The Little Band That Should

Donshon Wilson picked up his ringing phone on the morning of Monday, Jan. 28, and heard an excited voice on the line.

"You've got to get to the treasurer's office right away," an East Cleveland, Ohio, school administrator said.

No sooner had he hung up the phone when it rang again. By the third call, the Shaw High School Marching Band director decided to see what was wrong.

Wilson walked into the office and saw several school board administrators and staffers standing around. Some of them were crying.

"Look," one of them said, pointing to two post office bins brimming with letters. "That's all for you."

"Yeah, right," he said.

The school district's treasurer, Mary Ann Nowak, laughed. She knew exactly how Wilson was feeling. She had taken one look at the pile of letters and said, "What in the world?"

"It's your mail," her secretary said.

"That's impossible," Nowak said. "We don't get that kind of mail."

Then she started to read the letters.

"Oh, my God," she said, pulling out one check after another. "It's the response to the story."

On Friday, Jan. 25, I wrote a column about how Donshon Wilson and his Mighty Cardinal Marching Band were invited to perform in events leading up to the 2008 Summer Olympics in China. They are a small but spectacular band of kids who live in one of the poorest cities in America. Under Wilson's leadership, they have won more than 150 awards in competitions across the country.

The invitation to perform in China is a great honor. But it came with a hefty price tag: $220,000. That didn't even include money needed for passports, immunizations, luggage, toiletries and new band uniforms.

By Jan. 24, the band had raised $73,000 through individual contributions and corporate pledges.

They had eight weeks to raise the rest.

So I asked readers to help.

Boy, did they. Checks started coming in from across town and around the nation.

Self-described "band geeks" stepped up big-time. College band alumni associations sent out appeals to members. High school bands held fundraisers or set up jars at their own events.

Most of the money, though, came from individuals who just thought the kids of Shaw High School's marching band deserved the chance to represent our country.

"I'm between jobs so money is really tight ," wrote a Cleveland woman, "but I hope that this $10 helps."

"I wish we had a million dollars to send you because you are worth it," wrote an older couple from Cleveland's west side, who sent $25.

"I'm on Social Security," wrote an elderly woman, "but my grandson plays drums in his marching band, so this $25 is in his honor."

"If for some reason you don't raise enough money, take the kids to get some ice cream," wrote a man who contributed $50.

That ice cream will have to wait. The band has a flight to catch.

On Day One, contributions totaled $61,504.

Day Two: $34,874.

Day Three: $37,869.

And on and on. As of Thursday, Nowak said that readers had raised $246,528.49.

Superintendent Myrna Loy Corley said their grand total so far is $287,528.60, which doesn't include corporate pledges.

But this story is not just about money, which Wilson made clear to his students last week.

"I want you to think of the responsibility that comes with this," he told them at band practice. "Think about what all these people were willing to do for you. They read a story. They wrote letters. Then they pulled out their checkbooks so that you could go to China."

Connie Schultz is a Pulitzer Prize-winning columnist for The Plain Dealer in Cleveland and the author of two books from Random House: "Life Happens" and "… and His Lovely Wife." To find out more about Connie Schultz (cschultz@plaind.com) and read her past columns, please visit the Creators Syndicate Web page at www.creators.com.

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