The Pride of West Virginia is synonymous with gamedays in Morgantown, and they are trying to gain the support of the WVU community.
Every August when West Virginia football partakes in fall camp there are hundreds of other Mountaineers participating in camp of their own — band camp.
“There’s a lot that goes on of being in the Pride and people don’t understand that,” former Pride member and current fundraising chair of the WVU Alumni Band Association Angelia Barnett said.
Barnett’s goal is for the Pride to raise enough money to give their kids scholarships. This helps give the members of the Pride money to help pay for meals and other things as being in the band is a time-consuming commitment, meaning it’s hard for them to maintain a job throughout the semester.
“Our kids have nothing because they can’t work,” Barnett said. “Band practice is over at 6 p.m. Then they have to go home and do schoolwork and then they have to get up and go to class. They have no time to get up and do jobs, just like all the other athletes.”
Barnett equates the fund they want to have for the Pride as something similar to Country Roads Trust. A place where people can donate money and they can then give to their students.
“The athletes have Country Roads Trust, we need to have a similarity with a Pride foundation and that’s our biggest goal,” Barnett said.
Barnett added she has talked to representatives from other bands in the Big 12, and they have these support systems set up for their students and wants something similar in place at West Virginia.
“Our biggest goal is to be able to establish a Pride foundation where we can give them scholarships,” Barnett said. “We want to establish through our organization, a Pride foundation where scholarships are available for our kids. That’s our biggest goal, just like every other band in the Big 12, they have these things.”
As for reaching that goal, there are a lot of ways the Pride is going about this.
Ahead of fan day on Aug. 5, they have a fundraising dinner on Friday, Aug. 4. This dinner is their Band 220 Elimination Dinner, and all money raised at this event will help support the Pride.
In addition, the Pride and the WVU Alumni Band is asking for the continued support and generosity from Mountaineer nation.
“We just want people to release its a huge organization and it takes a lot,” Barnett said. “We as alumni band members are giving back and I will pound the pavement for them, because I know what they’re going through because I’ve already been through it. We just want to give back.
“That’s our big thing is we’ve got to give back to these kids to let them know we appreciate them and I know Mountaineer Nation loves the pride.”
More information on the Pride’s fundraising efforts can be found here.
More information on the Pride and what they are trying to accomplish can be found here.
Photo from West Virginia University
