WPIX NEWSROOM

9:23 a.m. EST, November 11, 2010
BROOKLYN, NY (WPIX)—
With only hours to spare Thursday, generous New Yorkers answered a call from PIX 11's Greg Mocker and provided last-minute financial help to send an elite high school marching band from Crown Heights to the national championship in Atlanta.

The 126 students of the Medgar Evers College Preparatory School marching band boarded buses this evening after major donations were made by the Gilbert Rivera Charitable Foundation, Atlantic Travel, and Medgar Evers College.

Contributions were also made by numerous people and businesses in the New York area. School administrators tell PIX 11 they received so much support, they were working into the night to assemble an official "thank you" list.

The outpouring for the students started Tuesday night after Mocker first reported on the funding crisis, largely due to the band's unexpected success. Principal Michael Wiltshire told Mocker he never anticipated the two-year-old band would come so far, so fast.

"It shows that when you give students an opportunity, what they can really do," he said. "They have shown they will step up."

To help drum up support, the band also appeared on the PIX 11 Morning News, playing live on 42nd Street.

The band is scheduled to play at the National High School High Stepping Marching Band Championship at Clark Atlanta University at Noon on Saturday.