Why The Sarge Is Raising $25,000 for the UCCS Music Department — And Why It's Not About Him
The GoFundMe to raise $25,000 for the UCCS Music Department is live now, tied to Bust Out the Box #13: UCCS Music Night on Saturday, November 21 at the Wagon Wheel in Colorado Springs. The Sarge wants to thank everyone who's already donated — and he wants to be clear about one thing upfront: this is not a personal cause. It's a community cause. And it's bigger than him.
This Wasn't UCCS's Idea. It Was His.
Let's be straight about something: UCCS isn't out here asking for donations. He is.
Sarge took the initiative to launch this fundraiser himself, because the math is simple — if the music department could get what it needs through normal channels, it would have gotten it already. It hasn't. So he stepped up and built the fundraiser around the November 21 charity showcase he's already producing.
That's how this works with him. He sees a gap, he builds the thing. The GoFundMe — https://www.gofundme.com/f/help-us-raise-25000-for-uccs-music — is the funding arm of a night that's already happening: full lineup, charity showcase, and a holiday toy drive for D11 families, all at the Wagon Wheel on Saturday, November 21. 7 PM to midnight, 18 and up.
What Most People Don't Know About the UCCS Music Department
Here's the part that surprises people. The UCCS Music Department doesn't get funded like the rest of main campus. Not even close.
The music building is collaboratively owned with TheaterWorks — which means when music students want to put on an event, a concert, or a showcase, they have to pay to rent the space. Their own building. Read that again: students paying to use the rooms their tuition is supposed to cover.
The recording studio is outdated. Instruments are either donated or bought out of pocket — by students and faculty — and they wear out year after year with no real replacement budget behind them. For a department training the next generation of working musicians, engineers, and educators, the toolkit is held together with goodwill.
And the bigger picture isn't much better. What Sarge has seen is that the Ent Center for the Fine Arts' funding flows toward theater programming — while the music students in the same building feel like an afterthought. The money exists in the ecosystem. It just doesn't seem to reach the kids trying to make music.
Sarge knows this because he lives it. He's a UCCS music major himself — in the classrooms, in the choir, in the ensembles. This isn't something he read about. It's his daily reality, and it's the reality of every music student walking those halls.
He Gets the Skepticism. This One's Different.
He Gets the Skepticism. This One's Different.
Sarge understands anyone's discouragement with personal fundraisers. The internet is full of them — somebody raising money for themselves, their family, their emergency. Most people have been burned or bored by at least one, and that fatigue is real. He respects it.
But this isn't that.
This cause isn't for him or his family. It's for the community and the artists who benefit from it — the students in that music department right now, trying to learn, rehearse, and create with outdated gear in a building they have to rent. The trumpet player whose valves stick. The vocalist rehearsing in a hallway. The engineer learning on equipment older than he is. That's who every dollar helps.
That's the frame he keeps coming back to: this is much bigger than just him. A personal fundraiser ends when one person's problem is solved. A community cause keeps paying out — every semester, every student, every show.
Where Things Stand — And How to Help
Where Things Stand — And How to Help
The goal is $25,000, with every dollar going directly to the UCCS Music Department. The fundraiser runs alongside Bust Out the Box #13: UCCS Music Night — Saturday, November 21, at the Wagon Wheel Sports Bar & Concert Hall, 2308 Platte Ave, Colorado Springs. 18+, 7 PM to midnight.
It's a full night: the UCCS Jazz Band, Brometheus, D1TCHNYMPH, Ambi, Aspen Sound, Juaniee, and The Sarge himself — plus the D11 holiday toy drive. And for UCCS students, there's a free ticket window: use code UCCS at checkout before November 17 and the ticket drops to zero. After that, it's back to $5.
There are three ways to be part of this. Donate to the GoFundMe. Grab a ticket and show up November 21. Or support an artist directly with their checkout code — every performer on the lineup has one, and regular general admission proceeds go straight to the department's donation goal.
For anyone who's ever believed music education matters — who was ever the kid who needed that program, that teacher, that room to be loud in — this is the shot to prove it. The department can't wait for the system to fix itself. So Sarge is fixing it the way he knows how: one show, one fundraiser, one community at a time.
Donate: https://www.gofundme.com/f/help-us-raise-25000-for-uccs-music
Tickets: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/the-sarge-llc-presents-bust-out-the-box-13-uccs-music-charity-night-tickets-2002968358278
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