Welcome to the 2025-2026 River Valley Winter Arts Season!
As you have likely heard, this year the River Valley Winter Arts will be offered as part of the ISD 728 School District Activities. Together, we will continue offer River Valley Percussion Theater, River Valley Sound, and River Valley Winter Guard. We are excited for this transition as, in part, it will allow the program to continue providing an award-winning performing arts experience to students, but will now ensure the program will be accessible to 7-12th-grade students in ISD 728 at a lower cost by following the district's student activity fee and payment structure. The basic student activities fee will cover the necessities of the program—prioritized practice space, primary director contracts, transportation, and administrative support, such as background checks of volunteers and more. All additional costs required to ensure an award-winning program will continue to be provided by the 728 Cadets, a 501(c)3 organization, as the designated Booster Club of the ISD 728 Winter Arts program.
We invite you to support your student's uniform costs with a contribution of $250 or more to help us deliver an exceptional experience for our students.
— Jennifer Coffman
For questions or to explore ways to support our Winter Arts programs, please reach out to the ISD 728 Winter Arts Booster Club at 728cadetsmarchingband@gmail.com or visit 728Cadets.org.
Wizards of Winter 
The Wizards of Winter will perform in benefit of the 728 Cadets Marching Arts organization on Thursday, December 4th at the Rogers High School Performing Arts Center. This concert is one of our largest fundraisers!
We hope you will consider getting involved either by purchasing a ticket to attend, inviting your family, neighbors and friends to attend and/or support the event as a volunteer.
Help Promote the Event
Follow the 728 Cadets Marching Band Facebook page.
When you see us promoting the Wizards of Winter on the Cades webpage or if you see it on a community page, share it on your social media pages!
Attend the Event
Join us on a mesmerizing journey through original compositions, accompanied by world-class talent who have performed with renowned acts like The Trans-Siberian Orchestra, Def Leppard, Ted Nugent, NBC's The Voice, The Guess Who and Broadway. Experience the magic firsthand as we embark on a musical odyssey, exploring the essence of Christmas through emotive ballads and prog-metal anthems.
Volunteers Needed: Get in Free
To welcome the Wizards of Winter to Rogers Performing Arts Center, we are in need of several volunteers to help unload their equipment, take tickets, sell cookies, serve as ushers during the event, clean up following the event and to move equipment back to the trailers.
Volunteer support is needed for:
---Unloading equipment starting at 2:30 pm
---Ticket takers are needed as of 6:00 pm until around 7:00pm
---Ushers are needed during the show from 6pm until 9:15pm
---Loading equipment back onto the trailers from 9:15pm until around 11:00pm
There is no school on Friday, December 5th, and we hope parents and students alike will get involved!
If you’re interested in volunteering, please reach out to 728CadetsMarchingBand@gmail.com and let us know if you have a preferred volunteer position or timeframe in which you are available.
Give to the Max
What is Minnesota Give to the Max?
Give to the Max started in 2009 as a one-time campaign to mark the launch of GiveMN.org, Minnesota's digital home for generosity. The results of that day—$14 million raised in just 24 hours—blew everyone's expectations out of the water, and a new Minnesota tradition was born. In fact, Give to the Max was one of the nation's first online giving days and now serves as a national model for giving days across the country. In the years since, nearly one million donors have given more than $355 million to 14,000 nonprofits and schools as part of Minnesota's giving holiday.
728 Cadets and Give to the Max Day 
This year, the MN Give to the Max Day is Thursday, November 20, 2025
The 728 Cadets participate in Give to the Max to bring awareness to our organization and to generate funds in support of our program's mission and purpose to teach students through life experiences while they pursue excellence in music.
We need your help!
To ensure we reach as many supporters as possible, we need your help to share the 728 Cadets Give to the Max opportunity far and wide! We challenge each student and their families to share emails, text messages, and social media posts!
