Fruitful Fundraising: anual DHS Fruit Sale rounds out another year

For 50 years the annual DHS music fundraiser has continuously raised enough money to support a large part of the music department. From oranges to grapefruit, musicians to singers, band to orchestra, they all compete to raise the most money over the course of a few months. Over the years, the students, directors, and buyers have begun to look forward to the annual sale.

“I think it’s just an element of tradition because it’s been here for so long,” orchestra director Amanda Thoms said. “The fruit sale is here every year, and no one wants to be the person who was not a part of it when it’s such an integral part of the program.”

Participating in the fruit sale not only helps fund the music department, but it helps students earn scholarships to music camps, private lessons, and more. 

“I participate in the fruit sale because it’s a really fun competition between the different music classes,” senior band and choir member Margaret Lowe said. “This year we’re trying to break band’s 50-year streak of winning and help choir win.”

To participate in the sale students must either sell cases of fruit or gather donations. Besides funding the music department, the fundraiser has a more entertaining factor. Whatever class raises the most money and is the closest to the total goal earns a special prize. The winning class will be awarded the fruit sale trophy: a giant fake orange on top of a gold trophy.

For the past 50 years, the band has held on to the trophy relentlessly. Both choir and orchestra are determined to break the band’s winning streak. With each fundraiser that goes on, the rest of the music department longs for a chance at beating the band. The lone problem with overtaking the band’s winning streak is the overall size difference. 

Students find many ways to sell the fruit and many different people to whom to sell it. 

“We have a blitz night where you have a list of people who have bought before or have been expressing interest, and you call all of them,” senior orchestra member Madison Stanford said. “Then some people go door to door. For me, I kind of just talk to as many people as I can.”

The fruit sale’s winning class is determined by the average number of cases sold per person. Splitting up the winnings by average puts the rest of the classes at a disadvantage because the band’s numbers are so much greater than the rest of the classes. For example, the band alone has 189 students versus the orchestra’s 103 and the choir’s 95 students. For the sale, however, those in multiple music classes are allowed to choose which class they would prefer to sell for. This means that the choir might not receive the full 95, and the same can be said for band and orchestra. 

Besides being a fun competition for all the music classes, the overall goal of this fundraiser is to earn money to help the DHS music sector fund new instruments, music, uniforms, trips, and other expenses. Each year there is a set goal for all classes to reach.

“[The yearly goal] varies based off of how much the fruit costs at the time we order it,” Thoms said. “So we tend to be somewhere in the range of $20,000 to $30,000 for the band orchestrating inquiry programs.”

It’s not only the students who participate in the fundraiser but the music teachers as well. However, the teachers don’t always choose to take the credit as the students. Some teachers prefer to give the credit of their sales to different students from their classes. 

“If I’m selling fruit I’ll have a first come, first serve for which student wants me to designate their name,” Thoms said. “And a lot of teachers do that. So the only time we have it reflected that a sale went to a teacher is if somebody makes a donation or a sale and they don’t list a student’s name, but they list band, orchestra, or choir, they’ll credit that under the teacher’s name.”

With another successful sales season, the music department waits eagerly to see the results of the final sales, all hoping to be the class to bring home the trophy and possibly put an end to the band´s 50-year streak. 

 

Maddie Oliver

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