OFA Bands and Owego Hose Team join forces to host Valentine’s Day Chicken BBQ

The Owego Free Academy (OFA) Bands and Owego Hose Teams, Inc. will host a chicken barbeque on Saturday, Feb. 13, from 11 a.m. until gone and with pickup at the Owego Apalachin Middle School, located at 3 Sheldon Guile Blvd. Proceeds benefit the OFA Band’s composition project.

OFA Band members and their director, Lindsey Williams, are commissioning Dr. Dana Wilson, of Ithaca College, to write a new work for concert band in honor of the Village of Owego. The OFA Band members were inspired to seek this commission after learning past OFA teachers and student teachers, Frank Battisti, Roger Keagle, and Philip Paul Bliss were active in commissioning and composing. 

The Tioga County Historical Society has been instrumental in helping collect information on historic figures and events for the piece. In the months to come, members of the grades seven thru 12 bands and choruses will learn about Owego’s local history, composing and commissioning virtually with Professors Wilson and Battisti.  

A digital premiere, much like the OA Music Department’s recent “Holiday Sing Along,” is to be released in June through the OFA Bands’ social media sites and broadcast on WEBO in honor of both Mr. Battisti’s 90th birthday and the Owego Rotary’s Centennial Anniversary.  

The piece is in tribute to the Village of Owego’s valiant support of arts and culture over the past 100 years and all the years yet to come. 

The menu will include “Cornell Chicken” halves; the Duke’s baked beans, salt potatoes, and Roma roll for $10. Take-out, drive thru, or home delivery is available.  

The hose team chicken barbecues typically sell out in an hour or two, so pre-order is strongly recommended. Pre-orders can be made at http://bit.ly/oabandbbq.

If you would like more information, to get involved, or to sponsor this project, contact Lindsey Williams at williamsl@oacsd.org.

(Note from the Editor: Mariah Salter, a scout from Troop 40925, has developed a project to help the local band programs at the Owego Apalachin School as well, with donations of unwanted instruments being dropped off at the Owego Apalachin Elementary School during the BBQ. You can read that story here.)