FSCC Jazz Band members for rent

Members of the Fort Scott Community College jazz band plan to spend this fall and winter lending a helping hand in the community.

The FSCC band is once again sponsoring the Rend-A-Kid program, a fundraiser in which students raise money for educational travel expenses and the music department. In the program, band members rent themselves out to the community to perform basic chores for minimum wage. Local residents can rent a band student through March 2011.

According to Betty Jo Laflen, the director of the band, about 23 band members will try to raise money through the program -- about $600 each -- to perform on a cruise ship that is set to travel next spring to Mexico, Cozumel and other destinations. The program is one way for music students to help local residents while also helping themselves. Students help with odd jobs and are compensated with minimum wage pay to help supplement travel expenses.

Laflen said the program is beneficial because it helps band members raise enough money to pay for their own travel expenses. Band members have to raise the total amount themselves because they do not receive any financial assistance for educational trips. The Rent-A-Kid program is the only fundraiser that the band plans to use to raise money for a performance on the cruise ship.

Students will perform a variety of chores, including gutter cleaning, leaf raking and other yard work, garden work, snow shoveling, window washing, closet cleaning, and other various household jobs, for anyone in the community who requests assistance, Laflen said.

Laflen said the program has been successful in the past because it has allowed students to raise enough money to make periodic performance trips.

Band members are asking that community members pay at least minimum wage -- currently $7.25 per hour -- for work to be done, but will accept donations of any amount. Each student's wages will go toward his or her travel fund. The amount of money that each student will earn during the program varies depending on the type and amount of work completed, Laflen said.

For more information, contact Laflen at (620) 223-2700, extension 562.