ready to go on right after West Boca. 10:34 performance and here they go. Santaluces Drum Major, is your band ready? Big Chip Trinemeyer belts out – THEY’RE ALWAYS READY! Somehow I believe in my heart that at each competition performance the kids wait for to hear that. A kinda “now we’re ready” a deep sigh of relief, an exhale type of thing. Yasmine starts the band and there they go. If you could only see the kids on the big screen, so cool. Before you know it, they are done. We have some wounded kids and they gave it their all. I know they have one more show left in them. Next it is picture time and then Mr. Rogovin addresses the band. He asks how many kids felt like they had their best show, a couple raise their hands. He asks how many can do better next show, they all raise their hands. Time to go back to the buses. They hold their heads up high and march in typical Santaluces fashion. Back at the buses, the equipment crew is loading the prop truck and trailer, our great trip hostess Rhonda DeSousa and her faithful assistant Barb Provenzano are awaiting the kids with cold water and hot pizza. They put their instruments away and start eating. Afterwards, the seniors, Yasmine and Mr. Rogovin head back to dome for retreat. The rest of us head back to the hotel to await the results. Again, it never ceases to amaze me how the word travels so fast. You can be sitting there and all of a sudden the doors open and you hear the kids say, “did you hear?” before you know it, the entire band is in the know. Rumor had it we came in first place in prelims. Mr. Rogovin arrives and meets with the entire band. He said the color guard took first place out of 8 bands and the percussion took fourth. Then he said we came in 1st place. West Boca is in second behind us by .9. Tells them to go out and handle it like they would, not to over play it just to get the job done. Tell us that dinner will be at 4pm, load the bus by 5:20. We go into warm up at 7:16 and we perform last in our class at 8:12. 11-20-09 Hi everyone. First I want to apologize for not blogging sooner but as I get older, life seems to get busier and I find I have less down time to do stuff. Anyway, here we are, Friday, November 20th. The day before the band performs in FMBC in Tampa. The day started as a normal school day for all the kids except this time they brought in their luggage. My wife Dawn and I are going on the trip as chaperones. Around 9am the chaperones start to check the kid’s luggage for things they shouldn’t bring on the trip, such as a VCR or Playstation etc. It is always comical when we do this because we find the craziest things. After bag check, the bags were loaded under the bus. Most of the equipment was loaded last night so the only thing left was a few instruments they would be using for the pep rally this morning. After the pep rally was over, the equipment was loaded and the carry on stuff was taken to the buses. We got on the road about 10:20. Dawn and I rode on bus 3. This is not my first trip to State but year after year the kids crack me up on the bus. We watched Superman for our first movie. We stopped for lunch in Bartow around 1pm. The choices, McDonalds, Wendys or KFC. No matter which one you pick, the line is 30 kids deep. Lunch is over at 2pm and back on the road. We started watching the new Star Trek movie. I say started because we got to our practice field around 3:45 or so and we didn’t get to watch the whole movie. Gaither HS was our host for the afternoon. Some of the kids are familiar with this sight; we were here 2 years ago. They practice in the drivers ed area, all asphalt. It is amazing watching this entire “production” get set up and torn down. The prop and equipment trailer are being unloaded by the best band parents a band could have. All set up and the kids are warming up. After warm up, it is time for quality practice time. Again, getting there at 3:45 doesn’t give us too much daylight. I was sitting up front right next to Yasmine. I had a front row seat. The show is so cool and the music was so loud, I got goose bumps. Around 6pm Mr. Bridges addresses the group and tells them this is what they have been working towards since May. They know how to do it, they just need to go to the dome and do it! Mr. Rogovin tells them this is the best band he has ever taught and to go out there and do their best. He speaks to them about behavior at dinner and tells them to pack it up. 7:30 we are in front of Golden Corral and ready to pig out. As I am sitting there after eating, I look around at these kids and realize how different the world has changed since we came to State last year. Almost every kid had and iPhone or iPod and a camera. Here we are, Mr. Rogovin and myself were logging into Twitter and sending out up the minute texts messages called Tweets. I was riding on the bus checking my Facebook. We hadn’t even gotten to Jupiter and Amy had already posted on her facebook that she was on the way to Tampa with the kids. Dinner was quite comical and the kids all seemed to have a good time. I watched Brandon eat Jello through a straw. We got to the Hotel by 9:30ish. When the kids got off the bus, they grabbed their suitcase and went to the lobby. The hotel seems real nice. They allowed us to put all the uniform carts in a room off to the left when you walk in. Yes, I did say uniform carts. This year, Kathy and Marc Cline rented a trailer to take the carts in so we didn’t have to throw them all under the bus. Thanks Marc and Kathy. In the hotel, Mary Jane and Tony Tortora are helping distribute the uniform while Rhonda DeSousa and Barb Provenzano are handing out room keys. Thanks to Rhonda for organizing the trip and getting this hotel. We like this hotel, we have all the boys on one floor and the girls on the other. The lobby is just the right size. Room check and lights out at 10:45. Wake up call at 6am. I hope you have been getting our tweets. I know Mr. Rogovin and I are having fun sending them out. If you can’t get it on your phone, go to the band website and click on the Twitter Feeds and follow along, we will be sending them out all day. My next blog entry will be after we perform and are waiting to find out if we are in the finals tomorrow. Booster Blog update 9-7-09 Happy Labor Day to everyone. I have to tell you right off the bat; this year is off to a different kinda start. We’re gonna have props in our show, the band marches out to a different cadence, we have a new drum major, the guard has a costume change during the show and we have a totally different half time show. Bunch of stuff on my mind so here I go. Preseason football game – I work all the down in Davie now and worked late that evening so I didn’t get to the game until halftime. We were playing Park Vista. The place was packed and when I got there, I had to park in the faculty lot. As I was walking through the parking lot to see the kids play the half time show, I could see the scoreboard, 21 – 3. I thought, we aren’t losing that bad…..When I got in, WE WERE WINNING! We were beating Park Vista…. The kids performed the half time show, looked like they had fun. ( I have to give the kids and staff credit. They had to learn a halftime show and they are learning the competition show)anyway, back to the football game. 4th quarter and we won!!!!! I know it was just preseason, but we still beat Park Vista. It was great to see the kids playing stand tunes, watch them march back to the band room to the cadence and listen to Mr. Rogovin address them at the end. When Dawn and I joined the band boosters when our oldest daughter Ashley was in color guard as a freshman in 2003, we had no idea what we were getting ourselves into. We were never really involved with elementary or middle school, but this band program thing was overwhelming. Here we are in 2009, our seventh year, 3rd child in band. The things this program and Mr. Rogovin teach your child….amazing! If you are a new parent, get involved with every aspect of the program. Go to a football game, get there early, watch the kids line up before they march, watch them march to the field to the cadence, sit down in front of them in the stands and watch them play stand tunes, watch the halftime show, watch them march back and then listen to what Mr. Rogovin says to them as he dismisses them. Then watch their growth as a band and as a person throughout the year. He teaches them many things one of which is CLASS. Fundraising - We are in the middle of a “Enjoy the City” coupon book fundraiser which ends September 21st. Dennis Kunin will be sitting outside of the band room every evening after the band has practice to collect the money for the sold books and give out more books to anyone interested in selling more. Practice - Speaking of after practice, for safety reasons, please do not park along the fence while waiting to pick up the kids. We are talking about teenagers here and some of them drive. Please make sure you park in a parking spot while you wait. Football games – no one but designated chaperones are permitting in the stands or on the field with the kids, this includes alumni. If you need to communicate with your child, please speak with one of the chaperones and they will get the message to them. Meetings – Please make every effort to attend the parent meetings every month. We try to keep them to one hour. This is a great way to stay informed as we know, living with teenagers, we don’t always get the info we need from them. The meetings are held every 2nd Tuesday of the month in the band room. The next meeting is this Tuesday, Sept. 8th at 7pm. Fundraisers – There is a fundraiser link on the band website. We will try to inform you as much as possible about upcoming fundraisers. A few of our biggest ones are coming up very quickly so keep in touch. Also, Dennis Kunin is in charge of all fundraising activities but he is only one person. It would be great if we have some people volunteer to head up some of the upcoming events. Last year, Kathy McDaniels did a wonderful job with the Pumpkin patch, Sheri Masi ran Lantana Winterfest and Mary Jane Swanson took care of Middle school districts. Many thanks to them for their efforts. Click on the Fundraiser link and see which one you can help out with. Shadows – Some of the parents on the board are senior parents and will be leaving us after this school year and some of will still be here for many years to come. The booster organization transition from year to year needs to be effortless. How we make this happen is to shadow those parents doing their jobs so we know how to do them next year. The positions that need to be shadowed are: President, Financial Secretary, Treasurer, Secretary and Uniform committee chair. Roseanne Rodriguez has stepped up to shadow Barbara Provenzano for Secretary and Kristy Wysong is now shadowing Chris Hull, our Financial Secretary. Thank you very much ladies for stepping up. 2 other very important positions need to be shadowed, Treasurer, the person that keeps Mr. Rogovin in check with the budget, helps keep our finances in order and writes all the checks. Sandra Stevens has been doing an outstanding job for the past couple of years and I thank her very much. Next, Uniform committee chair person is a vital position especially during the summer band camps as they are fitting all of the kids for their uniforms. Really important we get someone to step up now so they can see what happens during football season. Tina Pace is the Chair with the help of Mary Jane Tortora. Thanks ladies. Twitter – Again teenagers and texting go hand in hand. Well Twitter is a text message application that the band is using to keep everyone informed in “real time”. Picture this: last Thursday night, the band is playing at Spanish River High School in Boca Raton. It is a rainy night and you, the parents, don’t feel like getting your hair wet by going to the game. The kids are not allowed to take their cell phone on the bus and you’re waiting up to hear from your child so you know when to go pick them up. You’re sitting on the couch and you get this text on your phone at 9:51pm Chiefs won 19-0! On our way back to school. ETA 15 minutes. How helpful is that? This is what Twitter is all about. Log onto www.twitter.com to set up your FREE account and then you can “follow” SantalucesBand on Twitter! Please note the exact name/spelling in bold. Facebook – The kids have Myspace and Mychiefspace,the adults have Facebook. The band has a Facebook page too. Go to the bottom of the band website and click the Facebook link to set up your own account. Fairshare – I can’t stress this enough, please make sure you stay current with your fair share. We have to run this just like a business and fair share payments at this time of year is our income. Paying the staff, purchasing pumpkins for the pumpkin patch, buying materials to builds the props, printing the football program etc. are all expenses we have to pay now and the school will not allow us to write checks without the money in our accounts. Please make sure you pay your fair share. Well that’s it for now, Until next time, Ron Chief’s Update 7-12-09 Hello Chiefs, I hope everyone is having a great summer. I wanted to update the blog with some current and future information to keep you up to date. We are “gettin” with the times – Social Networking. For the latest up to the minute info on the band, go to the main page of the website and follow us on Twitter or Facebook. You can get the latest tweets on your cell phone. I want to thank all the people that worked 4th at Lantana and 4th on Flagler. Of all of the events we do, these seem like the hardest of all because the heat and the holiday. You all gave up your holiday for the band and we all thank you very much. A special thanks to Tina Pace for heading up 4th at Lantana and Tammy Dausel for heading up 4th on Flagler. There are still some students who have not turned in their medical forms or paid the band camp fee. These students will not be able to participate in the upcoming band camp without the forms or the payment. Tammy Dausel, our 1st Vice President will be at school to collect the forms and will be able to notarize them. We have passed the June 30th date for football ads. All ads sold during the previous year are now up for grabs. If you sold an ad last year and have not renewed it, you need to do it as soon as possible. We will be at school both evenings during band camp to collect ads. A reminder that all or most of your fair share can be paid through football ad sales. Bonnie Christie will be catering food for band camp Thursday, go to the main page of the website for a link to the menu. Also please go to the Booster page for more info from Bonnie. We are also trying to hold a Golf outing on August 8th. Please contact Dennis Kunin at This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it or call him at 561-572-7150 for more details. Please don’t forget that your first fair share payment was due on July 10th. Your student can drop off the payment in the payment box inside the band room during band camp. Remember, if you have sold football ads equal to or more than owed for your fair share, you do not need to pay during the month of July. On a personal note, Dawn and I would like to thank the band for the nice floral arrangement sent by the band for her mom’s funeral. For those of you that have known us for a while, you know Dawn’s mom had been battling cancer for a long time and lived with us for the past nine months. She passed away on June 24th. Thank you again. Remember to follow us on Twitter, Until next time, Ron Chief’s Update 2-26-09 Hello Chiefs, I sent this out in email form on Thursday evening but I know most people get my email, so this is for the few that just read the website. We will be hosting Middle School Districts Friday afternoon March 6th and most of the day Saturday March 7th. The hospitality group could use your help with some donated food items. The following is from Bonnie Christie – To those of you who have already signed up for something, Thank you! =) We still need volunteers for the following items: 1 - quiche (any kind) Coffee creamers (assorted flavors) 1 - tomato 1 - red onion 1 - container Feta cheese 1 - small can black olives 1 - small bottle of italian dressing 2 - small packages of assorted sliced cheese 1 - box assorted crackers 1 - medium size basket with assorted individual wrapped snacks, mints, nuts... 2 - small pasta salads Please let me know if you can bring some of these items. Thank you. Bonnie Christie, 561.722.4578 Our next parent meeting is Tuesday, March 10th at 7 PM in the band room. We will be taking nominations for the Executive Board of Directors for the next school year. We will also be talking about the state of the band program. Some of the things we do during the school year like march in the state competition are in jeopardy with some of us so far behind in our fair share. It is very important that you attend this meeting so we all know where we are headed. Speaking of fair share, March 10th is also the last scheduled payment for the 2008-2009 school year. As of March 10th, WE ALL should be paid in full. On a personal note, I want to thank everyone that attended the last parent meeting and signed my birthday card. That was a nice surprise. Also, I would like to congratulate Dawn Gill and Bobby Thompson on their engagement. You guys make a great couple! I hope to see you all at the parent meeting! Until next time, Ron Chief’s State Update 11/23 2:45am We boarded the bus at 5pm to go to finals. Same routine as prelims, get instruments, stretch, go to warm ups and then into the dome. I will say that the last portion of warm up was very intense as the music sounded awesome. The kids march on the field and set up. The announcer says, “Santaluces, is your band ready?” Chip Trinnemeyer always yells – “We’re always ready” He jumps up on the edge of the dugout and begins to yell but stops because he is being drowned out. The entire Park Vista band yells “They’re always ready!” TOO COOL! Everyone is psyched! They hit the first note and WOW. You can tell as they go through the 1st song, they are on! Again WOW. The show is over and we have goose bumps. They march off the field and towards the parking lot. Cooper City is the last to perform in 4A and as we are exiting the tunnel, they are lined up ready to enter. As we walk by, their drum majors are at attention saluting our band. I can’t tell you how cool that is. There is such a bond between those two bands as you have seen after most competitions when they all mingle and congratulate each other. Outside our band assembles in their circle so Mr. Rogovin can address them. The first thing he says is “Thank You” “Thank you for entertaining us for 7 ½ minutes”. He asked how they feel and the band lets out a huge cheer. He told them it was their best show ever. He tells them how all of the instructors were cheering wildly for them in the stands and then tells them they are the team to beat. They rocked. Hugs and kisses to everyone, tears are flowing as the seniors realize it is their last performance. As we march back to the bus, you can just feel the energy. They know they were the best they could be. We get back to the bus and Barb Provenzano and her crew fed us Subs and chips. Her crew has done a great job all weekend. While we are eating, Cooper City marches past us after their performance. Our entire band cheers for them as they walk by. We finish eating and head back to the stadium and into our seats to watch the rest of the 5A and 3A bands. After the bands perform the kids go to the back entrance of the stadium to line up for full retreat. Full retreat is where instead of just the drum majors and guard captains on the field to accept the awards, the entire band is there. 25 bands line up, 5 for each class. They start announcing scores, first 1A, then 2A, then 3A and then on to our class. In fifth place with a score of 81.13, Lakewood Ranch. In fourth place with a score of 84.81, Durant. We all just said WOW. Durant was in 2nd place going into finals. In third place with a score of 85.31, Cypress Creek. It is between Santaluces and Cooper City. 1st runner up with a score of 86.13, Santaluces High School. 2008 FMBC State Champions with a score of 87.31, Cooper City High School. We all cheer for Cooper City. After they announce the 5A bands, They ask the 3rd, 4th and 5th place bands to leave so they can give the champs and the runners up their medals. In typical Santaluces fashion, Eric, Yasmine, Suky & Lauren march to front of the Cooper City kids and Salute them. This organization is so classy! A few minutes later, our band and Cooper are mingling and congratulating each other. VERY COOL. The Chaperones leave the dome and head back to the bus. We make it there before the band. We are standing there waiting with the equipment crew. Cooper City marches by with their banner and our parents all cheer for them. Then here comes our band, we go nuts. Our kids did Great! We are so proud of them! Mr. Rogovin addresses them again and tells him how proud he is of how they conducted themselves, how they performed and how they treated Cooper. He talked about it not being all about winning. If we are going to lose at least it is to our friends. Eric calls them to attention and Mr. Rogovin releases them for the very last time for marching season. We board the buses and head back to the hotel. Our buses was so upbeat, they were singing the Dora the Explorer song. We wake at 7:30 and board the buses for Busch Gardens at 8:15. We will be home around 9:30 Sunday night. I will not add another state entry after this one. And just like that, marching season is over. Chief’s State Update 11/22 2:40pm I forgot to mention a couple of things that happened on our bus yesterday. As we were approaching the huge St. Petersburg bridge we heard all the kids talking about it. Some scared, some saying its cool but the volume level sure did increase when it came into sight. It wasn’t much longer and the dome was in view. I asked how many freshman we had on the bus and there were quite a few. We got up just before 6am and walked around taking the tape off of the doors and waking kids up. Breakfast downstairs at 7 – bagels, bananas and juice. On the bus at 8:15 and off to the dome. As we were being escorted through the parking lot to out spot, Cooper City was lining up to go to warm up. When they noticed it was us, they all waved. Off the bus so the kids can pick up the equipment. Mr. Rogovin and the staff lead them to an area of the stadium parking lot so they can stretch and start their warm up routine. They spread out as the guard goes off to the right, the drumline goes to the left, the band in the middle while the pit stays behind with the equipment. They assemble as a unit and head to the official warmup area at 10:06am. The pit is now with the group but again, they separate. The guard is doing their thing, the pit and drumline are together now and the rest of the band is warming up. As we are standing their watching, a group of about 15 kids from another band walk up and starts watching the drumline. They didn’t leave until we left for the gate. On our way to the gate we pass Cooper City who has already performed. They get together as a unit and yell Good Luck Santaluces. VERY COOL. This is the ball park where the Tampa Rays play. We enter the dome from a door in the outfield. There is a privacy fence blocking the area where the bands perform. The jumbo tron displays the current band so our band turns around so they don’t watch. Very intense waiting to march out. Finally it is our turn. As they announce our name, we get a nice cheer from the crowd. The equipment crew does what they do best and the chaperones go into the dugout. Santaluces, is your band ready? Chip yells out “ We’re always ready!” They start. It sounds really weird because of the dome, everything echos. I am sure that throws the freshman off. It looks like they do well. They finish and march out of the dome to take pictures. Once pictures are done, we march back to put equipment away. Now it is back to the dome to watch Park Vista perform. This is the 1st time I have seen their entire show, very cool. While sitting in the stands, a girl from another band tells one of our guard, they were amazing. After, we march back to the buses so we can eat lunch. Mr. Rogovin gathers up all the seniors and senior parents so they can go to retreat. They rest of us go back to the hotel and eat pizza in the parking lot. Now back in the hotel to rest until the 3pm meeting. Just before 3 we hear that one of the parents has text one of the kids with some results but the they don’t seem to know all the details. The rumors are flying. It is a shame this has to happen and not wait for Mr. Rogovin to address the group. 