Play on: School band bolstered by ballpark food

OKLAHOMA CITY -- At every Oklahoma City Dodgers home game, students from the Del City High School band can be found working the concession stands. The money raised from their efforts is crucial, to the extent that head band director Sean Johnson calls it "the lifeblood of our program."

"Our school is a Title I school, which means it's heavily low income," said Johnson, speaking prior to July 27's game at Chickasaw Bricktown Ballpark. "So with all the money we can raise, we can make it a safe place for the kids. They get fed. They get to learn music and perform and they get to be seen by their families and community."

Chris Hood serves as president of the band's booster club, Del City Instrumental Music. He said that roughly half of the program's approximately $120,000 budget comes via the money earned by students working at the ballpark.

"It's expensive to run a program, to do three marching contests and a yearly trip to take them out of state like New Orleans last year or Dallas the year before that," said Hood. "A lot of our kids had never left the state, or the city, let along going somewhere fun and entertaining."

Del City, a town of approximately 21,000 people, borders a southeastern portion of Oklahoma City. Del City High School band members have worked at Chickasaw Bricktown Ballpark since 2008, the result of a partnership between the school and ballpark concessionaire Professional Sports Catering (PSC).

"We used to work at the convenience locations, the party decks and whatnot," said Hood. "This year was the first we took over the pizza joint [Pi Pizzeria], which made it more efficient and allowed us to bring more students in to get the funding we need.... We have a fixed amount we get from [PSC], and then we give the kids 90 percent of that to their personal accounts and then 10 percent goes to the general fund that everybody gets the benefit of. We needed a marching instructor, we needed music for the year, we need all of those extra things that people don't realize costs money."

"Without this going on, we wouldn't survive, we wouldn't be able to do what we do," added Johnson, who grew up in Del City. "We only get $1,000 for our band account and that'll fix a few instruments, which we're grateful for.... But at the end of the day it costs a lot of money to run a band program and because of this we're able to survive and take care of our kids."

The OKC Dodgers are the Triple-A affiliate of the Los Angeles Dodgers. The Pacific Coast League team's most recent homestand, which concluded on July 31, ran concurrently with summer band camp.

"A lot of these kids are getting real-life skills," said Johnson. "They’re putting in a seven- or eight-hour day in the music world and on top of it they go home, clean up real quick, get changed, come here and do this job on top. And what I’ve noticed with the kids that do participate in this, at this level, is that they’re a lot more prepared for those real-world, real-life skills and they’re ready to take that next step, whatever that may be."

At the ballpark, first-year students are paired with those who are more experienced. Some of the students continue working even after their band expenses are covered, with the money earned going to students unable to participate. From there, additional opportunities are available.

"Once they’re done working with us to cover their fee or help pay for their band trip at the end of the year, the Dodgers actually pick them up as food service employees," said Hood. "Right now three of our students are actually the leads in there, working directly for food services. We basically are on-job training them all the way through that process, and it works out pretty well. Half of those kids in there had never seen a register, or even went out to dinner on their own before working here."

Kandra Johnson, who plays alto sax, was one of the students working July 27's game. She said the experience has resulted in great memories, "and you definitely learn how to do a job." Kaylena Hood, a baritone sax player, expressed similar sentiments before elaborating further.

"As a band you have to listen and work together and be able to depend on one another," she said. "That’s a good version of a work environment. You make sure you’re working together as a team."