OrangeBand wins MTV, Youth Venture grant money

JMU’s Orangeband was among 20 national organizations awarded grant money for MTV’s "Choose or Lose: 20 Million Loud" campaign in July, according to MTV.

MTV partnered with Youth Venture, an organization dedicated to encouraging young American’s to begin organizations that benefit their local communities. The two are donating grants to various organizations throughout the United States to promote young people to vote for the upcoming presidential election. According to MTV, the grants will help benefit the channel’s "Choose or Lose: 20 Million Loud" campaign.

The "Choose or Lose: 20 Million Loud" campaign was established to encourage people from age 18 to 30 years old to vote for this year’s upcoming presidential election, according to www.youthventure.com.

"Our grant was for $650 and will be used to fund the 81% project, which was conceived by OrangeBand last year," said Kai Degner (’03), OrangeBand coordinator.

According to Degner, OrangeBand heard of the grant money via the Internet. The group then went through an application process to receive the grant money.

"The process involved a written description of the effort, including a proposed budget and a telephone presentation to the Youth Venture selection board," Degner said.

It is up to OrangeBand to report back to Youth Venture each month to inform it of the process of the project.

Most of the money will be used for publicity of Constitution Week, video production and the concert according to Degner. Constitution Week will be held Sept. 13 to 17. Constitution Week is promoted by OrangeBand, the Student Government Association, Community Service-Learning and the Madison Center.

"Constitution Week is primarily dedicated to getting JMU students to register to vote," said senior Megan Dunphy, OrangeBand chapter coordinator.

"OrangeBand is producing a six minute digital video that can be streamed into classrooms all over campus," said Degner. "The video will focus on statistics and logistics of voting." Professors will then be asked to view the video and prepare a discussion around how voting relates to their classes.

OrangeBand only holds chapters at JMU and Eastern Mennonite University. There also are students interested in starting chapters at Colorado State University and Catholic University, according to Degner.

Junior Sara Hoke said, "I’m regisitered to vote. As Americans, we pride ourselves in democracy, so we should pull through with that idea and get each vote out there, no matter how insignificant it may seem.".