3pm and everyone is outside by the buses awaiting his arrival. The bus shows up and he has his meeting. WE MADE FINALS. We are seated third. Cooper City is first, Durant is second, we are third followed by Lakewood Ranch and Cypress Creek. Mr. Rogovin tells the band that he is right where he feels they need to be. They are so used to winning all year and maybe they aren’t hungry enough. Mr. Bridges tells them they have to earn it. They need to walk out there and own it and make every other band come after them.We leave the hotel at 5 and perform at 7:02 pm. We are out of 1st place by .6 The top five bands are all tough! It will be an interesting night. Congrats Cooper City. More later tonight, Ron Chief’s State update 11/21 11:47pm Hi Chief fans, Our day started out bright and early at school by 7:15AM to drop off our luggage in the band room. We were then all assembled in the PAC for announcements while the chaperones went through all the bags. We loaded the 3 buses around 8:30 and were on the road before 9. Around 11AM the equipment trailer blew a tire. Our equipment crew is the best, they had the tire changed in no time and were back on the road The spare is as old as the trailer so they didn’t feel comfortable riding on that tire so the worlds best equipment crew split up. The trailer stayed behind the buses while someone went to buy a new tire. We stopped for lunch around 11:30. Seeing we had three buses, we split up. 1 bus went to McDonalds while the other two buses went to Arbys and Burger King. 45 minutes and back on the road. We arrived at St. Petersburg High School for practice. We were on a small practice field with no lights. They practiced until dark. They sounded great! By the time it got dark, it was pretty chilly outside. Back on the bus and off to Piccadilly Circle for dinner. We all had a good time. So back on the bus and off to the hotel. It is nice because the Piccadilly Circle, the hotel and the Tropicana Dome are very close together. We are staying in the Hilton. Very nice but we are spread out all over the hotel. After a couple of rooms had to be moved because of bad toilets, we got all the kids taped in and lights out. It is really great to see all the parents staying here in the hotel. I have a feeling the kids are going to put on a great show. Well, we knock on the kids door at 6AM for a really big day. We will be back at the hotel around 2pm so I will try to update around that time. Until then, Ron 11-7-08 Hi Chiefs, main Invitational info so please read, WE ARE STILL SHORT ONE PERSON FOR CONCESSION ON 2ND SHIFT I wanted to use this email to prepare you for the day Saturday. For those of you that have worked Invitational before, you know how much work this is but those of you doing this for the first time, this is info you will need. AND LET ME SAY THANK YOU TO EVERYONE If you are bringing any baked goods, you can drop them off at the information tent inside of the stadium entrance. As I have mentioned in the past, the paid fair share shifts are 1 – 6 and 6 – 10:30. We will start setting everything up at 9AM. We would appreciate any and every ones help during this time. The kids will be released from practice at noon so they can help set up. When you first arrive, you need to sign in at the volunteer tent inside the football field gate and get an event staff lanyard from Kim Glover so you get credit for your fairshare. If you are working both shifts, you will need to park behind the stadium and not in the parking lot. If you have never done this before, we suggest you come about an hour early so your section leader can do a complete walkthrough with you or answer any questions you may have. If you have a band shirt, please wear it. If not, wear something either red or black. As for bottoms & shoes, wear what you will be comfortable in. If it is going to be hot, you can wear shorts, if it is to be cool, wear jeans....or whatever you will be comfortable in. If you are working all day, I suggest bringing a jacket or sweatshirt in case it gets cooler in the evening. If you are working both shifts, you will be given a food ticket for a meal. If you are only working one shift, please eat before you come or you can certainly buy from the concession stands. The day will go by very fast once the bands start to perform. The 1st band goes on at 3pm. Our band performs at 8:45. Only senior parents will be allowed to leave their posts to see the kid’s last performance on our football field. The awards ceremony will follow and trophies given out. During the awards we will start cleaning up. Once the kids change clothes, they will be required to come back out to the stadium to help tear everything down. No student will be released until we are done. It won’t take long so everyone pitch in. On a personal note, the past few years our show has been standing room only. The parking lot has been filled to the brim and people parking out on Lawrence Rd. Just like our band, our show has a great reputation for excellence. In case you should have any issues with band directors, staff, students or visitors, please do not address it yourself. Please contact Dennis Kunin or myself and it will be taken care of. You can reach me on my cell: (561) 723-1768. Please smile and be very courteous to our guests and to each other. Remember to treat people the way you would want to be treated. If you get to the check-in tent and you are not doing a job you like or you are not working with someone you like, please remember why we are all doing this – OUR KIDS and this great band program. Remember, let’s have a great show! I have included a copy of the schedule and a map of the campus. Good luck to everyone and see you Saturday, Ron 9-21-08 Hey Chiefs I gotta tell ya it’s so cool to see the band line up for the first football game of the year. Eric calls them to attention, they start to march and then the cadence begins. I get chills. My last of three children in the band is a sophomore and is marching this year. Last year he was in the pit. This year he is on the drum line. Very exciting for Dawn and I. I hope you walked back with the band and listened to Mr. Rogovin address the band. The show looks pretty cool. I don’t know about you but I can’t wait to see the finished product. The band will be competing in their first competition next Saturday. If you have never been to a marching band competition then you are in for a treat. Go early and watch as many bands as you can. I sent out an email today and in it I mention competition etiquette. The Santaluces band has a great reputation as a classy organization. You will see what I mean as you watch the way our band conducts themselves throughout the event. Good luck to them this week. We have many big fundraisers coming up, please get involved. It will be a lot of work but you will enjoy it all. If you are a 1st year parent, ask any 2nd year parent how much fun they had this past year. Don’t be shy, jump right in and help out somewhere. The fours years your child will be in the band will fly by. This is my sixth year and I can’t believe how fast it has gone by. Your child my not seem like they want you around, but they really do. Remember, everything we do as boosters are for the kids in the band program. I hope to see you Friday and Saturday, Ron 9-7-08 Hello my friends. I am posting these BAD email addresses on the blog. If you see an address that resembles your email address, please email me at This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it and give me your correct address. 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For those of you that have not visited the band website, the address is www.santalucesband.net. This is the main form of communication. You can view the calendar for upcoming events, download forms and you can even read the booster blog. Bookmark the site and visit often! By now, we all should have paid June, July and August’s fair share payments. If you haven’t done this yet, please do so. You can send in a check with your student to practice. Your student will not be allowed to participate in certain events if they are not current with their fair share. Any fair share questions, you can contact Trish Townend at This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it . The deadline for football ads is August 29th. This is one of our biggest fundraisers and starts the year off with a bang. It is a great opportunity for your student to make a dent in his or her fair share. This year to date students have sold about $3700 worth of ads. If every band member sold 5 $20 ads, we would have well over $10,000 Please contribute by selling ads. You can turn the ads in to the booster drop box in the band room. If you have content to contribute, you can do so by contacting Adam Fiveson at 432-9959 or This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it . The next 3 1/2 months are going to be very busy for the booster organization. Please make it a priority to be involved as much as you possibly can. Without everyone’s participation, the events we have scheduled can not be properly staffed. I will give you some idea of what is ahead of us. Our first big MANDATORY parent meeting is Friday, August 29th at 6pm. You need to mark that day on your calendar. Everyone is asked to bring some sort of dessert (finger food). After the meeting we will go out to the field and see what the kids have been working on all summer long. It will be our first glimpse of this years show. Come early as there will be many opportunities to sign up for events that pay fair share. This meeting is very informative. Our first football game is an away game at Boynton Beach High School on Friday, September 5th. The band plays stand tunes and performs their show during halftime…oh, and there’s a football game played too. Watching the kids in the stands is a blast! I can’t wait! Our first home game is one week later. There will be opportunities to earn fair share at the games selling football programs and funnel cakes. Sign up sheets will be posted at the parent meeting. September will be filled with home and away football games. Chaperone sign up sheets will be at the parent meeting. October brings the world famous Santaluces High School Pumpkin Patch. This is usually 2 solid weeks selling pumpkins. Again, a very large fundraiser and many, many opportunities to work and earn fair share. This is one of the events the kids can work if they don’t have practice or competitions. Sign up sheets at the parent meeting. October also has the Marching Chiefs performing at different area competitions. November Santaluces will host our Annual Marching Chiefs Invitational held 11/8. Another of our major money making events. We need many people to work this event. Our Invitational is known statewide and schools from all over come to compete. It is the 2nd to last event before the FMBC State competition. More info as it gets closer and sign up sheets at the parent meetings. State competition is 11/22 in Tampa. After being a part of everything going on in August, September, October and November, you won’t want to miss going to see the band perform in Tampa. Many of you first time parents will have questions. I hope you have all signed up for a band buddy. If you don’t, you can have one assigned to you at the parent meeting in August. Last but not least I wanted to share some personal feelings with all of you. Dawn and I have 3 children. Ashley, Kaitlyn and Cory. Ashley graduated from Santaluces in 07. Ashley and Kaitlyn are/were in the Color guard. Kaitlyn is now senior. Cory is a sophomore this year and is on the drumline. It has been 5 of the best years of my life being involved with my kids and the band. Being at every football game, every marching competition, going to winterguard competitions. I have enjoyed being with my kids and the other kids from the band. The other kids become your kids. You make great friends with the other parents; some of them become friends for life! I extend an invitation to each and every one of you to get involved. Some of you say your kids don’t want you around. You don’t have to be right next to them to be involved. Go to every meeting. Be heard, help mold the kids. It is hard work and some of it is down right time consuming but I promise you will feel rewarded. It has been 5 great years and I look forward to the remaining 3. I wouldn’t miss it for the anything! I hope you will be right there with me. With much regards, Ron Ritz Chief’s Update 6-28-08 Hello Chiefs, This is the first blog entry for the year and I hope all has been well for the summer so far. Our first Fair Share payment was due June 10th. If you have turned in football ads that equal or surpass the amount due, then no payment is due. Please stay current with your Fair Share. You child had an opportunity to sign up for a meal for Saturday’s dinner break on June 26th. If you happen to be free during that time, I am sure Cindy Bhebe could use some help handing out the food. Please be in front of the band room at 5pm. Adam Fiveson will be hosting the 2nd Fundraising committee meeting Saturday, June 28, at 1pm at the Duffy’s Restaurant corner of Hypoluxo and Congress. If you have any fundraising ideas, please come and share them with us. Lunch is on Adam. The Financial Contract and the Medical forms should have been turned in by June 26th. Remember, the medical forms must be notarized!! If you turned them in with out being notarized, Trish Townend will be at the school during the dinner break on Saturday June 28th. Remember, if you have football program ads from last year, you must make arrangements with the advertiser so you can get credit for that ad. After June 30th, all ads are fair game for anyone. You can turn your ads in after each band practice or you can contact Mr. Fiveson at This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it or 561-432-9959. Dawn Gill is still in need of help to man the ticket booths at 4th on Flagler. We sell tickets for the food vendors during the free event right on Flagler Drive in beautiful downtown West Palm Beach. The event is 4 – 10 pm and you are paid Fair Share towards your students Fair Share account. Please contact Dawn Gill at This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it or This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it or call her at 561-635-7968. We are still looking for people or a person to head the food committee, please feel free to contact me if you are interested. My number is 561-723-1768 or email me at This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it If you are a new parent and have not received your information packet yet, please contact Kim Glover at This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it or call her 561-967-1101. Also, if you would like to get on or email distribution list early, please email at This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it Until next time, Ron 2007 - 2008 blog entries Chief’s Update 5-9-08 I can’t believe this year is almost over and marching practice has begun again. Sunfest went off without a hitch. 2 days and 5 nights of selling tickets for the food vendors. We had more kids working this year than any other year I can remember and what a great group of kids they were. They did a fantastic job. The food vendor was 100% pleased with our work. I want to send out a big THANK YOU to Kim Glover and Jean Simpson for chairing this event. I would also like to thank all the adults that worked as relief people. Great Job everyone. After the great job done at Sunfest, the food vendor turned right around and asked us to be cashiers for 4th on Flagler. Dawn Gill will be looking for volunteers for this event. I look forward to seeing everyone at the annual band banquet. I know Mary Twist has done a tremendous job preparing for this event and we will all have a good time tomorrow night. REMINDER – TICKETS WILL NOT BE SOLD AT THE DOOR! The big parent meeting in May will be May 28th. Time will be announced soon. Until next time, Ron Chiefs update 4-27-08 Hello Chiefs, Here we are, another Sunfest is right around the corner. I hope you are all ready. Don’t forget about the Sunfest meeting this Tuesday evening in the band room at 7pm. If you are working any shifts, please be at the meeting. The last day to purchase banquet tickets is Wednesday 4/30. Mrs. Twist will be at school Monday and Wednesday to collect money and hand out tickets. Remember it is cash or money order only. Tickets prices are $35 per person. If you students fair share is paid in full, then their ticket is free. Banquet is May 10th. If you didn’t make it to the last parent meeting, we amended the bylaws regarding the definition of “monies” Here is what was amended. ARTICLE IX POLICIES Student “Fair Share”: b: The monies remaining in the student’s account at the end of the school year will revert back to the band parents general account and will be used to defray the next year’s budget. b: The monies remaining which are defined as “fair share earned” in the student’s account at the end of the school year will revert back to the band parents general account and will be used to defray the next year’s budget. Fair share earned cannot be counted towards any band trips. c. The monies remaining which are defined as “cash paid overages” in the students account at the end of the school year will be carried over into the student’s account for the next school year. Senior parents will have 30 days from graduation date to request a refund of any defined “cash paid overages” in the students account at the end of the school year. After such time, any cash paid overages not requested within 30 days after graduation date will revert back into the general fund. Cash paid overages can be used for any band trips. This is effective immediately. A revised copy of the bylaws will be posted on the website soon. Our incoming 2nd VP as of May 1st, Adam Fiveson, has written a letter that will be part of the packet this year. He asked me to post it. Please read. Welcome, new parents and welcome back to our returning parents to what I hope will be a wonderful season for our excellent music program. As many of you know, as of last parent meeting, I’m now 2nd V.P. for Ways and Means and I wanted to take this moment to assure you all that I will do this job as well as I know how, and I will take the job as seriously as I take the managing of my own business. While I understand how overwhelming it can be for new parents to receive all of this information at once, it’s my hope to get a jump on things this year in order to ensure that our kids have the resources available to them which they need to keep our program afloat. We have always just barely kept our heads above water in years past with Fair Share, which revolves around the raising of capital by either direct payment or by working at our fundraising events. However it’s ALWAYS a challenge collecting this money and we are ALWAYS in dire need of funds. It is my intention for us to eventually do away with Fair Share altogether and raise the kinds of funds through corporate sponsorship and community involvement which will allow this band to concentrate on what it does best, which is making beautiful music, promoting physical fitness, and helping us as parents raise our children with discipline, a strong work ethos, and good leadership values. I intend to do the best I can with the task, and I will not rest until we have taken the bulk of the financial burden of running this band off of Mr. Rogovin’s shoulders as well as our own. I am writing you now to enlist your help as there are MANY things that you can do to help make this dream come alive. First and foremost we need to ensure that all of our regularly scheduled “staffed” events such as Sunfest, The Pumpkin Sales, and the The Delray Affair, just to name a few, are well run and well staffed. To that end, I would love it if I could find one person to chair each event. Chairing simply means that you will keep track of the people manning the event as well as being there for setup and takedown. You will also be tasked with handling any “issues” which crop up during your event and you will interface directly with me on the day to day running of the your chosen affair. I personally will do everything I can to help you to staff your event and will provide you with material support, and it’s a great way to get to know the kids and your fellow band parents. By taking charge of an event you will be taking a real leadership role in the bands fundraising efforts, and you will have the chance to make a difference in all our children’s lives. What follows is a list of the proposed venues for the next year and their APPROXIMATE dates. If you feel like you could manage one of these events, please let me know as soon as possible so that we can make sure that each project’s chair has all the information needed to do their job. It’s important to note that these dates and requirements are just estimates, as we get closer to the school year… we will tighten them up a bit, but I believe it’s a good idea though to get commitments as soon as possible. Banner Maintenance Needs 1 chair, 1 helper – these people will help to maintain the banners and put up new ones when appropriate. Football Program Ad Sales May 28th to 2 weeks prior to the first game. Needs 1 chair to collect ads and collaborate with the designer (that’s me) Football Games (5 games) Needs 1 chair, 3 program salespeople per game, and 2 50/50 salespeople per game Funnel Cakes - 2 cooks, 1 mixers, 1 or 2 selling. 