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Neighbors | Abby Slanker.With a large crowd watching and listening, the Canfield Village Middle School eighth-grade band, under the direction of James Volenik, performed at the Canfield Band Parents annual Pasta Dinner on Feb. 23.
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Neighbors | Abby Slanker.Under the direction of James Volenik (right), the Canfield Village Middle School eighth-grade band performed at the Canfield Band Parents annual Pasta Dinner on Feb. 23.
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Neighbors | Abby Slanker.Members of the percussion section of the Canfield Village Middle School eighth-grade band, from left, Tim Styranec, Aidan VanDussen, Maddie McCartney, Dev Sethi and Jakob Bowman, prepared to perform at the Canfield Band Parents annual Pasta Dinner on Feb. 23.
By ABBY SLANKER
The Canfield Band Parents’ annual Pasta Dinner and Chinese auction offered guests both dinner and band performances at the high school cafeteria on Feb. 23.
Diners were treated to the musical talents of seven Canfield schools bands, from the fifth-grade band to the high school bands, including the CHS saxophone quartet, throughout the day, as they were served a hearty pasta dinner.
The annual dinner, which is the Canfield bands’ biggest fundraiser of the year, was chaired by Cathy Miasek. Mike Harlen serves as president of the Canfield Band Parents.
“This event does not exist at this level without our boosters. It’s amazing what our band parents do and how they step up to help. We have moms and dads in the kitchen, and it’s a great feeling to look around and see everyone working together like a well-oiled machine. This event is also a success thanks in most part to Mr. Kelly, Mr. Volenik and Mr. Fay. We have such wonderful conductors,” Harlen said.
The money raised from the dinner goes back into the band program’s general fund. According to Harlen, in the past, proceeds have been used to purchase musical instruments, especially percussion instruments, and a truck the band uses for away football games.
Harlen expected to serve between 1,400-1,500 meals of spaghetti, meatballs, sausage, salad and dessert.
Members of the bands volunteered during the dinner, from bussing tables to helping in the kitchen, to preparing take-out orders.
Donations from the community helped with the dinner and several local businesses, such as Home Savings as the anchor sponsor, Randy Swartz of Wells Fargo, Sangeetha Sethi, D.M.D., Laura Volenik, flute, DiRusso’s Italian Sausage, Craig Olsen of Olfield Graphics, Kevin Y.T. Chiu of Elsass Financial Group, Steven P. Hanousek of Capital Wealth Group, Brian Governor of Safeguard by Prime, Pamela G. Kovach, M.D. of BCD Lab, Rulli Brothers Austintown, Reema Taneja, M.D., Justin Taylor of Jr. Tae Kwon Do School and Ted Schmidt of PNC purchased ad space on the place mats, which helped underwrite the costs of the dinner.
The Chinese auction, chaired by Leslie Moore, offered 116 items. Band families, local businesses and several band families with local businesses donated to the auction.
According to Moore, band students were given the option to donate to the auction.
“We asked our high school students to bring in gift cards. We figured that would be easy for them. Then I took them and make packages, mostly according to the amount of the gift card, to make more opportunities available for people to win. We asked our fifth-graders to bring in any kind of snacks, our sixth-graders to bring in anything related to family fun, our seventh-graders to bring in anything super heroes and our eighth-graders to bring in anything related to sports. We tried to give each grade options they might be interested in so they would be excited to donate and be a part of giving back to the band program,” Moore said.
The Canfield Band Parents also hosted a 50/50 raffle during the event and were selling Canfield Band and Canfield Cardinal spirit wear, including T-shirts and sweatshirts.