High school band members in Ponder are trying to make up for a big loss after their band boosters suddenly found their bank accounts empty.
Leaders with the Fine Arts Booster Club said they discovered the missing money when payments began coming back to them for insufficient funds. They found more than $20,000 had been withdrawn from their account slowly over time, leaving them with the loss and now an additional $1,500 in unpaid debt.
The Ponder Police Department said it is investigating and does have a person of interest in the case, but it will likely take some time to get to the bottom of the situation.
No arrests have been made at this point.
In dealing with the situation, band parent Wendy Cely has now taken over the booster club, and leaders have restructured it to see that the accounts are better protected in the future.
The club and band students have also began holding fundraisers everywhere they can, in order to pay off that debt and start to rebuild those coffers.
Already, though, the damage is done.
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Cely said the band had trips planned to go to San Antonio this spring and the Peach Bowl in Atlanta next year. They've had to cancel both of those trips due to the lost money.
The band has only been around in Ponder since about 2004 and only boasts around 30 members.
Parents expected those numbers to grow soon with the population of the small town rising and the success of their sports teams, making the setback even tougher.
"Just heartbroken for these kids," said Cely. "The kids are resilient. It makes them want to work harder, and that's what they've all said, 'This has happened, it makes us sad, it makes us angry, but we want to work even harder now.'"
Community members are also pitching in to help the band with a GoFundMe account that, at the time of this publication, has already raised nearly $5,000.