4th at Lantana (July 4th) – we sell food and funnel cakes Needs 1 chair, 1 assist (setup), 10 people per shift (it's an all day thing) 4th on Flagler (July 4th) – we supply cashiers Needs 1 chair, Needs 13 cashiers for food vendors Yard Sale (last year was in Sept) Needs 1 chair, 4 helpers (with setup), Needs 5 people per shift (2 shifts) Pumpkin Patch - last two weeks in October Needs 1 chair, needs setup and takedown help. Needs 12 shifts of 2 to 3 people weekdays 1 shift 6pm-9pm, weekends have early and late shifts 9-12, 12-3, 3-6, 6-9 Fun Day - last day of patch Needs 1 chair (staffing tbd) Marching Chiefs Invitational usually in Early November. Needs 1 chair (staffing tbd) Santaluces Craft Show (funnel cakes) Early Dec. Needs 1 chair, 2 cooks, 1 mixers, 1 or 2 selling. Lantana Winterfest (funnel cakes) early December Needs 1 chair, 2 cooks, 1 mixers, 1 or 2 selling. Santaluces Guard Show (could be anywhere form late Jan - early Apr) Needs 1 chair (staffing tbd) Delray Affair - April 2009 (3 days) Needs 1 chair, 2 cooks, 1 mixers, 1 or 2 selling…. For each day Middle School Districts (if we host them) Needs 1 chair, 6 people Spring dinner / Silent Auction - late March Needs 1 chair, 5 servers You can sign up for any of the above events at the next parents meeting or visit us online at www.5sonstudios.com/events Secondly, we have presented a lot of great ideas to the board over the last few years which have been approved and never started or have stalled for lack of participation. I’d like to make it a TOP priority to restart as many as possible and breathe some life into these projects, but in order to do that we ALSO need your help. These ideas really only need someone to take the reigns on them to nurture them into reality, a chair for each to handle logistics, and someone to be able to give me a status report at least once a month on their project so that I can report back to the Board. These include but are not limited to the creation and distribution of a print campaign, the distribution of our fundraising video, the researching and filling out of grant applications and the effective usage of local and national media. On the more fun side of things, there is the individual management of different projects such as a spaghetti dinner, a monthly picnic or a pancake breakfast (all of which could be done monthly and could contain LITTLE sub-events such as a bounce house or a dunk tank), a golf tournament (thinking at Trumps), a “Taste of Lantana” festival (for local restaurants), an afternoon tea, an Adopt-A-Grandkid idea (to present to local churches and synagogues) and so much more. Finally, I think it’s universally agreed that this should be the year of working smarter, not harder. There is less money to go around and we are IN SERIOUS DANGER of scaling back our program. I think we ALL want to avoid this from happening. To me this means that we should MAXIMIZE our profit incentives, and get AS MANY PARENTS AS POSSIBLE to help with our fundraising efforts. After all, if we spread out the work amongst us all… more will get done and there will be less that we have to reach into our own pockets for. My first task at this position is the creation of a fundraising committee, to that end… if you are interested in raising some bucks and having some fun, I would like to invite you all to attend an open house meeting at: Duffy's Sports Grill (corner of Hypoluxo and Congress) May 31st, 1pm R.S.V.P - 561-432-9959 I will be providing some free food and drinks and I welcome you ALL to attend, we all have something to offer, for example Janice Townend owns her own ice company and provides us with free ice, I provide free design services and free printing (when I can). Christine Swan has a relationship with Dunkin Donuts and provides us with a discount for the donuts we sell on Tuesdays and Thursdays. We don’t expect everyone to be able to come up with these types of arrangements but I’m sure that if we put our heads together, we can come up with some great ideas to save us some money in the budget and raise some funds for our band. For example, we might have someone in our organization that works at Publix or Albertsons and can get us a discount on the supplies we’ll need for our spaghetti dinner. Another example would be someone to call on rental car companies and see if we can get donated rental cars for a scheduled trip. With a little time invested, I’m sure that we can provide the Booster organization with the funds and resources it needs to grow and prosper over time. Best, Adam Fiveson 561-432-9959 On a personal note, I would like to wish Bob Eastberg a Happy 50th Birthday. Until next time, Ron Chief’s update 4-21-08 Greetings Chiefs Here we are, just about done with April so a few “end of year” details. The last day to purchase banquet tickets is Wednesday, April 30th. They are only accepting cash or money order. Please contact Mary Twist at home 963-6577 or cell 818-2102. The banquet is scheduled for May 10th. The election of the 2008-2009 Board of Directors was held during the last parent meeting. President – Ron Ritz 1st Vice President – Kim Glover 2nd Vice President – Adam Fiveson Treasurer – Sandra Stevens Financial Secretary – Trish Townend Secretary – Barb Provenzano The new board takes office May 1st. Also taking place during the last parent meeting was an amendment to our Bylaws. The amendment was in Article IX – Policies #5 letter “b” regarding student fair share. We defined the word “monies”. I will post the exact wording on a later blog/email entry. There will be a Sunfest meeting Tuesday evening April 29th at 7pm in the band room. If you are signed up to work, please attend. Speaking of Sunfest, we are looking for donations of cases of water. Seems like someone turns the thermostat up as soon as Sunfest starts. We need lots of water to take care of our cashiers so your donation would be greatly appreciated. On a personal note, I would like to thank all of the senior parents for all they have done in the four years they were here. I hope your time with the boosters and the band has been rewarding and memorable. I would also like to thank the outgoing Board of Director and Committee members for all of your tireless efforts. Until next time, Ron Chief’s update 4-9-08 Good evening Chiefs, Our varsity winter guard is in Dayton right now preparing to compete in Nationals. They are ranked 9th in the world. They perform in prelims tomorrow night at 10:24pm. You can keep track of how they are doing a couple of different ways. You can go to wgi.org to watch scores, I will put info up on the blog and I think Mr. Rogovin will be posting info on the website. WE WISH THEM LUCK! Delray Affair was a success! Dawn Gill and her crew took in $3100. Great Job. Dawn, Thank you very much for taking this and running with it! Middle School Districts did very well. They were very busy. Thank you Pam Guist for taking this one on and also thank you for letting me cook for a little while. The Duffy’s dinner was a big hit. Thanks to you all for buying up 320 tickets. We took in over $4000. Thank you Sandy Ghersetich for spearheading this event. Sunfest is about 20 days away. I hope you have taken the time to call or email Kim Glover to schedule your shifts. If you haven’t, what are you waiting for? Don’t forget to buy your Banquet tickets from Mary Twist. If you are paying for anything at this point in the year such as past due fair share or banquet tickets, we can not accept a check. It must be cash or money order. We have a REALLY important parent meeting coming up next Tuesday evening. Not only will we be voting in your 2008-2009 Board of Directors, we will be voting on an amendment to our Bylaws and Constitution. Please be present at this meeting. On a personal note, you think this year flew by? Reality check, Marching season practice starts 4 weeks from tonight. Can you believe it? Until next time, Ron Chief’s update 3-30 Hello Chiefs, Our color guard and percussion groups performed this weekend. Varsity is in Tampa and competed in the South Power Regional where they took fourth place with a score of 86.6. They are currently ranked 12th in the world in the Scholastic Open Division. Our JV and Percussion competed yesterday at John I Leonard and did very well. I hope everyone has had a chance to see them perform this year, they are truly wonderful. If you have not, they will all be competing for the last time in the circuit next weekend at Circuit Championships at Barbara Goleman High School. We wish them all Good Luck! Delray Affair is going on as I am writing. Dawn Gill was gracious enough to head up this event and I can’t thank her enough. I hear they are doing very well selling funnel cakes and fried Oreos. I will be writing more about this after the event is over. Santaluces hosts Middle School Districts Monday 3/31 and Tuesday 4/1. This is a “volunteer hours” event for the kids. The band does make a little money from concessions. The annual spring dinner is this Friday evening at 6pm in the cafeteria. Duffys has been generous enough to donate food. The menu will be Baked Ziti or chicken, caeser or mixed salad, mashed potatoes or rice, mixed vegetables or baked beans. Tickets are $15 per person. Order forms went home with the kids last week. Mr. Rogovin would like to have all tickets purchased by Wednesday evening so we can give Duffys a proper head count. If you can not get your order forms in, please contact Sandy Ghersetich at This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it . All of the different bands, color guard and percussion groups will be performing throughout the night. No one will be permitted in to see the performances without a ticket. 300 tickets are for sale so get yours while they last. On the subject of the Duffy’s Dinner Friday night, in the past, the dinner was sponsored by the Outback Restaurant. They would supply us with the food, plates and utensils. They would also serve the food to us. This year with Duffys, we will have to supply everything. I am not trying to sound ungrateful, what I am trying to say is – we need your help selling tickets and serving food among other things. Sandy Ghersetich is heading up this event so if you have some time and can be up at the school around 4:30ish, please email Sandy to let her know. Her email again is - This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it . If we sell all 300 tickets, we make $4500 to the band minus expenses for cakes and supplies. Please lend a hand to make this successful. Our next parent meeting will be Tuesday April 15th at 7pm in the band room. Very important meeting as we will be voting for next years Booster Board of Directors. Please make a special effort to attend this meeting and make your voice heard. On the other hand, if you have had a chance to think about this year in retrospect and thought to yourself you would like to get more involved with this great organization, please nominate yourself. We would love to have you. The kids would appreciate your efforts. Believe me when I say, the year flies by. I know most of you feel the same. So make that next step and jump in. You think one year goes by fast? The 4 years you child is in the band goes by like a blink of the eye and you will say I wish I got more involved. Sunfest is fast approaching – 30 days away and we need a ton of help for this one. The dates of Sunfest are 4/30 – 5/4. For those of you in the dark, we are the cashiers for all of the food vendors at Sunfest. We need approximately 45 people per shift. This give you a head start on next years fair share or if you are still behind for this year, it will help you get somewhat caught up. You do not have to be the only person working for your student. You can bring in aunts, uncles, friends, neighbors, siblings etc. They MUST be able to count money and make change while they have a long line of people. If you know of someone in middle school that is coming to Santaluces next year, please forward this to them. Kim Glover is heading up this event and would love to hear from you. Kim can be reached at 561-967-1101 or email her at This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it . Kim will be sending out an email about shift times and dates. On a personal note – This year has flown by. We are at a point where we must prepare for next year. It is a fact that many of us just don’t have the extra cash to write out a check to pay our fair share. As mentioned at last years May meeting, the budget for this year was $143,000 of which somewhere around $90,000 of it is fair share. This is huge number to reach. That left us around $50,000 to raise by fundraisers. We can not continue to operate this organization in the NEGATIVE. It is truly disheartening to think that next year we might not go to Tampa for State marching competition where we just missed 1st place for a third time in a row by .13 of a point or the Varsity color guard might not travel to Dayton, Ohio to compete in the World Championships where they are currently ranked 12th in the world. All of this because we can’t stay current with our fair share. I am not trying to sound rude, just realistic. I bring up the May meeting because that is where we talked about fair share and how we could all pay it without writing out a check or paying any cash. We talked about banner ads and football ads, those two items alone could pay your fair share and then some. So when you say you don’t have the money to pay your child’s fair share, think about how many banners and football ads you sold or how many events you worked. I also wanted to mention we do not have anyone nominated for what I feel is the most important job on the board, the 2nd VP. This person is responsible for all of our fundraising. We all know how time consuming that job is. We are looking for someone that will be the lead person for the fundraising committee. You don’t have to be the person doing all the work. With the right person in this position, you can delegate the events to others to lead with you overseeing. Look within yourself to see if you would be that person to step up and help out. You won’t regret it. I hope to see you at the meeting. Until next time, Ron Chief’s update 3-25-08 Good evening Chiefs! Here is some info on some upcoming events. This Friday, 3/28, Saturday, 3/29 and Sunday, 3/30 is the Delray Affair. The band rents a vendor booth spot and sells funnel cakes and fried Oreos. Dawn Gill is heading up this event. She is missing spots for 2 students Friday 10 – 2 and 2 students 2 – 6pm. Sunday we are missing 1 student 2 – 6. There is no school Friday, so if you or your student is short on fair share, here is an opportunity. Please contact Dawn Gill at 561-635-7968 or email her at This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it . This weekend our Varsity guard will be traveling to Tampa to compete in the Tampa Power regional. Our JV guard and our percussion group will be performing locally at John I Leonard. Come on out to John I to support JV and Percussion. We wish all 3 squads GOOD LUCK. Wednesday, April 2nd 6 students will be performing at FBA State Solo and Ensemble MPA. If anyone is interested in driving some of the students to Taravella HS in Coral Springs, please let Mr. Rogovin or Ms. Duque know. We wish those students Good Luck! I know it is short notice but Adam Fiveson worked out a deal with Duffy’s Grill on Hypoluxo. They will be supplying the food for our annual Spring Dinner. It will be held Friday April 4th at 6pm in the cafeteria. The cost of the ticket is $15. Anyone selling tickets will receive $5 per ticket towards their fair share. There are only 300 tickets. The ticket includes a meal, drinks, desert and a chance to see all of the different groups perform. At the time of this email, the menu has not been passed on to us. Flyers went home with the kids yesterday. You can send cash or check in with your student. A couple of things regarding the Duffy’s dinner, Unlike The Outback, Duffy’s will not be serving the dinner to us. They will just be dropping off the food. This means we will need volunteers to help serve the food. We will also need help with tickets at the door. A reminder, no one will be able to see any of the performances without a ticket. Please contact Sandy Ghersetich if you can help in any way, Sandy’s number is 561-386-9678 or email her at This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it . I will pass along more as it becomes available. Until next time, Ron Chief’s update 3-16-08 Good Morning Chiefs, First let me say JOB WELL DONE BY ALL We hosted the SFWGA Association guard show yesterday and in typical Santaluces fashion we did it with class. We were given many compliments through out the day. We deposited $10,642 last night which was down about $800 from last years show. I want to thank everyone involved for all of their hard work Friday night and all Day Saturday. Everyone did a great job. For all of you senior parents and grandparents that worked your last event, thanks for all that you have done. Until next time, Ron Chief’s update 3/13/08 Hello Chiefs A couple of items right before the guard show. The schedule is complete, there are no more open spots left. THANK YOU to everyone who signed up. It will be posted in the band room Friday morning. If there are any issues with the schedule, you can call Dennis Kunin at 561-572-7150. We will be doing some “set up” Friday evening around 6:30pm. If you are bored and would like to help out, come on down. The Varsity guard starts practice Saturday morning at 8am so some of us will start setting up then. Shifts are 10 – 4 and 4 -10 if you can come early to help set up, we would be grateful. We are looking for baked goods, same routine as FBA and Invitational. Prepackaged, ready to sell. You can drop them off at the baked good table in the courtyard. If you are bringing food in for the judges, please drop those items off in the faculty lunch room. If you don’t know where that is, come by the band room, some will guide you to it. If you are working, please park you car on the Hypoluxo side near the cafeteria. Please remember a couple of items. We are hosting the show to make money. We can not let a bunch of our friends in for free nor can we all eat for free. Please bring money to purchase food if you are working. Also, just like Invitational, we have a reputation to uphold. We are known for our hospitality. This is very important to all of us. Please treat people with respect. If you have an issue with someone, please contact Dennis Kunin, Mr. Rogovin or myself. On a personal note, please remember why we work so hard on days like this coming Saturday, OUR KIDS! If you get assigned a location that you think isn’t as fun as another, please just make the best of it and remember why you are here. We always host a great Guard show and I am confident this one will be like all the others we host. Bottom line – Have fun. Until next time, Ron Chief’s update 3-9-08 Hello fellow Chiefs. Much to talk about so here we go. This Saturday is the much anticipated Color Guard show hosted by Santaluces. Sign ups are complete and the names will be listed at the end of this blog entry. I will list things in order of event for this week. Tuesday night is our monthly parent meeting at 7pm in the band room. We will be accepting nominations for the Board of Directors for the 2008-2009 school year. We will also be talking about the guard show, Delray Affair, Middle School Districts, “Outback” dinner, Sunfest and other events. Please make every effort to attend. Right after the parent meeting we will have a short Guard Show meeting to discuss what to expect the day of the show. Friday evening, we will be setting up some things for the guard show. We will announce the set up time at the Guard Show meeting. Saturday, the day if the show – here is what I know so far. We have 45 color guard and percussion groups scheduled to perform. We also have a group of solo and ensembles performing, we just don’t have that schedule yet. The first check in time is 11:23am. We anticipate them to be on campus earlier than 11:23am. The shifts for paid fair share are 10 – 4 and 4 – 10. Just like the Invitational, we will need many volunteers to arrive early and help set up and volunteers to stay late and tear down. We will announce the volunteer set up time at the Guard Show meeting. Any student still looking to work at the Guard Show can sign up for volunteer hours and be floor crew for other groups. Very important to attend the parent and guard show meeting this Tuesday evening at 7pm. Here is a list of people scheduled to work the guard show. Arroyo Sandra Arroyo Martin Ballard Troy Bednarchik Max Bhebe Cindy Breffle Victor Bruner Leslie Brunner Gary Bursey Kara Charris Jose Chingay Mitchell Cohen Javan DeSousa Rhonda Drake Patti Fabian Humberto Fiveson Adam Gallo Angela Gallo Lisa Garcia Crystal Garcia Nora Gdanic Jim Ghersetich Sandy Ghersetich Jessica Gill Dawn Giust Pam Giust Dan Giust Anthony Glover Kimberly Glover Ryan Guzman Amanda Hall Claire Hebebrand Bill Hinzman Kirsten Holt Patricia Kent Drake Kunin Teresa Kunin Heather Kunin Dennis Mastrapa Jose Mays David Mc Lean Lilian McDaniel Wayne McDaniel Kathy Medina Ariana Milligan Susan Ortega Christian Pace Jillian Peters Danielle Pierre Louis Ritchie Provenzano Barb Provenzano Guy Ramsey Samantha Renelus Ricardo Ritz Ron Saturnini Phyllis Serantine Janayna Simpson Jean Simpson Geoff Simpson Emily Sincere Rachell Stevens Sandra