Orange light bulbs promote school spirit

Date: 11/4/2011

Nov. 2, 2011

By Debbie Gardner

Assistant Editor

AGAWAM — School spirit and a “silly conversation” led to an idea that Agawam High School Band Parents Association (AHSBPA) spokesperson Patty Souder hopes will light up the town this November.

The AHSBPA is selling orange hued light bulbs as a music program fund-raiser to help offset this year’s school department budget reductions, and hopes residents will buy and install these bulbs in their porch lights or window lamps to show support for the town’s student musicians, artists and athletes.

Her goal — to have the town bathed in a soft orange glow every evening until Thanksgiving.

“The idea for the bulbs came from a silly conversation in my living room with my 13 year-old son, Ian,” Souder told Reminder Publications. “On Agawam Day at The Big E, the school children in town were asked to wear orange and brown to school to show school spirit [and] he made a comment that they ‘should change the traffic lights to include orange and brown instead of red and green.’”

Souder recalled, “We all laughed, and then he said, ‘How about the street lights — that would be cool.’”

Souder said her son’s last comment got her thinking about orange light bulbs, and “If the expense was not too great, maybe we could get people to put bulbs in front of their homes to show community spirit.”

A member of the Band Parents Association — she is an AHS band alumnus herself and her oldest son Neil plays the tuba in both the concert and marching bands — Souder took the idea to the association for their approval. With their OK, she researched the bulbs and was able to purchase seven cases — or 20 dozen orange bulbs — from a company through the Internet.

Souder said she set up a table at the recent Rotary Club Fall Harvest Festival and Family Fun Day and sold six dozen of the 60-watt orange bulbs for $5 each.

“A lot of our customers had no connection to the band — couples with young children or seniors — they just wanted to support the students and be part of the community,” Souder said. She added that two businesses — Dr. C. Calabrese’s dental office at 850 Springfield St., #2, in Feeding Hills and Cooper’s Curtains on Main Street in Agawam — approached her about taking bulbs to sell at their locations.

As of last Wednesday, Souder said she had “just shy of two boxes” of the orange bulbs left, and urged individuals interested in purchasing one to call her at 786-3906 or contact her by email at patsouder@comcast.net.

“What I would love to see happen is that our students see a visual of the people throughout the community that care about what they are doing,” Souder said.