Tomorrow is the marching band competition at our high school. Because it’s at our school, our band parents and kids are expected to volunteer to work in the concession stands or maybe help with equipment or parking. Sell food. Control crowds. You get the idea.
I’ll be working in the Air Gram booth, which means you hand me some cash, and then you can write a message to your band kid and that message will be read over the loudspeaker as your kid’s band gets ready to perform. It’s goofy and sweet and everyone seems to get into it. At the last competition I attended, some kids used Air Grams to ask each other to homecoming. Adorable, right?
In the spirit of Amy Krouse Rosenthal, I’ve toyed with the idea of purchasing Air Grams to be read to random kids from random bands. It doesn’t take much effort to figure out the most popular names from 2001 to 2004. Every band will have a Madison. A Jacob. A Matthew. An Emily. Why not toss some joy into the universe?
Okay. You know someone on the field is going to smile if this Air Gram is read over the loudspeaker.
While we’re at it, my random Air Grams could also be used to make people think!
Bands could be sabotaged with my random Air Grams! (Of course, I would never do that. Never. Stop looking at me like that. I am an ADULT.)
Ah, but most importantly? This competition is an event that will bring people together to perform their amazing shows (while hopefully raising a lot of money for our band program). Also, there is nothing wrong with a little bit of subtle advertising.
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I wish I could go to a marching band competition with you…but only if we could be guaranteed perfect weather (which seemed to never happen when we were in marching band).
How funny — tomorrow is our tournament also! I’m emcee-ing the whole thing, and I LOVE the idea of the Air-Gram! Next year, Madison Central!
Aw, dang, I misunderstood this at first! I thought you were going to do anonymous-type Air Grams to kids for whom nobody had ever done an Air Gram before. I was all like, SIGN ME UP! “Amy – You literally ROCK, girl! Best of luck! -Your friend” or “John – You keep steppin’ to the beat of your OWN drum, dude! -Your bestie”
I like the concession stand ads idea! I too thought like Rzdrms – building up random strangers.