Raising money can be difficult. So when Cam High band students started selling pies to provide the much needed grist to grind the marching band mill, a mill that runs almost entirely by fundraising efforts since most Oxnard school districts, including the OUHSD, no longer fund music education in a substantive way– they were offered an incentive: Cam High students and staff kissing a cow.

Many different Cam High students and staff were set to kiss the cow, depending on the number of pies sold. At 500 pies sold, Mr. John Stava, music teacher, was to kiss the cow; at 600, Georgia Gump, senior; at 700, Mr. Jeff Betancourt, a teacher in the marching band; at 800, Kaelan Hale, senior; and, finally, at 1000, Mr. Glenn Lipman, principal of Cam High.  At 1000 pies, all of these people were set to kiss the cow.

“I’m really excited about this event, and really want to see Mr. Lipman kiss the cow,” said Devin Cooper, a senior in the band.

“I’m really glad that I could contribute to the 1000 pies,” said Mina Pasaraba, another senior in the band.

The event was originally set for Thanksgiving, but was extended to January 15, 2014, to allow for more fundraising. All of the pies are  from Marie Callendar’s, and a variety of different flavors were offered.

But some students weren’t entirely happy with Lipman’s gesture of goodwill toward the cow. Anna Stevenson, junior, said: “We made about $12,000 from selling these pies. Each person who volunteered was going to kiss the cow on the lips and Mr. Lipman said he would, too. But he didn’t. He kissed it on the head and that’s not good enough. I think he should do it again.”

The idea of kissing the cow came from Cooper. “My mom and I were driving around thinking about ways to get people to sell pies, and we drove by a farm where we saw a cow, and we just thought ‘that’s a good idea’.”

Stava said, “I love teaching music, but we need the fundraising in order to continue teaching music.”

The money from the fundraising will be used for the band’s many expenses, including music fees, musical instrument repairs, and transport fees. Other band fundraisers include the Snack Shack at lunch and after school, restaurant nights, and semi-annual car washes.