But before the state's only active marching band plays for President-elect Barack Obama on Jan. 20, boosters are hoping other sources come through, including one more shot at help from the Mat-Su Borough School District.
The district school board rejected a $15,000 band-funding proposal at a special meeting Dec. 29. The board split 3-3, with supporters praising the lofty, once-in-a-lifetime nature of the trip and detractors challenging the precedent set for future groups asking for pricey travel expenses.
That could have been the end of it, but board president Jim Colver added a motion to renew the band funding discussion at the board's meeting tonight. The meeting will begin at 6 p.m. in the Palmer High School upper library.
One board member -- Brian Sullivan, a U.S. Army major -- missed the meeting. Sullivan, vacationing in Honolulu, had planned to vote in favor via cell phone. But he dropped his Motorola in the waves at Waikiki and it shorted out.
Sullivan said Tuesday he plans to support the band. He may suggest the district redirect the $12,000 in health premiums he's allotted as a board member but doesn't use.
"In the dark of winter here, it's just nice you can send some kids to an important national event," said Sullivan, who wants to ask each band member to write a report about the trip. "Hopefully, they can learn something."
It's still not clear, however, that any decisions will be made. The district's legal counsel, at the request of board member Colleen Hamblen, is checking whether Colver's agenda item meets public notice requirements, district spokeswoman Catherine Esary said.
There's also some confusion whether the board can both renew discussion and vote on the funding tonight.
Colver -- a band supporter -- won't attend the meeting. He's vacationing on Hawaii's Big Island.
"It's really critical his cell phone doesn't short out," Sullivan said. "Hopefully he's taking my lead and staying dry."
Meanwhile, the band is proceeding as if the trip is a go, even though they were $6,000 to $10,000 short as of this week, said band director Jamin Burton. The group -- which normally spends more than a year to raise funds for trips -- scrambled to raise money after they got approval from inauguration officials on Dec. 5.
Donations from local businesses and individuals as of Tuesday morning amounted to $33,000 with the deduction of the cost to charter a bus, said Lynn Gattis, secretary of the band's nonprofit booster club, Knights Music Boosters Inc. A big spaghetti feed and silent auction was planned for Tuesday night at the Palmer Elk's Lodge.
The "bare-bones minimum" target for the trip is $58,000, but boosters are hoping to get at least $68,000 to cover expenses for the 45 members and 10 adult chaperones, Burton said.
The group plans to sleep on the floor of a D.C.-area Lutheran Church. With the bare-bones fundraising target met, they fly into Newark, N.J., at midnight Jan. 18 and immediately board a bus for D.C., arriving at 5 a.m. With more money, they can get a room in Newark for the night before making the trip.
Burton said he'll take out a loan on his credit card if he has to, and other parents might help too. But he doesn't think that will be necessary.
Still, Burton said, he certainly won't turn down any School District backing.
"It's kind of become a hot-topic issue in the Valley," he said. "I certainly understand both sides ... My job is to get the funding and give the kids the best opportunity. If that's how I can get it, then that's what I'm going to do."
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