22nd Annual Car Wash-A-Thon – Saturday, September 17, 2011
HUGE Success with 520 cars washed!!!
Video Courtesy of OHS Band Boosters Gigi & George Streeter
2011 Car Wash-A-Thon Sponsors
The Okemos High School Band students and Okemos High School Band Boosters thank these generous sponsors of the 2011 Car Wash-A-Thon:
Barnes Aerospace Lansing Division (David Baughman, Division Manager and Gigi Streeter, Sr. Process Engineer)
Meridian Winds (Eric Satterlee)
Oetzel-Hartman Group (Jim Hartman)
Physician Anesthesia Service, P.C.
Dr. Linda Rassel, Chiropractic Well-being Center
Williams Auto World (Jeff Williams)
The Car Wash-A-Thon is an event held at Okemos High School on a Saturday in September, rain or shine. This is quite the event, one which involves all band members as well as their parents. It is great fun, and gives the parents the chance to work side by side with their son/daughter, as well as with other band members.
How does the car wash work? Students and parent volunteers form two lines consisting of five steps: spray down, wheels/tires, suds wash, rinse and dry. Every half hour or so the groups rotate so everyone gets the chance to do one of the five steps, as well as to take a rest and grab a bite to eat.
The car wash itself is free to the public. Money is raised by the students collecting pledges based on the number of cars washed. With great participation and effort, we have been able to wash about 500 cars. In 2006, we washed 546 cars. This generated a total of over $20,000! As an example, if we wash 500 cars, and a student gets 20 pledges at two cents each, his or her total pledges are $200. Of this total, a designated amount (currently $80 or $40 during “Big Trip” years) goes directly to the band equipment fund, and the remainder ($120) goes into the student’s trip account. The more pledges a student gets, the more $$ they have to go towards their trip account. 
This is, by in large, the fastest and easiest way to collect a lot of money in a relatively short amount of time. If every band member collected $200, the total profit for the band and students would be approximately $32,000!!! This fundraiser is very successful, and is a marvelous way for the students to give something back to the community for their support of the OHS bands.
