Doverpalooza to raise funds for band

DOVER PLAINS — A few “notes� can go a long way. With some creative fundraising ideas, the music program for the Dover Middle School and Dover High School is looking to sustain its extracurricular activities with a benefit rock concert Saturday, June 5, at the high school.

The event is dubbed Doverpalooza, in reference to the popular annual rock festival, Lollapalooza. It was organized by the Dover Music Boosters, a community group that meets monthly to raise funding for some of the music program’s more costly activities.

The program, which involves more than 250 middle and high school students, is directed by Chris Rand. The band participates in the New York City St. Patrick’s Day Parade every year (last year it placed third), and the choir performs at St. Patrick’s Cathedral in New York. Funding is needed to provide transportation to these and other performances, as well to cover  equipment, uniforms, sheet music and other costs associated with maintaining a music program outside of the school district’s allotted budget.

“The genesis for this concert series came from our goal to get live music in the town of Dover,� explained Rand via e-mail. “The idea for this series came from one of [the Dover Music Booster] members, Travis Meyers, who has contact with world-class, professional rock bands.�

Meyers is a concert promoter who has children in the high school and middle school. He explained that three “up-and-coming� rock acts will play at the event, including Big Sister, a female-fronted group from White Plains, Lost in Society from Asbury Park, N.J., and headliners, The Jukebox Romantics, who are traveling with the popular Vans Warped Tour Music and Extreme Sports Festival this year. For more information on the bands and to hear some tunes, look up the bands on MySpace.

“This is going to be a great and a really fun way to spend three to four hours on a Saturday afternoon,� Myers said in his e-mail, “as well as to do the right thing and help with a good cause. It will be unlike any high school battle of the bands or bake sale you have been to before, so please make it out, see some top-notch national acts and have a good time.�

The event will be held in the enclosed outside courtyard at the Dover High School or in the school’s auditorium in the event of rain. Food and beverages will be available; entry is $10.