SOUTHGATE, Mich. – If you have children in a sport or school band, you know the Herculean effort that goes into fundraising to make it as good as they can make it. There’s a sense of pride when you buy something new and there’s a greater sense of loss when it’s stolen.”
Members of the community joined officers with the Southgate Police to look out for a stolen band trailer this weekend. The brand-new storage unit was illegally towed from a school district parking lot, leaving the program scrambling.
The Southgate Anderson Titans band is a local point of pride. The 80 students who join each year travel around the country and perform. They’ve been in America’s Thanksgiving Parade and played at Ford Field.
But moving a group this large requires trailers. They have three trailers after a new trailer was stolen. The trailer was so new, it wasn’t even marked up yet.
“Heartless, honestly heartless. How do you take from kids?" asked Southgate Anderson Band Booster President Martha Hancock. "They’ve been through enough already with the virus, they’ve had their entire season taken away. Their next season is taken and who knows what the winter is going to bring. I don’t know how you can do this to a bunch of kids.”
The trailer itself cost about $6,000 and it had been loaded it with tarps, carts and props valued at about $5,000 back before a regional competition when COVID-19 shut everything down.
“There will probably be some days where we ask parents to bring stuff in their cars instead of locking them in trailers because maybe the drumline or another program needs to use the trailers," said Band Director Zack Novicki. "It’s going to be tough.”
There is insurance on the trailer, but not on the contents. The district said it will likely take a few years to fundraise enough money to get a new one if the stolen trailer is not returned.
Anyone with information is asked to contact the Southgate Police Department at 734-258-3060.
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