Super Bowl sub drive benefits bands

Super Bowl XXXIX helped this weekend be a real moneymaker for two area high school marching bands.

Lincoln’s Mattanawcook Academy Marching Band and the Old Town High School Marching Band raised about $1,750 and $2,500 respectively, selling and delivering about 1,300 sub sandwiches to residents in seven central Maine towns in the hours before the New England Patriots faced the Philadelphia Eagles.

“It went well. We had fun, and I’m exhausted,” said Maria Broy, Mattanawcook Academy’s instrumental music director. “The kids seemed pretty excited, and I had many kids tell me that they had a great time doing it.”

Not that it was easy. Band members and parents delivered the sandwiches from the academy to homes and businesses in Lincoln, Chester and Mattawamkeag. At a few points they ran short of ingredients, necessitating a quick trip to the store, Broy said.

The academy sold 525 sandwiches at $5 apiece to residents and businesses in Lincoln, Chester and Mattawamkeag, she said.

Things went slightly smoother in Old Town, where band members and parents assembled at the high school at 8 a.m. and were done making and delivering by 11 a.m., said Galen LaFlamme, a co-chairman of the Old Town High School Music Boosters Club.

Old Town deliveries went to Old Town, Bradley, Milford, Greenbush and Alton. About 780 subs were sold at $4.50 apiece.

Mattanawcook Academy is raising money to see “Phantom of the Opera” in New York City and to go to Washington, D.C., before playing in a band competition in Williamsburg, Va., April 13-17. Old Town will attend a music festival April 7-11 in New York City.

Both band programs are large and successful. Mattanawcook Academy has about 120 students in its bands and chorus, and Old Town has 115, their directors have said.