Strogden Yesmeen Swan Doug Teets Tom Ternet Susan Townend Trish Townend Janice Trinemeyer Charles Twist Tim Vasquez Karina Walker William Wanless Brenda Weiss Hillary Weiss Barbara Wetherington Ashley Woods Ronnie Zamora Jesus Zamora Claudia The Coupon books are in and should be passed out in the next few days at school. We will be signing up for Sunfest during the parent meeting this Tuesday night. Pam Giust is not going to be in charge of food next year. We all really appreciate all that she has done the last couple of years. THANK YOU VERY MUCH PAM. We are in need of someone to take over this job. If you are interested, now would be a good time to step forward so you can shadow her through the guard show. Hope to see you all Tuesday evening, Until next time, Ron Chiefs update 1/30/08 Hello Chiefs and Happy New Year to you all. I am sorry I have not written in the blog since December 10th. (WOW, has it been that long?) The only excuse I have is life gets VERY busy. Saturday January 19th was the first competition for the guard and percussion in the SFWGA circuit this season and it inspired me to write again. Busy, long day for all. The kids did a great job. I did not get to see the JV show but they received an Excellent rating from the judges. Percussion put one song on the floor and took fifth place out of 8 groups. This week they are learning drill. Varsity’s show was the fastest pace show I have seen in years. They took 1st out of three groups. The floor crew was busy all day. Thanks to the chaperones and special thanks to Hipolito Perez and Victor Perez for driving the trailer for the percussion group. If you have not seen a guard show, you are really missing out. Watching the world class guard in our circuit especially Stoneman, Flanagan and Braddock was amazing. This week all three groups perform again at John I Leonard High School. It should be a fun day. Cindy Bhebe has been tasked to head up the percussion group for Chaperones and such. If you are interested in helping out, Please contact Cindy at This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it . If you have not seen a guard show, you are really missing out! Dennis Kunin should be handing out a coupon book and an order form to each student so they can take orders. Each book is $20. For each book sold, $8 will go into your fair share account. More info on this to come. We are starting to sign up for the March 15th Guard show hosted by Santaluces. A very big money making event! Very similar to the Invitational but in a more condensed area. We need about 50 people per shift to work. Last year the shifts were 10 – 5 and 5 – 10 and had 47 different guard and percussion groups. This is another fair share opportunity. Jobs include Pepsi wagons, funnel cakes, gym door, equipment warm up door, body warm up door, parking, buttons, flowers, baked goods and many more. Again, we need about 50 people per shift. Please contact Dennis Kunin at This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it or 561-572-7150. We also have Delray Affair fast approaching. This event is Friday, Saturday and Sunday March 28, 29 and 30. We sell funnel cakes and fried oreos. The hours of Delray Affair are 10AM to 6PM each day with set up between 5 and 9AM Friday morning. If you are interested, Please contact Dennis Kunin at This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it or 561-572-7150. If you have driven down Hypoluxo Road lately you have seen how bad our banner program looks. The program is about to get a shot in the arm. Mrs. Orloff has given us permission to place them back on the original fence with some stipulations. They must be uniform in style, color and size. All of the banners have been taken down. Adam is rerunning the ones that have not expired and will be putting them back on the fence. The banquet committee is looking for some old board games. If you have an old board game (could be missing pieces) and would like to donate it/them, the kids can bring it/them to school and give it/them to Jessica Ghersetich or Kelly Twist or you can bring it/them to the next parent meeting. Speaking of parent meeting our next meeting is scheduled for Tuesday February 12th at 7pm in the band room. Please try to attend, we will have sign up sheets for the Guard show, Delray Affair and probably Sunfest. We are in the 3rd nine weeks of the school year, it is almost over. Start thinking about getting more involved next year. Nominations for next years board will be taken during our March parent meeting with voting taking place during our April parent meeting. The new board takes office May1st. Folks, we are coming down to final stretch. We need some major help with these next couple of fund raisers. If you are short on your fair share then you should be signing up. Even if you are not, please make an effort to help out. A reminder, usually fair share for the Delray Affair and Sunfest are credited to next years fair share. On a personal note, I will try my best not to wait so long between emails and blog posts. I know how some many of you look forward to reading my rants. LOL I would also like to thank Janice Townend for her generous donation toward the purchase of new tents. Thank You Janice! Until next time, Ron Chiefs Update 12-10-07 Seasons Greetings Chiefs, Here we are, mid December already. Thanks to all the individuals who worked our booths at the Santaluces Craft Fair and the Lantana Winterfest. With those two events done, so are our fundraising efforts for the year 2007. There will be more events to come in the upcoming year. Tomorrow night, (Tuesday December 11) we will have our final parent meeting for 2007 at 7PM in the little theater. Please make every effort to be there. We will be speaking about some important issues for the year 2008. There will be a short Winter Color Guard/Percussion meeting following the parent meeting. If your son or daughter is part of the Varsity or JV winter guard or winter percussion group, please attend. They will be passing out practice schedules as well as important dates to put on your calendar. Thursday evening, December 13 will be the holiday concert. It is free to everyone. You get to see your kids perform in a different setting. It is really fun to see them perform this way and fun to see all the parents. If you miss marching season already, they will be performing the show at the concert. It will bring back some of the emotion of the State competition. I hope to see you all Tuesday and Thursday evenings. Until next time, Ron Chief’s Update 11-29 Happy Thursday Chiefs Sign ups are complete for the Santaluces Craft Fair this Saturday. Thank you to those that signed up. Friday December 7th is the Lantana Winterfest. We still 4 – 5 people to work this event. We sell funnel cakes and fried Oreos. The hours are 4:30 – 10ish. There is some set up and tear down time. Students can work but we need a couple of adults to do the cooking. Along the same line, the kids WILL NOT be marching in the parade as they do most every year as Mr. Rogovin, Ms. Duque and the students have some prior commitments. We as a band organization need to still be there to run this booth. If you are interested, please contact Dennis Kunin at 561-572-7150 or email This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it Until next time, Ron Chief’s update 11-21 Hey Chiefs, This blog entry is because I received 20 email errors and some of you did not receive the email. The kids are all out for the Thanksgiving break for a well deserved rest. I also know for many of you it was kind of nice not to have to go up to school on Monday and tonight to pick them up from marching practice. That part of the year is over but we as the band boosters are not close to being done. We have two small events to organize before Christmas. The first is the Santaluces Craft show Saturday December 1st being held in and around the parent drop off area. We will be selling funnel cakes and drinks. The shifts for this event will be 8:30 – 12:30 and 12:30 – 4:30. We will need 5 – 6 people per shift. You can sign up for one or both shifts. Fair share will be paid for the time worked. There will be some set up and tear down time before and after the shift. We need at least one experienced funnel cake maker per shift. The second event is the Lantana Winterfest Friday December 7th between 4:30 and 10ish. We sell funnel cakes and fried oreos only at this event. There is some set up and tear down time needed with this event as well. We will need 4 – 5 people to man this and there will only be one shift. The kids will be marching in this parade, it is their last time in uniform for the school year. Come on out and cheer for the Class 4A FMBC 1st runners up as they march down Federal Highway. So we need your help. Please email or call Dennis Kunin at 561-572-7150 or This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it to sign up. On a personal note, Dawn and I would like to wish each and every one of you a Happy Thanksgiving! Until next time, Ron Chief’s Update 11-18 again Where did I leave off? Oh yea, just missed 1st place. Their goal was to make finals. They really exceeded their goal and all of our expectations. Our buddies from Cooper City took fourth place in 5A with the winner Choctawatchee(I am sure I butchered that up) The announcer starts to dismiss each class in reverse order of finish. All 5th place then 4th, then 3rd and then 2nd. Our awesome drum major Eric DeSousa walks over to Cypress Creek’s drum major and shakes his hand and congratulates him. He walks back to formation. Next, our band turns around to get ready to exit. Eric and the guard captains Ashlee and Sam move to the front of Cypress Creek’s band and they salute their entire band. When I say salute, if you have been to any of the competitions and when we receive an award, Eric and the captains do a type of dance, a salute. They saluted Cypress Creek as a show of respect and congratulations to the winner of our class. After, they went back into formation and marched off the field with their heads held high. I have to tell you, watching them salute the other band is very impressive. This entire band organization is very classy! They marched out to the bus area and Mr. Rogovin addresses them for the last time. He tells them how proud he is and says how they handle this will show what they have learned. He also says how they respond to this last release will also show him. And for the last time of the year, they are at attention. Eric goes through his normal release and the entire group lets out a HUGE YEAAAAAAAAA! You can tell that some are very disappointed. We load the bus and off to the hotel we go. On my bus, there were mixed emotions. For some, there were tears, for others, they were proud, and others said, I can’t wait until next year, we will be so strong. They each were handling it in their own way. Personally I think they weren’t mad that Cypress beat them, they were disappointed that they got THIS close and lost by such a small amount. We got back to the hotel and the kids scarf down some late night McDonalds. Then lights out and taped in for the night. Wake up call was 7:30AM. Lots of sleepy people coming down to breakfast. About an hour later, the lobby is filled with kids and luggage. They load the buses and off to Busch Gardens we go. Nothing like a day of riding roller coasters. I know Dawn and I were exhausted as was most of the chaperones and equipment crew. We did the easy stuff like the train ride around the park and the skyway, lots of sitting stuff. 5PM and we are loading the buses to head home. By the time the last of the kids boarded, some were already asleep. It was quiet time. I know all the buses played movies so the kids would rest. We pulled into school somewhere around 9:45 – 10PM (lost track of time - it all runs together) unload everything and kids are released. The chaperones all said their goodbyes, we locked the gates and like that, Marching season is over. WOW, we just got started. I think I speak for most of you when I say that. Didn’t we just go to the first football yesterday? Didn’t we just unload the pumpkins?? Where did the time go? It is 11:25PM. It was a great trip! I want to personally thank the chaperones, Sandy, Kim, Claudia, Rhonda, Lavonda, David, Janice, Doug, Dottie, Dave, Jean and my beautiful wife Dawn. Thanks to all the equipment guys lead by Jeff Schultz. Thanks Barb and Guy and Sue and Tom for taking care of the food this weekend. Thanks Jean for always having the uniform stuff when the kids needed it. Thank you to all the parents for being there this weekend for the kids! Your cheers and support were awesome. Thank you to Evan and Andrea for their leadership and to their staff for making this marching season such a success. You guys did and AWESOME job. Evan and Andrea, you certainly have a great staff in place to teach our kids. Last but certainly not least, thank you to our kids. THEY ARE ALL GREAT! You are truly remarkable! Seniors, great job! I look forward to seeing you in your uniforms for the last time when you march in the Lantana Parade. If I have forgotten anyone, I am sorry but thank you anyway. I got to know some of the kids on my bus a little better this weekend. I sat in the back of bus two. Funny what you hear when you are in the back of the bus. Some of the kids would forget I was sitting there. Some of the things I learned, I didn’t need to know. This is my last blog entry for State trip. Until next time, Ron Chief’s Update 11-18 8:10 am. Sorry if some of that last entry didn’t make sense. It was late and I couldn’t keep my eyes open. Not much time to write so I will enter the rest tonight when we get home. For now, we are off to Busch Gardens to have fun. Until next time Ron Chief’s Update 11-18 2AM We just taped all the kids in and I am finally in my room for the night. We ate pizza around 5 and boarded the buses to go back to the dome. The kids are very upbeat. We arrive at the dome and wait a bit. Kinda the same routine as prelims. We march off to a quiet area to stretch. Into rotation again. Warm up and into the dome. Cypress Creek is performing. The kids seem different this time, less nervous, more relaxed. The dome doesn’t seem so intimidating. We go on and the kids HIT IT! What a great show. Out the door and to the parking lot. Mr. Rogovin talks with the kids. He tells the kids to take off their Aussies and hold them high in the air cause their last performance was the best of the year. The kids and parents cheer. As he begins to speak he gets a little choked up with emotion. He talks about last summer when the kids started, August when they felt the kids were too young and maybe they should take a year off to get them ready. But then he says what they have done this year was REMARKABLE. For this young group of kids to get where they have gotten. WOW! It was hard to fight back the tears. He then talks about the fact that the other four teams could only beat them if they were better than us, our kids did not give it away. They stood their ground and defended their championship. He tells them he will not give then their final dismissal of the marching season until after retreat. They put their instruments away and line up. Just before we head out to watch the rest of the show, Cooper City marches past us on their way to their bus. In typical Santaluces fashion, we all cheer and congratulate Cooper on their show. We did not see the show, but there is a bond between these two schools. They tip there hats as they walk by. I even heard one kids say “Santaluces, I love you guys!” Off we go to the dome. We get there in time to see the Marine Corp Marching band and all of the 3A bands. Last to perform in 3A is Stoneman Douglas. Some of us know Stoneman very well as they have a world class guard in our winter guard circuit. GREAT SHOW! Stoneman is done and the kids are off to an Olympic style retreat. They announce the 1A winner, the 2A Winner, 3A winner without a doubt – Stoneman Douglas. 4A, I was oblivious to the announcing the 1st three 4A bands. Announcer – “And now for your first runner up in class 4A, with a score of 89.5 Santaluces High School. 1st place score was 89.72. SO CLOSE. I will write more about this in the morning. Ron Chief’s update #2 11-17 3:30 PM we just met with Mr. Rogovin. 88.9 1st place! His speech was all about – It starts all over right now. The 5 bands competing are all at zero, we just happen to perform last. He talked about focus, concentration and so on. Darren Smith’s words of advice – FINISH IT!. They perform at 7:58. The last band for the evening performs at 10:32. Again we wait. I am sure most of you all heard from your kids on their cell phones. Good news travels fast. The chaperones on the bus were told not to call the kids. I was at the hotel patrolling the halls and heard a bunch of kids screaming a little after 2. Other parents that came up on their own called their kids which in turn called other kids while other kids over heard those conversations and before you knew it, the entire hotel knew. Mr. Rogovin walked in, the kids barely could contain themselves. He said, “do you know?” the place went crazy! We eat pizza at 4:30 and board buses by 5. Next entry will be when we get back from finals Ron Chief’s update 11-17 12:30 pm We are back at the hotel eating lunch, resting and waiting. The day started off bright and early at 5AM (guess it wasn’t so bright – it was still dark outside) I have heard that some of the kids did not get much sleep. Most of them were very hyped up. I also heard that some of them were so excited that they were up earlier than the 5AM wake up call. Down to eat breakfast by 6:30, the hotel was buzzin. On the bus by 7 and we were on the way to the dome. Most of the kids on my bus were getting themselves psyched for their performance. When the dome came in view, they let out a cheer. Off the bus and over into an area by ourselves to stretch. Guard in one spot, percussion in one spot and the rest of the band in another. Stretch is over and into rotation – warm up. Just like our Invitational, there were 3 warm up areas. We knew the two other bands in warm up go on before us. We are last to perform in our class. Line up and into the dome. Picture a major league baseball field. The band before us is performing on the infield. We are staged behind a curtain in center field. That band is done and our kids start to march out. As soon as our band comes into the performance area, the crowd starts to cheer. We look up and there is a huge Santaluces cheering section. They are set up and the announcers says “Drum Major, is your band ready?” and WE are all waiting for it…..Chip Trinemeyer - “WE’RE ALWAYS READY! You can see a couple of the kids smile a little. And it starts. Watching them on the big jumbo tron, they LOOK SO GOOD! From my point of view, they did great. In the back of my mind I know they are a young band, but they have come soooo far from summer. They march outside and wait for Mr. Rogovin and Mr. Bridges to address them. Mr. Rogovin asked how they think they did and most felt good. Darren Smith asked how many were nervous and overwhelmed. Most raised their hands. Mr. Rogovin asked how many can do better seeing they know what to expect now. They all raise their hands. Mr. Rogovin tells the kids that this was the best preliminary run in the last three or four years. Mr. Bridges tells them it was their best run to date and that they OWNED IT!. The kids had pictures taken and then back on the bus and to the hotel. Barb Provenzano and Sue Ternet have Publix subs set up for lunch. Now it is agony time. We sit here and wait and wait. 1PM the 4 year marchers and executive Officers load the buses and head back for retreat. Those of us left behind will have to wait until the band meeting at 3PM to know if we have made finals and what time we perform. (personally, I feel we made finals so it is just a matter of seeing what time we perform) As soon as we know more, I will post it. Ron Chief’s update 11-16 It is 11:26pm and we are all taped in for the night. Here is a little recap of the day. It started this morning with everyone being dropped off. School officials checked all the kid's bags while the kids were in the little theater. Once the bags were checked, the buses were loaded and at 9AM we were off. We stopped around 11:30 for lunch. Back on the road at 12:30. We arrived at the practice school at 1:45 and away they went. They had a GREAT run through just before the sun went down. It sure was a bit chilly. We packed up and off to Golden Corral for dinner. We made it to the hotel by 9PM and room check and lock down was at 10PM. It is going to be a big day tomorrow. We are up at 5AM and on the bus and ready to go by 7AM. I will add more to the blog tomorrow after noon. Until next time, Ron 11-11-07 Good Evening Chiefs, First and foremost THANK YOU to each and every person that was involved in Invitational in any way. This Invitational set records. We have a parent meeting Tuesday night at 7 PM in the little theater. Please attend, we will be talking about our successes for Pumpkin Patch, FBA and Invitational. We have information about State and we will be voting on something very important. The band Directors have put the 1st draft of the itinerary for State trip on the Marching Chief’s section of the website. Please make sure you look for the areas where there are $$$. The kids will need money for those items. Also, the kids were sent home with an order form for McDonalds. They are ordering McDonalds for the kids when they get to the hotel late Saturday night. Please make sure your student turns that form in. I personally thought the program Adam put together was exceptional! On a personal note, I want to personally thank all of the parents that came to work the Invitational and went above and beyond. Thank you to the parents that worked in areas they weren’t supposed to and did it for the cause. Thank you to the parents that stayed for the additional shift just because they wanted to help out. Thank you to the parents in charge of the different areas that kept everything running smoothly in their respective areas. Thank you to the students and alumni that came to work. Thank you to Claudia Zamora for running point on this event and of course the Pumpkin Patch and FBA as well. Thank you to the parents that had issues and allowed us to work through those issues and get past them for the time being. I am going to use a line from Terry Kunin, We were like ducks, on top of the water everything looked fine, underneath, some of us were paddling like hell. Bottom line – we