Tumwater Middle School Parent Teacher Organization

Welcome to the 2nd Annual Tumwater Middle School Band Play-a-thon, brought to you by TEMPO! This fundraiser benefits the band and choir programs at our school to ensure all students have access to superb music education.

Fundraising kicks off March 10th and will culminate in an all-bands Play-a-thon on Monday April 7th! Our parent committee is working hard to ensure this is a fun-filled day for musicians.

Who we are: We are TEMPO, the Tumwater Middle School PTO committee devoted to supporting music education at our school. The Tumwater Middle School PTO is a 501c3 nonprofit, so all donations are tax deductible. Our EIN is 871380669.

Our $20,000 goal - that’s about $70 per band student - allows TEMPO to continue our current level of support to our band program next year.

Here’s how you can help:

Thanks to the tremendous success of our 2024 Play-a-thon, this year TEMPO is able to support band and choir with a budget that includes:

TEMPO believes that all students should have access to high quality music education and experiences. The success of this fundraiser will dictate what we are able to provide for our programs next year - Thank you for supporting our musicians!

Stay tuned - Students will soon be voting on their “reward” for reaching our goal! Last year, Mr. Swardstrom had to do all sorts of zany antics! Can’t wait to see what they think of this year.

TEMPO is proud to welcome you to our first annual Tumwater MS Band Play-a-thon. This fundraiser supports our amazing band program which currently supports 247 students across 3 grades all run by the amazing Mr. Swardstrom.

This page acts as our information hub for this event so please visit often for updates, schedule info, fundraising updates and ways to get involved. We will have LOTS of fun things planned for the Play-a-Thon that will run throughout the day, so you don’t want to miss a thing!

The Play-a-thon will take place on Monday, April 8th from 10:00 am - 2:30 pm in the main gym. This is a teacher in-service (no school for students), so we hope many teachers will drop by throughout the day to listen to our band students. The Play-a-thon is a great way to build the band community, and our students are looking forward to a fun-filled day!

WHAT IS THE MONEY FOR?

The annual band budget provided by the district is $3,000 to cover everything from instruments to music to transportation. In reality, it costs approximately $8,500 a year just to maintain the 200 instruments owned by TMS. We head into each year with a deficit of over $5,000.00. Our bottle drop fundraiser continues to help cover some costs but it is no match for the needs of our robust band program.

Our Play-a-Thon fundraising goal is $15,000. Along with our ongoing bottledrop fundraising, this money will provide for the students of our band program in the following ways:

Band is a unique educational opportunity that challenges students to read a new ‘language,’ learn and grow both as an individual and as an ensemble, and provides students opportunities to perform for and give back to their community. TEMPO supports Tumwater bands and their many enriching performance opportunities outside the classroom available to our middle school students including:

More important than our financial goal, is our goal of 100% participation. We ask that every band student do what they can to reach our goal, either through direct donation, asking family and friends to sponsor, or sharing our sponsorship letter with local businesses. Our 6th and 7th-grade families are investing in their future years at Tumwater, while our 8th-grade families can pay it forward with gratitude for the important role the band has played in their middle school experience. Mr. Swardstrom and our parent booster group feel strongly that every student should have equal opportunity to benefit from the band program so we ask our community to support the program.

MILESTONE REWARDS

If we reach 70% of our fundraising goal or $10,500 by April 5th, TEMPO will sponsor pizza for lunch at the Play-a-thon!

If we reach 100% of our goal of $15,000, Mr. Swardstrom has volunteered to subject himself to some form of entertaining act for the students, selected by the students! Votes will be cast but trust us, you do NOT want to miss this!

If we reach over 100% of our goal beyond $15,000, Mr. Swardstrom will continue the fun and up the ante! For every $1,250.00 over our goal, Mr. Swardstrom will subject himself to doing additional acts of humiliation/embarrassment daily for up to 4 additional days/$5,000.00.

WE CAN DO THIS!!

HOW CAN I SUPPORT THE TUMWATER BAND PROGRAM?

Donate an amount meaningful to you. Any amount helps! We accept employer matches through Benevity (just search for Tumwater PTO - all funds raised will go directly to TEMPO). We also accept employer matches manually, just have your employer send their match to the address below. Our EIN is 87-1380669.

JOIN US on April 8th! Come back to this page to get live updates.

You may also donate by check payable to TUMWATER PTO. Please note “TEMPO Playathon” on the memo line:

Tumwater Middle School

Attn: TEMPO

650 NW 118th Ave

Portland, OR 97229

Check donations will receive a letter from TMS PTO acknowledging the donation and serve as your tax receipt.

***Thank you in advance for supporting our band students!***