UW Marching Band delivers food and music to local seniors

The UW Marching Band is spicing up the Meals on Wheels again this spring with its “March for Meals” program.

The band is partnering with Independent Living, Inc. to deliver nutritious meals to Madison seniors with a musical surprise.

About 10 band members-a few trumpets, trombones, tubas and drummers-wait with their instruments for the clients come to the door to play one of their signature songs, like “On, Wisconsin” or “If You Wanna Be a Badger.”

“It’s really exciting because they really appreciate it,” says UW Band mellophone player Fran Hasselhof. “I’ve heard that this year people come out and bring the kids cookies, and we’ve received a couple of really nice faxes and phone calls.”

This season, the band packed their music and hopped on the bus Thursday, March 11 and Monday, March 15. They will go again Monday, March 22 and Tuesday, March 30.

“When they do things like this and they see smiles on people’s faces, they know they’re doing it for the right reason,” says UW Marching Band liaison Donna Freitag. “All it takes is their time.”

“March for Meals” has been going on for several years, and is only one of many community service projects the band participates in during the spring semester.

They also play at run and walk events for charities, school assemblies, day care centers and more.

Hasselhof sends out monthly e-mails listing all of the community service opportunities to the band members and asks for volunteers depending on availability, so a different group of musicians attend each event.

“This is our way of being able to contribute,” she says. “It’s something that we love doing that we do all year long. So it’s just a really great way of bringing what we know and what we do to the community.”