hosted the event in typical Santaluces fashion. I had many many complements from other bands about how they love to come to our school because we are so well organized. It was a pleasure to work with each and everyone of you. Until next time, Ron Chief’s update 11-6 We are just a few days away from the Invitational. Looks like the weather is going to be great. I hope you will find the time to work at least one shift. We are going to be giving out meal tickets to everyone signed up to work both shifts. This way there is no confusion as to whether we pay for our food or not. Remember to get the check for State turned in to the band room. State is next weekend. Until next time, Ron Sunday, October 20, 2007 Hey Chiefs I sent an email out saying thanks to everyone for their efforts at the FBA show last night. I know the ticket booth was crankin, the cooks we grillin away and the French fries in the new fryers were delicious! I saw long lines at the pepsi wagons so those people working inside did a great job. Our escorts took care of business and I saw some new face escorting. The parking and equipment crews were awesome. Baked goods had the sweet stuff goin on. I heard they sold out of buttons. Cristina took the initiative to run out and get flowers to sell. The stadium crew had their positions all under control including Bill Hebebrand at the main gate and Jim Gdanic at the field entrance. Warmup area and band check in did a great job. And I know the food runners were movin. I can’t leave out Frank Rodriguez cooking. He just can’t stay away. THANK YOU ALL AGAIN. I do have to say I am disappointed about a few things. At some point we had more than enough people to help but yet I kept hearing about people not showing up or if they did, they didn’t like where they were assigned. No job is easy. It is a really long day for those that show up at 8AM to help set up, stay all day working both shifts and stay after to help clean up. We locked the last gate at 11:45PM To those people, I owe you. For those of you that just showed up for your shift and then complained about it – please take a long look at what this organization is all about. Please don’t think you are the only person with a busy life outside of band. We all work for a living and have other lives. I have never said this is easy, I did say it was easy to pay your fair share with all the opportunities given. But we ALL need to go above and beyond. The Invitational is November 10th and the following week we go to state. After that, the busy times for the parents are just about over. We get to skate for a while. The other thing I am very bothered by is the fact that I am hearing more and more about parents especially freshmen parents being alienated. For that I AM TRULY SORRY! I do nothing but preach about how we are all one big happy family but that family is being slowly torn apart. We are all adults in an organization with the same goal, to help the band succeed. No one person is better than the other. We are not in high school, it doesn’t matter which grade your child is in. If we are senior parents, we shouldn't act like the freshman parents don’t matter. We should all treat each other and the kids with respect! If you think you have offended someone, please apologize to them. WE ALL NEED TO WORK TOGETHER! Let’s all try to make a better effort to make everyone a part of the organization. Ron Wednesday October 24, 2007 Hello Chiefs, Everyone is working hard to get ready for FBA this Saturday. The kids are practicing, the parents are signing up and the chicken is marinating (YUM, Chicken on a stick!) It is a very exciting time for the organization. We are in full swing! I really hope everyone signs up for at least one shift even if they don’t need the fair share. It is good to be involved. The pumpkin patch is on the last week of sales. I hear it is doing well. My family worked last night and had fun. We sold lots of pumpkins one of which was 40lbs. Please don’t forget about the Halloween candy needed by Ms. Duque. She would like parents to dress up and be ready to hand out candy to the kids as they come off the field. Remember, State trip payments are due by November 1st. $94.00. This must be paid in cash and can not be taken from fair share. November 10th is our annual Marching Chiefs Invitational. This is where we shine as a booster organization. We will be host to 18 or more bands from around the state. They will come and perform, eat our delicious food and watch other bands as they wait for the trophies to be handed out. We make a ton of money from this event. Please plan on being a part of it. If you are working FBA and or the Invitational, please remember that the other bands, band directors, staff and parents are our guests! Please be very courteous to each and every person. Show them what Santaluces is all about. If you encounter someone being rude, please contact Claudia or myself, we will in turn contact Mr. Rogovin or Ms. Duque so they can handle that person. Again, I repeat, they are our guests. Freshman and sophomore parents, I hope you are feeling like you are a part of this organization. If you are not, I would like to hear about it. You are the future. We need your participation so you can take over in the upcoming years. If you are having any problems, please call or email me. Until next time, Go Chiefs, Ron Sunday, October 21, 2007 Good Evening Chiefs, The Pumpkin Patch is doing very well. Thanks to everyone that has been there to work. We are less than a week before we host FBA so here are some announcements. Please read all! We are very short people for both shifts. We need around 100 people for each shift and we are short about 40 people per shift. We can not run this event properly with out the proper amount of help. I will start to post all openings on the website until we are properly staffed. Please contact Claudia Zamora at This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it if you have not signed up yet or if you are available to work an additional shift. Remember, you can ask a friend or another family member to work. Their time worked will count towards your fair share. If you have been to one of the two recent competitions, you see what it takes to host an event. We have 23 bands coming to this event. We need lots of help. If we don’t get it from our own parents, we will ask the National Honor Society kids and the Chorus kids and pay them. Let’s keep it within our group. We are in need of a few loaned items. We need 6 foot tables, 10 x 10 or 12 x 12 tents. Please respond if you can loan any of these items. We are having a baked goods tent and are in need of baked items. These items need to be individually wrapped and ready for sale. You can drop those items off Saturday morning at the information tent right inside the front gate of the stadium. Remember we feed the judges and some of you have signed up with Rhonda DeSousa to prepare a dish. I will let you know soon where to deliver those items Saturday morning. I have heard from Mr. Rogovin that we are not traveling to the Treasure Coast game this Friday. So we will be doing some of the initial set up Friday evening and could use all the help we can get. This time is volunteer time. Some of the things we will be doing is setting up the Pepsi wagons and filling them with soda. Bringing tents over from the Pumpkin Patch and putting them in place. I will let you know the time early this week. I will forward the shift times in the next couple of days, also, watch the website for more info. Two items of a personal nature (not that I ever do that). I know I sent out an email a couple of weeks ago regards competition etiquette. I have to say that it seems like the kids have a very small cheering section. Your kids belong to a very elite group. The Santaluces Marching Chiefs are 2 time State Class 4A FMBC Champions. The band organization is very well known and respected by other organizations. They also are a very young group. They need our help to cheer them on. We need to cheer loudly for them. We need all parents to attend. WE NEED A BIG CROWD FOR OUR KIDS! I know each and every one of you is as proud of them as I am. Let’s show it! We do not compete for awards any more this year until they go to State but they do perform in front of a crowd two more times. Both times are at our school. Please show your support. The second item is about fair share. This year we have the fewest number of students behind on their fair share payments. In fact some students are paid in full or almost paid in full. I know I have mentioned this in the past but our budget this year is $143,000. With every student’s fair share paid in full we would be short about $50,000. We have offered every fundraising opportunity as full fair share including Macy’s tickets. I know I have also explained that any fair share overages can only be used for end of year trip and anything left in the account can not be carried over for next year unless it is cash payments. If we raised fair share due to completely cover the budget, then concert students would have to pay about $175, Marching students would owe $900 and guard would be $1600. If you heard that number at the initial meeting, you would not have joined. But we keep all students fair share as low as possible. So what does this mean? It means we currently have about 120 marching students and 100 positions to fill for FBA and Invitational each shift at each event. We need everyones help regardless of status of fair share. These are two of our biggest money making events. Please contact Claudia or respond to this email. Keep checking the website daily for info. Until next time (which will be sooner than later) Ron Tuesday, October 16, 2007 Hello all, Lots to pass along so please take the time to read. I hope you all had as much fun as I did at the Park Vista competition. The kids looked great. 2nd runner up! My hats off to the Park Vista Boosters led by Bob Eastberg for hosting a great event. They really did a superb job! If you were there, I hope you looked around and got some sort of idea as to what we will be doing when we host FBA on 10/27 and our Invitational on 11/10. Each event is a huge undertaking. From Cindy Bhebe - We will have the same dinner order arrangement as last week? Orders/money can be placed in the band box by Thursday after school, (latest 5:00 PM) to place an order for Friday's home game (next day). I spoke to Ellie's and since we have only 3 more Friday football games, they are more than happy to accommodate whatever orders we have. We have consistently had 37 orders (3 weeks now), and I know some of the kids share. From Claudia - Thank you for those that participated in the Macy's fund-raiser. Please turn in the money and any tickets you may still have. If you are writing a check, please make it payable to "Santaluces High School Band". I will be available on the parking lot or at the Little Theater after band practice. If you have any questions, please send me an email to This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it There are still many opportunities to chaperone the kids for football games and competitions. Please contact Sandy Ghersetich at 561-386-9678 or This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it . Please make sure you have entered you volunteer info into the school computer system. The Pumpkin Patch is open and the pumpkins are flying out the door. Claudia reports we made $1900 over the weekend and $450 on Monday night. Thanks to everyone working the Patch. If you have not been out there, stop by and check out the white pumpkins. We are hosting FBA on Saturday October 27. I will be sending out lots of emails regarding this as the event gets closer. The hospitality committee is asking for baked good donations for FBA. These items can be home made and must be individually wrapped and ready to sell. All items can be dropped of in the morning of the 27th at the information/volunteer check-in tent inside the stadium. They are also looking for meals to feed to judges. For more information about the meals or the baked goods, contact Rhonda Desousa at This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it or Barb Provenzano at This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it . Claudia is still in need of parents to sign up to help out at FBA. Please make sure you don’t miss out. On the subject of Rhonda DeSousa, Thank You Rhonda for the time you put in as our Secretary! Welcome Kathy McDaniel as our new Secretary. You can find Kathy’s info in the booster section of the website. I am sure each and every one of our kids have come home and said – “We have practice on Halloween” Well they do. Ms Duque is asking parents to please donate Halloween candy to the band. They will be having a costume contest as well as some “trick or treating” after rehearsal. She is also asking for volunteer parents to pass out the candy. This could be a lot of fun for some parents if they dress up too. Don’t forget $94 needs to be paid for each marching student for their trip to state. Payment is due by November 1st. If you are thinking about going and would like to secure the same hotel the band is staying in, the info is located on the Marching Chiefs section of the website. On a sour note, our school has been “cited” by the county for our banner program. We have been asked to move all of our banners to the softball outfield fence. This is a little east of the Pumpkin Patch. Adam Fiveson should be getting a crew together to move them. I am not sure if this will be where they will reside, but it is a start. I know this is a long way off, but we have secured our date to host a SFWGA guard show. The date is March 15th 2008. Senior night is this Friday night at the football game. It is the time where we honor our Senior Marching Chiefs. It is also our last home game of the year…can you believe it?? The year flies by faster than you realize. Don’t forget about the John I Leonard competition this weekend. It was great to see everyone in the Chief’s shirts and cheering loudly at Park Vista. I hope to see all of you at Leonard. Until next time, Go Chiefs, Ron Ritz Thursday, October 11, 2007 Hi all, This blog entry is more on the personal side. Today we had a ton of kids at the Pumpkin Patch unloading a huge tractor trailer full of pumpkins. It was packed to the brim. They worked really hard. It took almost 2 hours. Afterwards, they ate pizza and took pictures. Many parents showed up and decorated. The patch looks GOOD! Thanks to all the parents and kids for all the hard work! I put a picture on the front page of the website. Our 1st competition is Saturday. I wanted to express my feelings about any competition we go to. Mr. Rogovin and his staff expect the band to act a certain way before, during and after any competition. Win or lose, they act the same, very respectful of other bands. The keep their heads up high and salute the winning band if they lose and they don’t gloat or boast if they win. This is the Santaluces way. As parents, we are expected to act the same way. Please be careful what you say about another band while sitting in the stands, you never know who is sitting near you and what band they are cheering for. We cheer for the winners and the losers and we show respect just like the kids. If you are not sure, take a lead from a parent that has been there before. If you are a new parent, this entire experience will surprise and impress you. Go early, see other bands both in and out of our class. Remember, we compete in the 4A class. I promise you will have a good time. I was at practice last night when they did their last run through and Mr. Bridges and staff were very pleased. I look forward to the next two evenings. I hope to see all of you there. Until next time, Ron Thursday, October 04, 2007 Greetings Chiefs, Much information so read all. Friday October 5 Beef O’Brady’s is staying open for the Marching Chiefs and their families after the game. They are offering all the wings, fries and soda you can eat for $8.00(tip included). They did this for us after the 1st home game this year and it was standing room only. It is a great price and a good time. Beef O’Brady’s is located in the Albertson’s Plaza at the Southwest corner of Military and Hypoluxo. Ellie’s Diner – There appears to be a little problem with the kids ordering. They seem to forget to bring in the money or the form and then they are waiting to see if there are any left over meals because they forgot to order theirs. The diner will not allow us to order unless it is for 50 meals or more. Cindy Bhebe has come up with a solution. You can preorder your meals. There are three meals left for the month of October. If you would like your son or daughter to order food, please have them bring in 3 forms and $15. They can place that form in the financial box in the bandroom (little theater) Saturday October 6 is practice for the kids from 9 – 5. There is no meal planned for them so make sure they pack a lunch. Also, I am told that all the essentials ordered are in and will be passed out. Sunday October 7 at 1PM we will be setting up for the annual Pumpkin Patch. We could all the help we can get. We will be begin by loading up trailers at the booster portable and moving everything to the gate near the parent drop off area. We will set up the tents, move pallets, run extension cords, set up decorations, etc. When we are done, the area for the Patch will be all ready. If you have a few hours to volunteer, please come out and lend a hand. Kids that come out to help will be given credit for volunteer hours. (volunteer hours are given to kids, they need a certain number of volunteer hours throughout the year) Tuesday October 9 at 7PM will be our October Parent meeting in the Little Theater. Please come to the meeting, it will be full of information regarding Pumpkin Patch, FBA and the Marching Chief Invitational. Thursday October 11 at 3:30PM The pumpkins will be delivered. We need as many volunteers as possible to help unload the pumpkins. The kids do most of the work, the adults are there to make sure the pumpkins get put in the right places. We will be serving Pizza and soda after the fun is all over. The kids will be given volunteer hours Friday October 12 – Two things. 1) We have our first away game. A little different from a home game. We need to load the trailer with all the instruments. This is no easy task. Jeff Schultz and his crew could use as much help as they can get. 2) The Pumpkin Patch opens for business at 6PM. The Pumpkin Patch is in need of a number of donated or loaned items. Donated – we usually raffle off a couple of Halloween themed gift baskets. If anyone is good with Arts and Crafts and would like to make a couple of baskets, please feel free. We could use some table cloths, tape, etc for the everyday operations of the patch. Loaned items, we need a couple of tents. These could be the small 10 x 10 or 12 x 12 type or we could use the carport size tents. We also need extension cords. Please contact Claudia Zamora or Kathy McDaniels. There email addresses can be found on the website under the Booster link. Saturday October 13 is our first competition at Park Vista High School. Please come to the competition and cheer on our band. If you have never been to a high school marching band competition, come out and see what the kids have worked hard for since May. This is what it is all about. While at Park Vista, go over and buy a funnel cake and Say hi to Bob Eastberg and his great group of parents. As a parent, you will get a chance to see what we are in for when we host FBA later this month and the Marching Chief Invitational in November. I am being told that the last game on October 19th will be senior night. Keep watching for additional information. The trip to State in Tampa is November 16 – 18. As mentioned at the May parent orientation meeting, $80 will need to be paid by November 1st. We do not know the exact cost at this time. The $80 is estimated and the balance (which should not be much more) will be due shortly after the 1st. Information on the hotel is posted on the website under the Marching Chief link. Watch for additional information as it becomes available. There are some openings for chaperones, football program sales etc. for the remaining football games. If you are registered with the school as a volunteer and would like to help out, Please contact Sandy Ghersitich for chaperoning, Adam Fiveson for football program sales and Pam Giust for funnel cakes. Their email addresses can be found on the website under the booster section. On a personal note, the booster board creates many fair share opportunities through out the school year. Most everyone can pay their entire fair share by working some of these events, selling Macy’s tickets, football program ads just to name a few. I notice that some of you are almost paid in full. With the addition of banner ads, a student’s fair share can be paid by just 2 banner ads. Please remember that the budget for this year is $143,000. For most of you, your portion of the budget is $630. Not a lot when you look at the big picture. Fair share payments only cover about $90,000 of the budget. The booster organization is responsible for raising the other $53,000 through other means. I ask each and every one of you to look past the amount of fair share owed and see the entire amount. When you get your statement and see that you have met your financial responsibility, realize that the band as a whole has not. We have just begun to scratch the surface this year with three huge events happening all in a four week period. Two of the three are our biggest money making events. We need lots of people to sign up. If you have finished your fair share obligation, donate it towards a needy student, donate it back to the band. I know some of you have already helped in many ways and I know you have had fun doing it. Keep this great year going! I hope to see you all Friday at the game, Sunday at the Patch and Tuesday at the parent meeting. Until next time, Go Chiefs, Ron Ritz Thursday, 9-27-07 Good morning Chiefs, The Marching Chiefs yard sale was held last Saturday and Sunday. I am being told $1649 was deposited into the band bank account. I want to thank Cristina Swan for the great job she did organizing this event. And a special thank you to everyone involved with all the different aspects of the yard sale. Thank you for getting involved. The banner program is back on! Adam Fiveson has a few customers lined up so if you are interested in selling a banner ad, please contact him at 432-9959 or email