COVINGTON, Ga. — When it comes to high school bands in metro Atlanta, not many can compete with The Sound Factory at Newton High School.
And Newton High band director Jason Smith and his program now have a check for $10,000 and a top three finish in the Great Atlanta Band Challenge to back that claim up.
The competition, sponsored by Witherite Law Group and Atlanta radio station Majic 107.5 FM, gave 10 qualifying high school bands in the metro Atlanta area an opportunity to win $10,000 for their band programs. To qualify, each band had to submit a video of a performance and write a short paragraph describing how the money could help the program.
After sorting through the videos, 10 finalists were selected and the public given a chance to vote for their favorites. Witherite Law Group awarded $10,000 to the top three vote-getters this month, and Newton — with its 83,000 votes — placed third, qualifying its band to be one of the award recipients.
On Thursday, Newton’s band performed a miniature concert in the school’s gym to pass the time spent waiting for representatives from the law firm and Majic 107.9 to arrive with the $10,000 check. But Smith didn’t mind the wait. He stood as a proud papa watching his band and the accompanying Aries dancers performer, occasionally shouting out directions and song suggestions, but mostly allowing them free course to show off the quality that made them contest winners.
“This is definitely exciting and absolutely personal for me,” Smith said. “We need the funding. Our band room is one of the most expensive rooms in our entire (school) building. The cost of instruments continues to rise to where one instrument may cost $5,000 itself. So it’s always encouraging the we have that financial support and can put instruments in students’ hands so they can continue to participate in our program.”
Smith said any chance his band gets to receive that kind of monetary boost is major, considering how high school music programs can sometimes get treated in comparison to other extracurricular activities.
“Having this kind of support for the arts is major, because there’s a lot of funding that kind of goes away,” Smith said. “And when funding gets cut, the arts are a lot of times one of the first programs to get cut.”
Adewale Odetunde, attorney for the Witherite Law Group, says his firm understands that, which is why it’s always looking for ways to give back.
“For us, it’s important to meet the needs of the community wherever that may be,” Odetunde said. “If it’s in the band, if it’s the turkey giveaway we do or a back to school drive, we want to be a part of these communities. We want to give back. We want to support any way we can.”
Newton High principal, Dr. Shannon Buff, shared the enthusiasm, both for the finances and the recognition her band program received.
“Any time you can infuse a large sum of cash into a program like this, it opens the world of opportunity up for our kids,” Buff said. “It gives them more chances and opportunities to grow and see things outside of Covington where they are. It feels absolutely amazing to see this because those students work so, so hard, so I’m really proud to see them get the well-deserved recognition for all their hard work.”
Smith said it was a student who actually informed him of the contest.
“One of our band members was just listening to the radio and heard the advertisement on the radio and asked me if we could enter,” Smith said. “I asked, ‘What do we have to do?’ He just said, ‘Submit a video. That’s it.’”
The song they submitted? Vice Versa by Pastor Troy.
“We got involved, then got our whole community involved to get everybody behind us in voting, and here we are,” he said.
The $10,000 bump will go directly to the school’s band program, allowing it to expand its reach and activities for its students. And it’s these moments that Smith — now in his 14th year as the school’s band director — says keeps him coming back year after year.
“It’s the kids,” he said. “It’s the relationships we build through things like this. I’m in a unique situation where I get a chance to teach the kids that come to me for all four years that they’re in high school. When we build relationships, it has a lasting impact. I don’t see this as work, because music was something I always fell in love with when I was younger. I’m just glad I can give them some of the same opportunities I had when I was in college.”