You can help by:
Following the 728 Cadets Marching Band Facebook page. When you see us promoting Give to the Max, share it on your social media!
Sending an email to your family members, colleagues, and friends telling them about the 728 Cadets Give to the Max opportunity. We’ve even drafted emails, text messages and social media posts you’re welcome to use!
You don’t have to wait until November 20th, early giving started on November 1st and donations are welcome anytime! We’ll share more via the Band App as we get closer to November 20th regarding additional ‘double the money’ opportunities on Give to the Max day.
About the Organization and Season
Band Calendar
Each group has its own calendar with the seasons scheduled practices, performances and any other items that are scheduled.
Professional Photos
Every student will also take a professional photograph in uniform as well as a large group photo of their group. The photographer will open a store to purchase photos once the photos are ready for purchasing.
Merchandise
Each season, there is an “official” show shirt that represents the themes of each of the groups. These shirts, as well as several other logo’d items, will be available for purchase.
Information about the merch store will be posted on the Band App including the link to get into the store. Typically stores are open for a few days only.
We are excited to share that we are creating designs for our winter season merchandise to help us all show our Cadet pride together! We anticipate the merchandise store will open in mid-November. Stores are not just for participants and their families.
Competitions
An itinerary will be posted in the Band App during the week before the competition. Though the specifics are not known very far in advance, a good rule of thumb is to block off the whole day for the event.
The itinerary will include all the details of the competition including departure, email, warm-up, competition times, etc. Students will travel to most competitions on buses.
All students are expected to ride the bus both to and home from the competition unless written permission from a parent is received by the director. If other arrangements are necessary, they must be made with the directors ahead of time.
Parents, family and friends are encouraged to attend any or all of the competitions.
- The competitions are a fundraiser for the sponsoring band. They will charge an admission fee.
- Competitions will have concession stands and possibly other items for purchase.
- Be positive and polite. Always be positive about other bands, schools and performances. You never know who is sitting around you.
- Cheer enthusiastically when your group performs. They’ve worked hard to put on the show - let them know you appreciate their hard work!
- Parent help is always needed the day of competitions! If you can volunteer, the groups can always use the help.
- Invest in a blanket to sit on. You’ll be glad you did the next morning.
- Practice patience. On competition days, there is a lot of waiting and then rush-to-get-things-done.
All three groups participate in WGI (Winter Guard International) which is a world wide organization that serves as the governing body for the indoor color guard, percussion, and winds activities. The three groups participate in at least one WGI event each year.
MPA (Minnesota Percussion Association) is the local governing body for percussion and winds. Groups from all over the midwest come to compete. The majority of the competitions we compete in are MPA hosted and there is a large MPA finals competition at the end of the year.
NSC (North Star Circuit) is the local governing body for the winter guard. Groups from all over the midwest come to compete.
Each of these organizations have rules to participate and are judged. There are multiple classes, such as Scholastic A or Independent. Most of the groups consist of middle school to high schoolers, but there are a few groups that have college students and adults. Directors meet with the judges after each show to receive feedback, which the Directors bring back to the students to make modifications to the program. It is very fun to see how much the show changes and improves from the first show to the last.
Volunteering, RVPT
We need your help pulling our trailer! Our previous trailer drivers have students that are no longer in high school, and we need to rebuild our team. Shoot me a message if you are willing to pull the trailer up to the building for rehearsal, or if you are willing to pull to competitions (YOU WILL GET IN FREE!) We have a truck attached to the trailer, so you WILL NOT need to use your own vehicle. —Joe Jaeger
Current Community Fundraising
Ember Coffee
Order their “Brazil” specialty coffee beans and $7 from each bag will go to the Cadets. Ember Coffee was voted “best coffee” in MN by Star Tribune two years in a row, and is located in Big Lake!
Buffalo Wild Wings
Head to the Elk River Buffalo Wild Wings and let them know you want to support Team N, and they will donate 10% of your bill to our amazing program! This includes all food and beverage items.
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