This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it . He has modified the payment options so check the band website for the information. It should be in the Forms and Information section. The Following info is regarding the Macy’s fundraiser – What is "Shop for a Cause"? It's Macy's national charity day. Macy's allows local organizations to sell tickets for $5 each and keep 100% of the sales. Ticket buyers get one of the best discounts of the season. They can shop before store hours, enter to win a $500 shopping spree, enjoy refreshments and entertainment. The event takes place on Saturday, October 13, 2007 The Santaluces Band keeps all the proceeds from tickets sold. Your student(s) receives 100% fair share on all the tickets you sell. What do you do? You volunteer to sell tickets to Macy's costumers at their stores in the weeks before the event. The following dates have been reserved for the Santaluces Band: 1. Friday, September 28, 2007 - 6:00 PM to 9:00 PM 2. Saturday, September 29, 2007 - 6:00 PM to 9:00 PM 3. Friday, October 5, 2007 - 6:00 PM to 9:00 PM 4. Sunday, October 7, 2007 - 2:00 PM to 6:00 PM 5. Friday, October 12, 2007 - 6:00 PM to 9:00 PM Macy's will have a table set up for us at the Boynton Beach store on the days we are scheduled to sell. You can also sell on your own to family, friends, co-workers, and neighbors. If you are selling at the store, we ask that you wear a band shirt and students wear their band uniforms. It is highly encouraged to have students playing at the store. Students, don't be shy show your talent. What do shoppers with tickets receive? They are able to shop from 8:00 AM prior to store opening and 10 AM to store closing Shoppers receive 20% additional savings on most merchandise, including clearance items. Shoppers are eligible for a $500 shopping spree Refreshments and entertainment are available from 8:00 AM till Noon With the ticket purchase, shoppers support a good cause: The Santaluces Band!!! To obtain tickets please see Claudia Zamora and Kathy McDaniels after 8:30PM on band practice nights. You can also send an email to This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it Until next time, Ron PS let’s beat the Cobras tonight Friday, September 14, 2007 Greetings Chiefs, Lots of stuff going on so please read all. We have the Homecoming football game tonight so tonight should be fun. I would like to remind all parents that the Little Theater lobby gets a little congested after the game right after Mr. Rogovin talks to the kids. If you could wait outside the lobby, it would help with the congestion. I want to thank all the parents who signed up on all the sign up sheets we had during the Parent Preview meeting. We actually had more people sign up than needed. Please be patient if you have not been called. It is not that the help is not needed but more like there are only so many spots to fill during each game. I promise you there is enough going on throughout the year where we will be begging for more help. If you have signed up for something and have not been contacted, please feel free to contact the chairperson for that event. All of the members of the Board’s email addresses can be found on the website in the Booster section. If you have signed up for equipment and have not been contacted, just come on down and help out. See Jeff Schultz and ask where you can lend a hand. We have a very important Parent meeting this Tuesday 9/18 at 7pm in the Little Theater. This meetings are chock full of information. There will be more on the Yard Sale, Pumpkin Patch, FBA and the Marching Chief Invitational. Be there. The Yard sale and car wash will be held on Saturday and Sunday Sept 22 and 23 from 7AM to 2PM in the bus loop/parent drop off area. The following is from Cristina Swan, chairperson for the yard sale – We are doing very well with the donations. Where there is a will, there is a way! At this time I would like to welcome your participation. Please keep in mind anything & everything is greatly appreciated and benefits our kids, the parents, Santaluces High School band and the community. Because when we give to others it helps our children to learn to give and be better people. The following items are needed by Friday 9 / 20 & or early morning Sat. 9/21: Tables (any & all sizes) Be sure to label your table Garbage bags (any & all sizes) Price tags (any & all sizes) Shipping Tape (any & all sizes) Towels (used & or torn up is ok) (any & all sizes) IF YOU WORK IT: PLEASE BRING A CHAIR IF YOU WANT TO SIT BETWEEN CUSTOMERS. We also need a few trucks to hall the items from the storage unit back to the school on Friday afternoon? Please call me on my cell number if you can help! TO ALL THE BEAUTIFUL PEOPLE THAT HAVE DONATED ITEMS, TIME AND OR THEIR IDEAS I WOULD LIKE TO SAY THANK YOU! I HAVE TO ADMITT!THE FRESHMAN CLASS IS AWESOME! We also need your beloved, talented, teenagers to come and get community hours. We will need at least 20 for each shift. Could you all please let me know if sure these hours are ok?Since we need one of you to open the school for us! The shifts are as follows: 1st SHIFTFridaySeptember 21, 2007 From 5:00 pm to 9:00 pm 2nd A.M. SHIFTSaturdaySeptember 22, 2007From 6:30 am to 11 am 3rd P.M. SHIFTSaturdaySeptember 22, 2007From 11 am to 3:00 pm 4th A.M. SHIFTSundaySeptember 23, 2007From 6:30 am to 11 am 5th P.M. SHIFTSundaySeptember 23, 2007From 11 am to 3:00 pm Water – We have a number of people donating water for the football games – thank you to those that have donated but we still need more. Please bring any water donations to the Little Theater or the portable. On a personal note, I am very happy with the amount of parental participation we have this year. Everyone I talk with seems very excited and ready to help out wherever needed. Please don’t get discouraged if you are not called right away. Everyone will have a chance to help out. Some areas like chaperoning, funnel cakes and football program sales need to be assigned and other areas like equipment are just a “lend a hand” type situation. If you get to the game early and want to help out, just ask some one. Don’t ever feel like you aren’t wanted! We are just one big happy family. Jump in and introduce yourself. Get to know the guys pulling the equipment carts, pull one yourself. You won’t realize how fulfilling it is to be a part of this organization until you do something. It is hard work sometimes, but it is all worth it. When my wife and I first started, we just jumped right in. I encourage you to do the same. The yard sale is right around the corner and they could use some help. Until next time, Go Chiefs, Ron Saturday, September 08, 2007 Hello Chiefs, We had an unusual Friday off from a football game. We usually don’t get many of those! Enjoy it while you can. This also means we will be going to games on Thursday nights. That makes it real hard for both kids and adults. Most of us have to work on Friday so getting home after a game so late will be tough. Please take that into consideration when you sign up to chaperone a game on a Thursday night. I want to remind all parents – you MUST be registered in the school volunteer system before you can chaperone the kids. This must be done a few days prior to any game as it takes time to be registered. This can be done on campus in the main office. We are asking for donations of bottled water for football games. We normally budget for this item but would like to cut as many corners as we can to save money. If you can donate or know someone who can donate water, please contract Pam Giust at This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it so she can arrange drop off or you can drop it off when you come to pick up the kids after any practice. We would prefer 16.9 oz or 12 oz bottles. Remember we are doing an ongoing fundraiser with Donations Ink. If you haven’t ordered a kiosk for yourself, you can bring in the old ink cartridges and we will take care of them. Donations Ink also takes old cell phones. If you would like to order a kiosk for yourself, you can go to the booster section of the website, the Donations Ink info can be found there. We will be doing a Yard Sale at school on Sept. 22 and Sept 23 from 7AM to 2PM. Cristina Swan is heading up this effort. She is looking for volunteers to help with all areas of the yard sale. She can be reached at 396-3929. If you have anything you would like to donate to the band to sell in the yard sale, someone will be collecting “unwanted treasures” during band practices. Those dates are 9/8, 9/10, 9/12, 9/17, 9/19. Set up will be Friday 9/21 from 6 – 9 in the student drop off/bus loop area of the school. Again, please contact Cristina. If you have “unwanted treasures” to donate today, Cristina will be at school from 12 – 2 in the student parking lot. The uniform committee has extended the final date to turn in your essentials form. If you are looking to get a show shirt or one of the new wicker shirts, please turn the forms in no later than Monday evening, Sept. 10. Sandy Ghersetich has found a pair of prescription sunglasses left at the Parent Preview meeting in August. It is a black eyeglass case from “Eyecare Professional” in Lantana with a pair of DKNY ladies sunglasses inside. If these are yours, please contact Sandy. Her number can be found on the booster page of the website. Don’t forget, our next game is this Friday at home. In fact it is the Homecoming game. Please come to see the band play, buy a couple of football programs. Then walk over and but a delicious funnel cake or even some fried Oreos. But most of all, enjoy the time with the kids. Every week, they will have completed more of the show so come and see how they are coming along. Remember, our first competition is Oct. 13 at Park Vista. Mark Sept. 18th at 7PM on your calendar. It is our next parent meeting. We will have more details on the Pumpkin Patch as well as FBA and Invitational. Please don’t miss the meeting. They usually last about an hour. Until next time, Go Chiefs, Ron Monday, September 03, 2007 Hey Chiefs, Happy Labor Day to everyone. I hope everyone has had a relaxing weekend. I gotta tell ya, I was very excited Friday evening when the kids all lined up to march out to the football stadium. Then when the drums started, I was grinning from ear to ear. VERY COOL! What a turn out at the stadium. They look great on the field. I hope all of you had as much fun as I did. On a personal note, I have been a guard dad for the past four years, seeing my son in his Marching Chiefs uniform was priceless. What a thrill! I received the pictures and video from the trip to DC. I hope you have received yours. Trish Townend will be at school Wednesday evening before practice to collect Motor City Car Wash Money. Essential forms need to be turned in by Wednesday evening to the uniform committee. This is your chance to order the new show shirt or the New Wicker shirt. The forms can be found on the website Our next football game is on September, 14. Don’t forget to turn in your Ellie’s Diner form and money by Wednesday, September, 12. Ellie’s forms can be found on the website. Until next time, Go Chiefs, Ron Monday, August 27, 2007 Greetings Chiefs, IMPORTANT NOTE: The phone number for the band room given out at the Parent Preview is incorrect. PLEASE DO NOT CALL 642-6115 - it is a private residence. If you need to get in touch with Mr. Rogovin or Ms Duque, please leave a message for them at 642-6237. They will return your call. The form for Ellie’s Diner is now on the website. You can locate it by clicking on the FORMS/PAPERWORK link. Please remember that all Ellie’s forms and money must be turned in by the beginning of practice every Wednesday. A reminder that a minimum of 50 meals must be ordered weekly for Ellie’s to continue catering to our kids. Also, if you would like to eat with your student, please turn in a form for yourself. Any questions, please feel free to contact Cindy Bhebe at This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it Here is a list of bad email addresses I listed at the Parent Preview Meeting. If you have a new email address, please let us know. This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it Here is the info for the Donations Ink ongoing fundraiser. www.donationsink.comAccount Contact:Ron RitzOrganization: Santaluces High School BandPartner ID: 312344 If you are interested in the Motor City Car Wash, info can be found in the Forms/Paperwork link of the band website From the Uniform Committee Parents/Students - We are in the process of ordering the remaining essentials orders for this year and we need all orders to be completed by September 5th. At the parent meeting we introduced the new red moisture management shirts for ladies and men which we will be purchasing this year and want to ensure that everyone has had the opportunity to put in their essential orders by the deadline. Their are 2 types of shirts which can be purchased:1) Red moisture management shirt for Men and Women which is the length of the men's polo shirts from last year.2) Red moisture management Women's shirt which has snaps at the collar which is the length of the ladies polo shirts from last year. The price of the new moisture management shirts are $25.00 for Small, Med and Large, X-Large shirts begin at $27.00. If you have already placed your order please specify which type of shirt you prefer so that we can update your request. Also, we will be distributing new t-shirts for all students which includes the theme Red, Hot and Rich which is a requirement for all students. Prices for the t-shirts are $10.00. If you have not ordered a t-shirt for your child or would like to purchase a t-shirt for your family or friends please complete the essentials form and submit to This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it by September 5th. You can download the form from the santalucesband.net website. If you have further questions regarding the essentials orders please contact Jean Simpson @ 561-968-3107 or Kimberly Glover@561-967-1101. Thanks in advance for your support, Uniform Committee With the first football game being held this Friday night, I wanted to bring up a couple of things we forgot to mention at the Parent Preview Meeting last Friday night. The kids are served water in the stands by the chaperones. We are in need of cups to serve the water. If anyone would like to purchase cups and donate them to the band, it would be greatly appreciated. They can be 9 or 12oz. Dixie type cups. Anyone donating can drop them of before the game with one of the chaperones. The other item is how we should properly interact with the kids during the game. The band lines up to march out to the field at a time designated by Mr. Rogovin and Ms. Duque. Once they are in line, we should not interact with them. They will march to the stadium and sit in the far east section of the stands. The stands will be roped off for the band. Only the band and chaperones can be within that roped off section. Parents can sit just west of that section next to the band or anywhere else in the stands. Just before halftime they will exit the stands and prepare for the halftime performance. After the performance they will mingle with the band from the opposing team. Parents are not allowed with the students during that time either. After the game, they will exit the stands and march back to the “bandroom” where Mr. Rogovin will address them. After his talk, he will release the kids. The parents can not mingle with them until after they are released. If you have not been to a football game before with the band, I suggest you get the full effect. Come to the “bandroom” and watch them march to the stands. Sit next to them in the stands and watch them perform “Stand Tunes” Go back with them as the march back the “bandroom” and listen to Mr. Rogovin talk with them to recap the night. It is a rewarding experience. Please just don’t drop them off before the game and pick them up when it is done. You don’t know what you are missing! After the game, Beef O’Brady’s restaurant is staying open for the Santaluces Marching Chiefs. They are offering chicken wings, or burgers, fries and drink for $8.00. (tip included) They are located in the Albertson’s plaza at the corner of Hypoluxo and Miltary Trail. Until Next Time, Ron Go Chiefs! Saturday, August 25, 2007 Greetings Chiefs I would like to thank everyone for attending the meeting and parent preview last night. What a great turnout! I hope you all are as excited as I am. The show looks like it is going to be hot. If any of you remember Buddy Rich and his drums, that should be some indication of what to expect. Just the opening portion of the show with Sam on the drum set was cool all but itself. Friday, we get to see it again. It was great to see everyone signing up to help out. I can’t even begin to explain how busy the boosters will be within the next 11 weeks. Don’t forget to fill out the Ellie’s Diner form if you want your student to purchase a meal before each football game. We will be posting the form on the website sometime this weekend. Remember, we have a home football game this Friday evening. The cost of the ticket to get in is well worth the fun you will have watching the band in the stands and on the field. Don’t forget to buy a football program and a funnel cake when you walk through the gate. Our next booster meeting is September 18th at 7pm in the Little Theater. We will have more info on Pumpkin Patch, FBA and other events. Make it a point to be there. If you have an idea for a fundraiser and would like to present it to the Board, please write down all details regarding the event. Please remember that any event must be within school board policy. On a personal note, Please remember that we are ALL just parents trying to help the band organization at Santaluces High School. In the end, it is all about each and every one of our kids. Again, we are ALL here for the kids! Until next time, Ron Ritz Go Chiefs! Monday, August 20, 2007 Sup Chiefs? (sorry, my son is rubbing off on me) Well, here we are. It is all starting! For the new parents, welcome to the rollercoaster ride called Santaluces Marching Chiefs. This is definitely an “E” ticket ride. (For those of you that have been to Disney World back in the day, you’ll know what that meant). We are all going to be busy from now to Thanksgiving time. As I have said in previous blogs, our first parent meeting is Friday night at 6pm in the cafeteria. Please bring a desert of some kind. (finger food) We will have sign up sheets for many upcoming events so please try to come early so you won’t be stuck in line during the meeting. We will have tons of information to give out and need 100 percent participation. I hope to see all of you at the meeting. Regards, Ron 8-11-07 Hey Chiefs, Well here we are, summer is almost over. I always feel summer is really over when band camp starts and Monday, band camp starts. Parents, please make sure you check the website carefully, Mr, Rogovin, Ms Duque and the staff have posted info to make sure the kids take care of themselves in the heat of the summer during camp. It is important you and your student read this info before Monday. Dinners during camp - Your student has the option of bringing their dinner or purchasing one supplied by the boosters. If they purchase one from the boosters, it will be $5.00 a day. We are doing something different this year. Two of the meals are being catered by Ellsie’s Diner of Delray Beach. The money for the meals Monday – Wednesday can be paid at dinnertime. The money for the meals being catered by Ellsie’s needs to be turned in by Monday. Monday – 2 slices of Pizza, bag of chips, bottle of water and bottle of Gatorade. Tuesday – 1 hamburger, bag of chips, bottle of water and bottle of Gatorade. Wednesday – 1 six inch sub from Subway, bag of chips, bottle of water and bottle of Gatorade. Thursday and Friday meals are catered from Ellsie’s Diner Help is needed to prepare and serve every day. If any parents would like to come and help please be there by 3:15 – 3:30 every day. Dinner break for the kids is 4pm. Tables will need to be set up, drinks iced down. Etc. if you can help, please email me at This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it School starts Wednesday, August 22. The first parent meeting of the school year is Friday, August 24th at 6pm in the cafeteria. Please bring some sort of desert preferably something that does not need to be served with a plate. This is a very important meeting. Sign up sheets for many of the events will be posted so come early so you can sign up. As a reminder, we will be nominating and voting in a new 2nd Vice President in charge of fundraising. This person will be responsible for all fundraising activities done by the boosters for the year. If you are a very organized person and would like to be involved in a major way, this is the position for you. Experience with fundraising is not needed as you will have lots of support as the school year progresses. After the meeting, we will go out onto the field to see the 2007 Santaluces Marching Chiefs. Personally, I can not wait! The following Friday we have a home football game…..please come to the games, it is a great way to see the kids and have fun doing it. Until next time, Ron PS Happy Birthday Guard Grandma! 