The Selma High School Marching Saints are pleased after hosting a successful fundraising event, but are still pushing forward in their quest for new band uniforms.

The Selma High School marching band held its Jazz Festival on July 10 in its continued efforts to raise money for new band uniforms.

Brandon Williams, band director of the Selma High School Marching Saints, said he was pleased with how the event went, and thanks the community for its support.

“We did our first big fundraiser with the Jazz Festival on July 10, and it went really, really well,” Williams said. “We raised about $4,000 from that event. The people in the community came out, and of course I appreciate it so much because I didn’t know how it was going to turn out. People came out and they enjoyed the show.”

In a previous interview with the Times-Journal, Williams said he’s looking to raise enough money for 100 new band uniforms to replace the Marching Saints current uniforms, which are more than 10 years old.

He said the price to do so is about $50,000, and while the Saints aren’t close to that number yet, they’ve still got big events lined up to get them closer and closer to their goal.

“As far as the goal, we’re still way behind. In a round about way, we’re about $40,000 short still,” Williams said. “We’re doing more fundraisers. We’re going to do our annual ‘Battle of the Bands’ this year. I’m praying that the weather goes well. We’re going to do our ‘Battle of the Bands’ in October with Alabama State or Alabama A&M being the guest band, so if we can pack out the stadium, that will put us way, way closer to our goal than where we are right now.”

Williams added it’s important to get new uniforms for the band because its members serve as representatives of Selma.

“Everyone sits up there and says image is everything. And to a certain extent, you can have the image, but don’t have what it takes to back that image up. I want to have both,” Williams said. “My students deserve both, our kids deserve both. I will teach until my vocal cords just collapse if I need to, I’m going to make sure my students are musically ready for the world, but in order to back that up, I want them to put on a great looking uniform as well to go out and represent the City of Selma, Selma City Schools, just everyone that represents Selma. We want to make sure that when we go out there and represent Selma, it’s a positive image and a clean looking image.”

For more information on how to donate to the Marching Saints, call 874-1680.