BY LAYLI WHYTE
Staff Writer
LAYLI WHYTE Emily Crosby (l-r), Kathleen Schneider and Carl Sceusa, all members of the RBC marching band, sort through the dresses collected for the band’s fund-raiser, Cinderella’s Closet. The band has collected more than 700 dresses to sell on April 16. We all know Cinderella lost a slipper, but what ever happened to her dress?
The marching band at Red Bank Catholic High School might have a lead. Members are collecting used party dresses and prom dresses and will be selling them to raise funds for new marching band uniforms.
The sale is being called Cinderella’s Closet, and as of Easter weekend, band members had collected 700 dresses, ranging from children’s to adult sizes.
The sale will take place on Saturday, April 16 from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. in the school cafeteria.
There will be finery from wedding gowns to First Communion dresses, with prices to fit anyone’s budget.
“Most will be priced at $20 or less,” said Trish Crosby, Middletown, whose daughter, Emily, a sophomore, plays clarinet in the band.
“We never thought we’d get this volume of dresses,” said Crosby. “The stuff that people have given away is unbelievable.”
The group of band supporters started collecting dresses in February, never imagining that Crosby’s basement would end up filled with over 300 dresses, and Mary Ward-Callan, who also has a child in the band, and who came up with the idea for the fund-raiser, would be storing 400 dresses in her basement.
“We’re selling the dresses at very low prices to people who couldn’t otherwise afford dresses like these,” said Crosby.
Emily said she donated her graduation dress and her Easter dresses from previous years because she knows how badly the band needs new uniforms.
“Our uniforms are from 1988,” she said. “They are yellow and green and dilapidated. We can’t even wear them, we just wear black pants and tuxedo shirts.”
Emily said that she hopes the band can get a simple uniform that can be changed a little every year.
She describes the RBC marching band as “The Little Band That Could,” explaining how hard the band works and how it maintains a very different sound.
During her time on the band with band director George Powers, she has gotten to play more than the usual marching band classics.
“We play Styx, Queen, and the Blues Brothers,” she said, referring to popular rock bands.
She said she hopes the band’s affinity for rock music will translate into more up-to-date uniforms when the time comes to order them.
“I want white pants,” said Kathleen Schneider, Old Bridge, a freshman who plays clarinet in the band.
The band marches every weekend from August to November, for two to three shows a week. Some members also play in the school’s concert band.
The fund-raiser will also raise money for new uniforms for the color guard, whose members now wears black pants and black turtle-neck shirts.
Crosby said that uniforms could cost between $200 and $400 for each member of the band. With just under 35 students in the band and color guard, she said she knows they have a long way to go.
Band members have been working tirelessly getting the word out about the fund-raiser, visiting homerooms and passing out fliers.
“I tell everybody I see,” said Emily.
“We’re advertising at places where women gather,” said Crosby. “It’s an enormously word-of-mouth effort.”
Crosby said that the dresses dropped off at the RBC business office have to be collected daily.
“The people in the business office can’t get their work done, there are so many dresses,” she said.
If the sale is as successful as collecting the dresses has been, Crosby said she would consider making Cinderella’s Closet an annual fund-raiser.
For male members of the marching band, finding a way to participate in the fund-raiser may prove problematic.
Carl Sceusa, Marlboro, a freshman saxophone player, nodded his head in agreement when Crosby said it would probably be a little weird for the boys in the band to go around collecting pretty dresses.
“We’ll find some way for them to help at the sale,” she added.
For the sale, dresses will be arranged by size, but not necessarily by color or style.
“I don’t think we’d be able to do that. That would be too much,” said Crosby, who also has to manage the logistics of getting 300 dresses out of her basement and over to the RBC cafeteria.
The sale on April 16 will include door prizes and the cafeteria will be decorated.
“We want to make it so even if someone doesn’t find something to buy, they will still have a pleasant and positive experience,” said Crosby.
The entrance to the cafeteria is off Peters Place, near the intersection at Broad Street. Parking will be available in the school lot off Peters Place.
“This fund-raiser has gotten a lot of support from the band,” said Emily.
Added Crosby, “They’ve all worked together and they’ve had a blast.”