7/25/07 Greetings Chiefs, Lots of info so here we go. For those of you that have not visited the band website, the address is www.santalucesband.net. This is the main form of communication. You can view the calendar for upcoming events, download forms and you can even read the booster blog. Bookmark the site and visit often! With our band room under construction and the kids working out of the little theater, there really is no single depository for fair share payments, paperwork, football ads etc. Someone from the booster board will always be on campus before and after every practice. Please look for us on campus somewhere. By now, we all should have paid June and July’s fair share payments. If you haven’t done this yet, please do so. You can send in a check with your student to practice or you can go to the website and pay by credit card through paypal. The link is on the lower left hand side of the page. Any fair share questions, you can contact Trish Townend at This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it . The deadline for football ads is July 30th. This is one of our biggest fundraisers and starts the year off with a bang. It is a great opportunity for your student to make a dent in his or her fair share. This year we are adding content… stories and even a comic strip…. Please contribute by selling ads. You can turn the ads in during the mini camp this weekend. If you have content to contribute, you can do so by contacting Adam Fiveson at 432-9959 or This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it . The next 4 months are going to be very busy for the booster organization. Please make it a priority to be involved as much as you possibly can. Without everyone’s participation, the events we have scheduled can not be properly staffed. I will give you some idea of what is ahead of us. The main band camp is set for 8/8 – 8/10 and 8/13 – 8/17. The boosters supply lunch for the kids at camp every day. Our first big parent meeting is Friday, August 24th at 6pm(two days after school starts) You need to mark that day on your calendar. Everyone is asked to bring some sort of dessert (finger food). After the meeting we will go out to the field and see what the kids have been working on all summer long. It will be our first glimpse of this years show. Our first home game is one week later, Friday, August 31st. The band plays stand tunes and performs their show during halftime…oh, and there’s a football game played too. Watching the kids in the stands is a blast! I can wait! There will be opportunities to earn fair share at the games selling football programs and funnel cakes. Sign up sheets will be posted at the parent meeting. September will be filled with home and away football games. Chaperone sign up sheets will be at the parent meeting. October brings the world famous Santaluces High School Pumpkin Patch. This is usually 2 solid weeks selling pumpkins. Again, a very large fundraiser and many, many opportunities to work and earn fair share. This is one of the events the kids can work if they don’t have practice or competitions. Sign up sheets at the parent meeting. October also has the Marching Chiefs performing at different area competitions. Santaluces will host FBA 10/27. This is an event where all the area bands come to perform to get graded. We have concessions and this somewhat of a practice run for the boosters for our Annual Marching Chiefs Invitational held 11/10. Another of our major money making events. We need many people to work both events. Our Invitational is known statewide and schools from all over come to compete. It is the last event before the FMBC State competition. More info as it gets closer and sign up sheets at the parent meetings. State competition is 11/17 in Tampa. After being a part of everything going on in August, September, October and November, you won’t want to miss going to see the band perform in Tampa and defend their championship title two years running. I missed the first year they won and went last year. What an experience! I won’t miss it ever again! Many of you first time parents will have many questions. I hope all of you have a band buddy. If you don’t, you can have one assigned to you at the parent meeting in August. Another item on the agenda for the August parent meeting will be nominating and voting on a new 2nd Vice President in charge of Fundraising. Our current 2nd VP has resigned. If you have fundraising experience or feel you can take on this very important roll within the booster organization, please nominate yourself at the meeting. If you have any questions about the position, please feel free to call me anytime or email me at This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it . My number is 723-1768 From Trish Townend - MANY PARENTS ARE UNAWARE OF THIS FUNDRAISER. PAMPLETS WERE HANDED OUT IN JUNE TO STUDENTS AND SOME PARENTS AFTER PRACTICE. MOTOR CITY IS ALLOWING SANTALUCES BAND AND COLOR GUARD TO SELL CAR WASH TICKETS FOR $13.99 AND THE STUDENT RECEIVES HALF OF THE MONEY HE OR SHE COLLECTS TOWARDS THEIR FAIR SHARE. YOU CAN'T LOSE WITH THIS FUNDRAISER. IT WILL BE EXTENDED UNTIL AUGUST 24, 2007 . YOU CAN DOWNLOAD ORDER FORMS AS OF JULY 26. YOU MUST COLLECT CASH OR CHECKS PRIOR TO RECEIVING TICKETS. I WILL BE AT PRACTICE TO COLLECT ORDER FORMS. ..................................TRISH Adam Fiveson has a CD with all the images taken at last years Banquet. If you didn’t receive a photo for this event, please contact him by email. Adam need volunteers for a letter writing campaign…. We should be hitting corporate sponsors up for money every year…. All year long. Last but not least I wanted to share some personal feelings with all of you. Dawn and I have 3 children. Ashley, Kaitlyn and Cory. Ashley graduated from Santaluces this past May. Ashley and Kaitlyn are/were in the Color guard. Kaitlyn is a junior. Cory is a freshman this year and is in percussion. It has been 4 of the best years of my life being involved with my kids and the band. Being at every football game, every marching competition, going to winterguard competitions. I have enjoyed being with my kids and the other kids from the band. The other kids become your kids. You make great friends with the other parents; some of them become friends for life! I extend an invitation to each and every one of you to get involved. Some of you say your kids don’t want you around. You don’t have to be right next to them to be involved. Go to every meeting. Be heard, help mold the kids. It is hard work and some of it is down right time consuming but I promise you will feel rewarded. It has been a great 4 years and I look forward to the remaining 4 years. I wouldn’t miss it for the anything! I hope you will be right there with me. With much regards, Ron Ritz Thursday, July 05, 2007 Hello Chiefs, I hope everyone had a safe and happy 4th of July! I continue to get calls from my daughter Kaitlyn in Washington. I hope everyone has been able to talk with their kids to hear about their experiences. I was told the parade experience was AWESOME. Kaitlyn called me at 12:45 and told me they were done already. I talked with Sandy Ghersetich after the parade. She told me that the weather was similar to here and that 1 student was a little woozy at the end of the parade. He was taken to first aid and was ok. I also heard there was a lot of pride and emotions marching at our nation’s capitol. I heard they had terrible weather in the afternoon but still were able to see the fireworks. Had to be a great day for all involved. I am writing this at about 6pm so they should be on the road home by now. I know I speak for everyone when I say I am very proud of the band! While they were having fun, some of us were “takin care of business” here at home. Phyllis and Allison Saturnini, Claudia and Jesus Zamora, Kathy, Wayne and Mehgan McDaniel and Pam Guist were all working at the 4th at Lantana. Trish Townend, Kent Drake, Saritza and Sergio Varela, Cindy Bhebe, Jo Henderson, Jennifer Monroe, Patty Cunningham, Tim Noble, Celeste and Scott Matthews, Caitlin Cabanas and her boyfriend, Lauren Townend, Doneeka Garner, Susan Milligan and I were working at 4th on Flagler. We were soaking wet from the very beginning. Thank you to all of you for giving up your holiday, sticking with it in the rain and helping out the band! I am looking very forward to hearing all the stories about DC when we all pick up our kids tomorrow morning. Remember that the time on the itinerary is wrong. It should be 11AM. Until the next time, Ron Monday, July 2, 2007 - 2:45PM Washington DC update I was told they arrived at the hotel around noon and the trip up was ok. They did run into rain through the night. I don’t have an update on the parade being televised but have been told that order forms for pictures and a DVD of the entire parade will be available when the kids get back. I hope everyone had a chance to see the article in the Sun Sentinel on Saturday and the interviews on Channel 25 WPBF Sunday during their evening and nighttime newscasts. Don’t forget that rest of the band family will be doing a couple of fundraisers while our great kids are marching at the nation’s capitol. Some of us will be at Centennial Park in Lantana selling funnels cakes and some of us will be at 4th on Flagler sell tickets for the food vendors. So if you are looking for a place to spend some money and watch some fireworks, what better place to do it than with our extended band family at one of these events. I will try to update the blog as soon as I hear more from the kids. Until then, Ron Friday, June 29, 2007 Hello Chiefs, Summer vacation is zooming by; it is already the end of June. Washington DC practice has begun. Here are a few announcements. All medical forms and final payments should have been turned in by Thursday, June 28th for the DC trip. If you need a medical form, you can download it from the band website. We will be at school on Friday, June 29 to collect remaining money and medical forms. Football ads – June 30th is the date that all ads become fair game to anyone. If you sold any ads last year and have not had the ad renewed, some one else can go behind you and sell that ad on July 1st. Also, July 31st is the final day any ads can be turned in. Adam Fiveson will be at school before and after each practice to pick up any ads. The practice time for Friday, June 29th is 1:30 to 4:40. Members of the Sun-Sentinel paper and website were on campus yesterday taking pictures and doing interviews with the kids. I am told it should be on the website and in the paper in the next couple of days. Keep checking. For those of you going to Washington to represent Santaluces, we are very proud of you! Have a great time, I know you will! For now, Ron Tuesday, June 19 2007 Greetings Chiefs, I would like to say “hello” to all of our new students and parents and “welcome back” to our returning Chiefs. It has already been a very busy summer and June is not yet over. As most of you know, everyone is preparing for the trip to Washington DC to march in National Independence Parade. Very exciting! I wanted to remind you all that they will be collecting money tomorrow night (Wednesday) during band practice from 5:30 - ? If you have paid for your trip in full, thank you very much. If you still owe money, all money MUST be paid by the 1^st Washington practice on June 28^th. Adam Fiveson will be at school after practice in the parking lot to pick up any football and banner ads you may have sold. We would love to see everyone selling football ads. You can turn in any fair share money due tomorrow night. Remember the 1^st fair share payment of the 2007/2008 school year was due June 10^th. If you are a payment coupon kind of person, you can download a coupon book from the website on the “Forms and Paperwork” link. Let’s make sure we are all current with our fair share. We are in desperate need of help to man all the food booths at 4^th on Flagler. I have about 5 people signed up. We need 20 people to run this properly. If you are not going to Washington and would like to earn $5 an hour towards your fair share account, please let me know. You can have other family members or friends work on behalf of your student. The only stipulation is you must be at least 14 years old and be able to count back change at a fast pace. The lines are long during this event. It is a very fast 5 hours. The event is from 5 – 10pm along Flagler Drive in WPB. It is run very similar to Sunfest. Please help us out and sign up. Again, call me at 561-723-1768 or email me at This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it If you did not receive this info via email, please send me an email. Until we have all the email addresses in our system, I will post the same info on the website blog. When I sent this via email, I received the following errors for email addresses: ' This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it ' on 6/19/2007 11:53 PM 550 Invalid recipient: < This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it > ' This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it ' on 6/19/2007 11:53 PM 550 Invalid recipient: < This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it > ' This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it ' on 6/19/2007 11:53 PM 550 Invalid recipient: < This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it > Until next time, Ron Ritz Thursday, June 14, 2007 Washington DC update and other info We had a bunch of people come in Wednesday night and pay the balance of the DC trip. The kids signed up for their rooms and gave their shirt sizes. We emailed the Charter company and they sent us the invoice. Thursday, Mr. Rogovin will have the school cut a check for the entire amount and FED Ex it to them. So there you go, 104 students, teachers and chaperones are ready to march in the 4^th of July parade in Washington DC. The kids were all told Wednesday night that Mr. Stevens would allow them to finish paying any outstanding balance by the 1^st DC practice (June 27^th) Seems like all we have been thinking about is the parade, so here are some other items of interest. The 1^st fair share payment of the 2007/2008 school year was due June 10^th. As a reminder, all fair share payments are due the 10^th of every month. The payments can be sent in with your student to practices or made on the website via paypal. If you are a “payment coupon” or “payment book” kinda person, I have uploaded a coupon book for fair share payments. It can be found on the website menu under “Forms and Paperwork”. Many of us will not be going to Washington DC with the kids. The band still has a few fundraising events going on. The band has a tent at the 4^th on Lantana where we sell funnel cakes, drinks and such. That event has been filled. The band sells tickets for food vendors at 4^th on Flagler. We need about 20 people to man this event. It is the same as Sunfest but on a much smaller scale. It is from 5 to 10pm on the 4^th. It pays $5 towards your fair share account. If you are interested, please email me at This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it We are also selling car wash tickets for Motor City car wash. Proceeds go toward your fair share account. If you are interested, please email Trish Townend at This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it I hope everyone has gone out and started selling football and banner ads. Selling these can give you a big jump on your fair share. You could have your entire fair share paid before the summer is over. If you have any questions you can contact Adam Fiveson @ This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it or call him at 432-9959. Adam will also be at school to pick up any ads after each band practice. He can usually be found hanging around the student parking lot. I know Sue Ternet had many of you sign up for a band buddy, if you have not been contacted by your buddy or are looking to get a band buddy, please email Sue at This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it For those of you that so not know what a band buddy is, it is a member of the boosters that have been a booster for at least one year and someone you can ask questions of during the school year. We are still accepting donations for our trip to Washington DC. If you have any contacts with any media outlets or have connections with organizations that are willing to help out the band, please don’t hesitate to contact Adam Fiveson @ This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it or call him at 432-9959. We have received travel kits for all going from CVS Pharmacy. Until the next time Ron Friday, June 08, 2007 Washington DC update Here is everything I know about the trip to DC as of tonight. We are only taking 2 buses which equal 106 people. Each person’s cost is $590 if we have 106 people and it is quad occupancy in each room. If we have lees than 106, we still have to pay for the entire bus. If there are less than 4 people to a room, there is an additional charge based on the number in that particular room. Our 1^st payment to the charter company was supposed to be made on April 1^st, our 2^nd on May 1^st and our 3^rd and final payment on May 15^th. The charter company has not been able to secure a hotel or buses without us making any payments. We have been actively seeking outside donations to make the trip more affordable or even free but have been unsuccessful in getting large donations. We have had some donations come in, in fact we have a $5000 grant available with some stipulations and we continue to see quite a few small donations trickle in. We have had a great turn out with checks being turned in for the first payment that was due last night, and some parents are still feverishly seeking donations. So let me cut to the chase. As of right this minute, we have $750 in our account(for Washington), $1000 in Paypal, donations given to us last night totaling $905 and trip deposits totaling $6555. Added up is $9210. The grant that is available to us is for $5000. We have students with fair share overages totaling $7300. We had some banner ad checks come in tonight totaling $2000 $600 of which is fair share for a grand total so far of $22,910. I was told the cost of two buses is a little under $60,000. The bad news, the charter company needs payment in full by June 15^th, next Friday. They need a complete room list by Monday, June 11^th, so here is what I am proposing. We need everyone to be paid in full by end of band practice Wednesday, June 13^th so we can get the check to them by Friday. If you have any donation checks that have not been turned in yet, please, please get them turned in as soon as possible. The band nor the school can float the outstanding balance. If we don’t have the full amount to give the charter company, the trip will be cancelled. The good news, we still have donations coming in! I know you are thinking, well can’t we deduct the donations that have come in so our balance can be smaller? We could but it is still fluctuating so we have no idea how much we will have. After the trip, we can divide the amount donated and put that toward your fair share account. If you are a graduated senior, then you can get a refund. If you have any contacts with any media outlets or have connections with organizations that are willing to help out the band, please don’t hesitate to contact Adam Fiveson @ This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it or call him at 432-9959 Ron Wednesday, June 06, 2007 Chiefs, Congratulations to everyone. Our boosters were awarded “Outstanding Volunteer Parent Organization” at the annual South Florida Winter Guard Association banquet this past weekend. Very well deserved! I hope everyone has started selling Football and Banner ads. Don’t forget the deadline is July 31st Ron The following is from Sandy Ghersetich WE ARE LOOKING FOR A FEW PEOPLE TO START EARNING THEIR FAIR SHARE THIS SUMMER. WE ARE IN NEED OF 2 PEOPLE PER DAY TO WORK FOR "FAIR SHARE" AT THE PBC BAND CAMP CONCESSION. THIS IS AT SANTALUCES H.S. THE HOURS ARE 6AM-APPROX. NOON.THE AVAILABLE DAYS ARE JULY 2,3,5, AND 6TH.PLEASE RESPOND ASAP IF YOU ARE INTERESTED. PLEASE INCLUDE YOUR FULL NAME AND PHONE NUMBER. THURSDAY NIGHT WE WILL BE COLLECTING AND NOTARIZING MEDICAL FORMS. PLEASE RETURN THE FORM WITH YOUR STUDENT OR COME BY, SAY HELLO, AND DROP IT OFF.WE WILL HAVE SEVERAL BOARD MEMBERS AVAILABLE TO ANSWER ANY QUESTIONS YOU MIGHT HAVE. WE WILL BE COLLECTING ALL DEPOSITS FOR WASHINGTON D.C. TOMORROW NIGHT AS WELL. IF YOU ARE INTERESTED IN CHAPERONING, WE NEED YOUR DEPOSIT AS WELL. MANY THANKS, SANDY GHERSETICH Thursday, May 31, 2007 If you are interested in earning some fair share right of the bat, here are the band camp schedules. Jazz band camp 6/11-6/15 8:30 – 12:30 Symphonic band camp 6/18-6/22,6/25-6/29,7/2,7/3,7/5 & 7/6-no Wednesday (7/4) 8AM to Noon You can email Sandy Ghersetich directly at This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it Remember, Each hour worked is $5 earned toward your fair share account. Tuesday, May 29, 2007 Hello Chiefs, I would like to thank Tony Tortora, Pam Guist, Sandy Ghersetich, Claudia Zamora and Jesus Zamora for coming to school Monday morning to help move some of the cabinets from the band room to the portable. The portable looks great. We are in a bit of a jam with so many of us going to Washington DC and two fundraisers happening at the same time. Santaluces band has a tent to sell funnel cakes at the 4th at Lantana and we sell tickets for San Francisco Puff and Stuff at the 4th on Flagler. We had sign up sheets at the last parent meeting. We did not get a good response. We still need 12 – 15 people to work at 4th on Flagler. Please contact Claudia Zamora at This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it or This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it Anyone signed up for the PBC band camp, please email Sandy Ghersetich at This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it Don’t forget $100.00 1st payment for Washington and the signed medical forms need to be turned in by the 1st night of band camp, Thursday, June 7th. We will have a table set up outside the band room. So if you have any questions, come on by, we will be there. I would hope you have had a chance to go out and sell some football ads. A couple of deadlines to remind you off. July 31st all ads must be turned in to Adam Fiveson. The back cover, inside back cover and inside front cover locations of the program are 1st come first pay. You must have check in hand before calling Adam and claiming the spot. His email address is This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it . Many people have asked what the Itinerary is for the Washington trip. Please check the website Wednesday, May 30, 2007 for updates. I will post it under the Washington DC link. Anyone interested in a copy of the senior babies slideshow contact Jillian Cerbone at This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it The slide show will be playable on a computer. Please advise if you want it playable on a dvd player Until next time, Ron Saturday, May 26, 2007 The boosters will be on school campus this Monday, May 28th at 9 am to do some of our own demolition. The band room is just about ready to be torn down. We are going in and taking some of the closets out of the storage room and putting them into our portable. We are asking for some help. If you have some cordless hand tools (yeah baby, 18 volt cordless drills) please bring them. We should only be there for a few hours. Again, Monday, May 28th at 9 am in the band room and portable. Otherwise, everyone have a great memorial day weekend. Ron Wednesday, May 23, 2007 I just came from the parent meeting tonight. What a great turn out! It was awesome seeing and meeting all the new parents. I spoke with a few of them and they seemed very