Good morning, afternoon, or evening, whichever suits best! My name is Nicolas Wojtaszek, and I am currently a senior at Gautier High School. I've been a part of the Gautier Bands program for 7 years and have worked incredibly hard on my musical proficiency on my main instrument, the euphonium (mini tuba/giant trumpet). I have earned awards with my skills, such as being a 3-time member of the GCBDA Honor Band clinic, being a 2-year principal chair holder and section leader for the award-winning, 2025 State Champions, GHS Marching Band, and, as of March 14th, having been given a potential position in the Mississippi All-State Lions Band! Having this experience would help me greatly in furthering my career as a major in Music Performance at Mississippi State University, and eventually a professional euphoniumist performing with either military bands or European brass bands. I feel this opportunity would be a major stepping stone in accomplishing my main goal in life.

In case you don't know how Lions Band auditions work, each potential member is given audition materials almost a year in advance (12 scales + chromatic scale memorized, 2 audition pieces, and a sight-reading piece given inside of the audition room) and are allowed to prepare however they see fit up until the audition date. The audition is split into 2 rounds - 16 students of my instrument making it past the 1st round and only 8 past the 2nd - to ensure the highest quality members possible. On the 1st round of auditions, I placed 3rd out of the entire state, being beaten out only by a student hailing from one of the highest quality band programs in the state and another who gets private lessons from college professors - not an easy task in the slightest, especially when I myself have never received a single private lesson. In the 2nd round though, I pushed myself too hard and flopped on the audition, dropping down to 14th place. You can imagine the utter devastation I felt from this. Now, to be given a second chance at the very last second, you can imagine how much I want this and how much hope and light this has brought to my life currently.

The thing is, I come from a not-so-well-off family. The only way I will be able to afford college is because of the HELP grant, which to my understanding covers a full ride for college students coming from low-income families. Now, the total cost for performing with the Lions Band is $5,475, and I need to have this money by June 15th of 2026. Most people would likely say that's impossible, but I refuse to believe in impossible until the ordeal is over. I have wished, practiced, and worked as hard as I can to be given this opportunity over the past 4 years, and it would utterly shatter my heart into a million pieces if the reason I can't make it is simply due to insufficient funds.

Thank you for your time. Any donation amount will be appreciated, and sharing this with others helps just as much. If more money is raised than needed, a small amount will be set aside for extra expenses on the trip and the rest will be donated to the Gautier Bands program, which would also help them out.