excited and ready to get started. Then as we were walking to the gym we could hear them playing stand tunes. Very cool! There was my son in the band! Thank you for attending the meeting tonight. I hope all of you are ready for this roller coaster ride. The year flies by. Before you know it, marching season will be over. I wanted to make sure everyone had my phone number and email address. I can be reached at 723-1768 or This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it Ron May 13, 2007 Sorry, it has been a while since I last updated the blog. Lots going on. First let me say Happy Mothers Day out there to all of our band and guard mothers. I hope you have a great day! Sunfest was May 2 – 6. From my point of view, everything seemed to run very well. Claudia and Jesus did a wonderful job organizing the event. The vendors all seemed to be generally happy with us as a whole. Thanks to every that worked. It sure feels like as soon as Sunfest starts, some turns up the heat. It sure was hot those five days. The new location for the 20 vendors in the north location has its positives and negatives. If you worked that location, you could not hear any of the entertainment but we were in the shade by 3pm every day. For the 36.5 hours Sunfest was open, it seemed like the fastest Sunfest I have work in the past 4 years. Before we knew it, it was over. Another Sunfest under our belt. The annual Band Banquet was Saturday, May 12th. Tammy Dausel, Gina Rodriguez and their crew did a wonderful job. It was great to see everyone all dressed up. The pictures were a nice touch this year. Congratulations and Thank You to Mr. Rogovin, Ms. Duque and the entire staff for a great year! Graduation is Sunday May, 20th. For Dawn and me it will be a very special graduation. Our daughter Ashley will be graduating. It just seemed like yesterday we were going to the 1st parent meeting for band. WOW, 4 years already. Where does the time go? I want to personally thank all of the board and committee members for all of their hard work during the 2006 – 2007 school year. With that being said I would like to welcome the new board and committee members for the 2007 – 2008 school year. You have some big shoes to fill. I hope we can all work hard together to make this next year a good one. We have our work cut out for us. Marching practices for next year have already started. It is very exciting to see all of the new faces. I look forward to seeing them perform at the parent preview meeting Wednesday night, May 23rd. Speaking of the big parent meeting May 23rd. incoming freshman and any new band member parents should be at the meeting at 6pm in the Theater. We have a ton of information to present to you. All other parents should attend at 7pm. We will have a sign up sheet for our new “buddy system” being implemented by Susan Ternet. Any new parent that signs up will be assigned an experienced parent as a “buddy” This parent will be there to answer questions and help guide them. We all know how overwhelming it is when we first start as a member of the band boosters. I want to personally invite ALL parents to attend this meeting. PLEASE be a part of a very special organization. I never thought in my wildest dreams I would ever be this involved with my children’s lives in high school. This is your opportunity get involved and be a part of their lives. The "beg" video for the Washington trip is done. If you havn't seen it, you are really missing out. Adam and his crew have done a great job. If you have someone you would like to give the video to, please contact Adam Fiveson at 432-9959. We have had some good press coverage on Channel 5 and would like to see more. I seems like this blog is more of a personal nature but it is what it is. I want to thank all of the senior parents for everything they have done over the past four years. We have done great things together. For some, we will miss you! For others, we will see you again soon! It has been an honor and a pleasure to serve as your President this year! Ron April 30, 2007 Greetings Chiefs, Sunfest starts Wednesday for five long hot days in beautiful downtown West Palm Beach. The Santaluces Band is ready to man the ticket booths for San Francisco Puff and Stuff. There is a mandatory meeting in the band room Tuesday, May 1st at 7pm for everyone working Sunfest. We will cover everything you need to know about working Sunfest and will be handing out parking passes. If you have a chance, go see one of the three remaining performances of Newsies being put on by the Acting Chiefs. It was a great show! I know if you are an incoming freshman, there is a bit of excitement in the air. My son has been counting down the days until Wednesday when he gets to start band practice. Can you believe marching season practice is about to start? Don’t forget to get your tickets to the banquet May 12th. Contact Tammy Dausel at This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it Ron April 25, 2007 Hey Chiefs, Not many days left in the year but seems like there is so much going on. Let me fill in some blanks. Sunfest starts 1 week from today (seeing it is 1AM on Wednesday) There is a mandatory meeting for everyone working Sunfest Tuesday evening at 7pm in the band room. We will be explaining everything involved and will pass out parking passes. If you do not come to the meeting, we won’t be able to get a parking pass to you. PLEASE ATTEND! I want to thank all the people that have already signed up. Here are the shifts left to fill. 1. 1 person for Wednesday, 05/02/07 2. 0 ( we actually have 7 extra people) for Thursday, 05/03/07 3. 1 person for Friday, 05/04/07 4. 6 people for Saturday, 05/05/07 - 12:00 Noon to 5:30 PM 5. 1 person for Saturday, 05/05/07 - 5:30 PM to 11:00 PM 6. 0 for Sunday, 05/06/07 - 12:00 Noon to 5:00 PM 7. 1 person for Sunday, 05/06/07 - 5:00 PM to 9:30 PM We are posting updates on the front page of the website daily. I know flyers went home with the kids from Christa so we may have some more people signing up. Now for the bad news, many people still owe Fair Share and if your student is one of them, they will be put on the school’s obligation list. I they are a senior, they will not get their diploma. We are still accepting checks up to April 30. You can also go to www.santalucesband.net and click on the “Donate” button to make a payment through Paypal. If you work Sunfest, it can count towards this year’s Fair Share. It is typically counted towards next year. Good luck and I look forward to seeing you at Sunfest and the banquet. Ron Friday April 20th Prom is tonight. My senior daughter Ashley is finally going. This is the first time in four years the guard has not been competing at the National Championships at this time. I hope all of the students attending Prom tonight have a fun, safe evening. Thanks to all who attended the last parent meeting of the school year. It was a great turnout. The new band booster board for the 2007-2008 school year is: President – Ron Ritz 1st VP – Sandy Ghersetich 2nd VP – Claudia Zamora Treasurer – Sandra Stevens Financial Secretary – Trish Townend Secretary – Rhonda DeSousa Sunfest is right around the corner, please see the main page of the website for times and contact info. We need a bunch of people for this event. If you know of any incoming 9th graders, please let them know so they can contact us and sign up. This is a great way to get a head start on next years fairshare. Until next time, Ron Monday, April 16th I am sorry I didn’t update the blog during the last couple of days in Dayton. We were very busy so here we go. Friday morning we were up at 7am. Out the door at 8:30am for a 10 – 1 practice at the Payne Rec. Center. We are now on our 3rd bus. The bus company had two more drivers bring this one up so we had transportation to get home. This is THE bus. Large flat panel monitor up front, Satellite TV…. We are set! The weather is great today, the sun is out and it is not nearly as cold as it has been. The girls had a great practice. They ate and dressed at the practice site. They are performing at the Nutter Center which is practically across the street form the hotel. 4:24 and we perform. Another great show overall. The girls didn’t seem as happy though. Some of them seem to have little individual spots they weren’t happy with. We find out the score as soon as we get on the bus. 90.6. We have a great chance to make finals. Semifinals is 3 groups of ten guards(45) competing for 15 spots for finals. Semis end at 9pm. We should know by then. We go to the hotel to change and eat and then back to the Nutter Center to watch the rest of the Scholastic Open guard. By 8pm most everyone realized WE MADE IT! 9pm and back to the hotel and into a conference room so the staff can announce and congratulate the girls. They find out they are in 12th place and get the schedule for Finals day. On a personal note, Dawn, Kaitlyn and Cory jumped on a plane and flew up here so they could see Ashley perform for the last time. Saturday….. Wake up call at 5:30, pack, eat and load bus by 7:30. Practice from 8 – 10 at the usual location. The Payne Rec. Center has been great hosts to us. While the girls are practicing, they open the teen room for the parents. They have already marked the calendar for next year because the FL teams all have first dibbs. The weather is terrible. Cold and rainy. Forecast has snow the next day. This day the parents are all very busy. Dawn, Janice, Bob, Frank and Ms Duque were in the teen room putting together the flower bouquets the girls would carry with them during retreat. Rosanne, Trish and I went shopping for lunch and sandwiches for the bus ride home. Practice is over, they are as ready as they are gonna be. Eat, get dressed and jump on the bus. They perform at 12:54 at the Dayton Arena. Here we go, the girls and staff go one way and the floor crew goes to the tunnel. We start rotation. The girls meet the floor at the top of the tunnel and make our way down. It is our turn. Taravela High School is our floor crew. They took the Gold Medal the night before, Congratulations, they deserved it, they have a wonderful show. Our girls go out and hit it! WOW everything looks great on the big screen. They have their best show of the season. The floor crew loads the equipment back on the bus for the last time, the girls go in to watch the rest of the show and get ready for retreat. After the last guard performs all the guards get up and go to line up for retreat. The lights go down and he we go. It is a full blown production with cameras and spot lights. 15 guards from Scholastic Open and 15 guards from Independent Open are all on the floor and they announce scores - In 13th place with a score of 87.8 Santaluces High School. 13th in the Nation…..GREAT JOB! WE ARE SO PROUD. We board the bus and off to the mall go to eat. It seems like every color guard is in the mall. After we eat, we head back to the UD Arena to watch World class finals. 6 hours of color guards. There are some amazing shows. Show is over at 11:30 and we head to the bus. Everyone on and we start with the sandwich factory. Once that’s done, it is settle in time. The bus stops every three hours for a bathroom break. Before you know it, it is 10am and we are stopping for breakfast. The bus ride isn’t as bad as you might think it is except this trip has been cursed. We had the problem with the 1st bus on the way up. Well something had to go wrong on the way back. About an hour into Florida, we all hear a BAMM and the bus shakes. We had been sideswiped by a pick up truck. It hits us and just keeps going, weaving in and out of cars. We were all ok but we had to stop and call the police so they could get a police report. The rest of the trip is uneventful. We arrived around 7, unloaded the bus, said our goodbyes and another Winterguard season was over. I hope you all got to see the guard at one point during the year, it is such a beautiful sport. Friday, 4-13-07 Thursday started off with an 8:30 wake up call. Quick breakfast and we were out the door at 10AM. We are on a local bus because the one we traveled in is getting repaired. We went to the Nutter Center to pull Cooper City’s floor. It is FREEZING up here. There are still a couple of piles of snow on the ground at the Nutter Center. As we were boarding the bus, it was raining and very close to flurries. Practice is at the Payne Rec. Center which seems like the South Florida home for color guard. Cooper, Taravella and another FL guard is also practicing there. Great to see some familiar faces. Practice was from 12 – 3. On the bus and back to the hotel for lunch and a little rest. It is so cold the instructors decide to stretch at the hotel and go right into rotation. We pull out at 7:15. Everyone is nervous. UD arena and into rotation. The place is huge! When you walk out onto the floor and look up….WOW. Our floor crew for this performance was Fort Mill and of course our award winning members. GREAT SHOW! Pack up and back on the bus. We are waiting for the call. Before the results, let me tell you the staff usually sits in the front couple of seats, parents a few rows back and the guard the last ¾ of the bus. Darrin’s phone rings and his normal chit chat. He turns to Amy and I can tell she is happy. It seems like forever until they tell us the score. Darrin and Amy stand up, 90.8…….Yee Ha. 3^rd for the round. We get back to the hotel and eat dinner. In the meantime the staff is figuring out the logistics of tomorrow. They tell us we are 10^th overall and are sitting pretty. We perform at 4:24. Check the color guard section of the website, I will try to upload some pictures of the show. Thursday, 4-12-07 We left Tuesday afternoon on a charter bus to Dayton, Ohio with the Varsity guard for WGI World Championships. Just another typical 18 hour bus trip until……… We stopped in Lake City Florida to switch bus drivers and eat dinner. Shoneys, yummy. Back on the bus and away we go. We are watching the movie The Guardian and all of a sudden the movie shuts off. We go through the process of getting back to the place we left off and it goes off again. Then we realize something is wrong with the bus. We pull into a truck stop and have the fuel filter changed and get back on the road. Well it didn’t fix it. We end up driving to Dayton in third gear. We got here 3 hours late Wednesday afternoon. Everybody checks in and rests. We left for practice at 5pm. After practice we ate at Spaghetti Warehouse. Back to the hotel and lights out at midnight. We are up at 8:30 and ready for a busy day. April 10^th Hello Chiefs, There are still a few spots to fill for the Delray Affair. Please contact Adam Fiveson at This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it if you are interested. Sunfest is right around the cormer. It will be May 2 – 6. Many shifts to fill on this one. Please sign up now. Remember, you can have many people work this event for you student. This is a great way to get a head start on next years fair share. Sign grandma and grandpa up if you would like. Please email me or Adam. His email address is above. Please do not wait until the last minute to sign up. We will have a sign up sheet at the upcoming parent meeting. Our next parent meeting is 4/17. Please remember this is our annual voting meeting. We are still taking nominations for all positions on the board. If you are interested in making an impact, please nominate yourself or someone you know. We need good people to continue the tradition. Please attend this important meeting. WOW, where has the year gone? Did you realize that the parent preview meeting for next year is May 23^rd? Well, off to Dayton with the Varsity guard, check the blog, I will try to update daily so you can see our trip. See you all Tuesday, April 17^th. Ron April 1, 2007 Happy April Fools Day Chiefs, Our Outback dinner was a huge success. Thanks to everyone that showed up and enjoyed all the great food and entertainment. It was great to see each group perform. I look at an evening like that an am truly amazed at how talented our kids really are. We hosted The Middle Schools district competition in typical Santaluces fashion. “Hats off” to everyone that worked that event. I would like to congratulate all the students that participated in State Solo and Ensembles. Great Job! You all make us very proud! Congratulations to our JV and Varsity Winter Guard for an awesome season. If you didn’t get a chance to see them perform this year, you truly missed out. The JV guard did so well they were moved up a division and our Varsity guard was 2007 Scholastic Open SFWGA Circuit Champions. The Varsity guard will be traveling to Dayton, Ohio on April 10th to compete in the WGI World Championships 4/12 – 4/14. You can watch a live webcast of the Scholastic Open class finals on Saturday 4/14 by visiting http://wgi.org/ . WE WISH ALL THE MEMBERS OF THE VARSITY GUARD, GOOD LUCK! There are still a few spots to fill for the Delray Affair. Please contact Adam Fiveson at This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it if you are interested. Sunfest is our next big event. It will be May 2 – 6. Many shifts to fill on this one. Please sign up now. Remember, you can have many people work this event for you student. Sign grandma and grandpa up if you would like. Please email me or Adam. His email address is above. Our next parent meeting is 4/17. Please remember this is our annual voting meeting. We are still taking nominations for all positions on the board. If you are interested in making an impact, please nominate yourself or someone you know. We need good people to continue the tradition. Please attend this important meeting. On a personal note, some of us attended the Color Guard Circuit Championships at Barbara Goldman High School this past Saturday. Championships is a huge event because all the guard and percussion squads in our circuit must perform. As usual, we always check things out at each host school to see how the run their event. Rosanne over heard a conversation at another table taking about how they like coming to the Santaluces show because it is always so nice. It is great to hear those comments when they are not directed towards you. It makes all the hard work we do to put on a show like that worth it! Parents, be proud of yourselves! You are the greatest group of parents! It has been a pleasure serving as your President this year! Sincerely, Ron Ritz Greetings Chiefs! March 22, 2007 Hello Chiefs, The website is up and running! Adam and his crew has done a great job. This will be our MAIN line of communication. It is updated almost everyday. Please check the website regularly to be completely informed. There will also be a Boosters’s Blog on the Boosters page. There is also a link to make a donation via Paypal. The Outback dinner is tomorrow night, March 22 at 6pm. If you have not purchased your tickets already, you can purchase them at the door for $15 each. The Outback Restaurant is very gracious every year to donate all the food for this event. All the money we take in goes directly into our band account. Please make sure you thank them as you go through the line. All of the bands and color guards will perform sometime during the dinner. This year we will be starting a new tradition by including a silent auction so please bring your checkbooks. I think Pam Giust still needs some help for the Middle school districts competition we are hosting this Friday and Saturday, March 23 & 24. Please contact her at 670-0020 or This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it if you are interested. Students will receive community service hours and adults will receive fair share. We will be cooking Santaluces famous funnels cakes at the Delray Affair. If you did not get a chance to sign up during the last parent meeting, please email me to let me know you are interested. We are also looking for someone to be in charge of running this event. We will be paying fair share for Friday, Saturday and Sunday April 13, 14 & 15. Sunfest is right around the corner and we will be selling tickets for the food vendors like we do every year. This is a huge way to earn fair share if you are behind. You could use it towards the Washington trip if you are ahead or you could bank it until next year. The event is Wednesday evening, Thursday evening, Friday, Saturday and Sunday all day. You can work one shift or all shifts. You can have as many people work in your name just as long as they can count money. Please email if you are interested. If you sold Macy tickets during this last Macy’s “Shop for a cause” day, please make sure you turn in the money and get credit for fair share. Please contact Leslie Bruner at 432-5724 or Barbara Michael at 968-1070. March is nomination month for the band booster’s board of directors. Every position is up for grabs. If you are interested and would like to make an impact and serve on the board, please nominate yourself or someone you know that would like to help. In my previous email I explained what each job entailed. Voting will take place at the next parent meeting April 17^th (this date has been changed fro April 10^th). If you are not nominating someone, please attend and vote. Respectfully, Ron March 17th It has been a busy month of March so far and I want to congratulate all of our students and parents for the amazing work all have done for Santaluces High School. Thank you to all the parents who worked so hard at the Color Guard competition. Thanks to the concert bands and color guards for their great performances! Although it seems like this might be the time of year when we can breathe a sigh of relief and kick up our heels, there is much more to be done. Thursday is our big Outbeak Steakhouse Dinner. We hope you all can stop in for a bit of food and great family entertainment. The Symphonic Band, Wind Ensemlbe, 12 0'Clock Jazz Band, Groove-in-a-suit Jazz Combo, JV Winter Guard and Varsity Winter Guard will all be in performance. This is a terrific evening where all of our programs can be featured on one special night. On Friday and Saturday, we host the FBA District 14 South Middle School MPA. Many of our students have volunteered hours to work this great event. Please stop by if you can and listen to some of our area middle schools in action. It all begins Friday afternoon at 3pm. Again, I hope you can make it to some of our upcoming events. I certainly appreciate all of your support and so do our students. Thanks again for making Santaluces a specail place for music education.
Last Updated ( Friday, 16 July 2010 )

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