The Ross Beatty Jr./Sr. High School Band has found a unique way to raise money.

The band will be having its inaugural Tuba Throw and Nelson’s Chicken dinner from 3 to 9 p.m. June 10 at the Sam Adams Elementary School soccer fields. The money raised will help to purchase three new brass sousaphones for the band.

“You can’t ask for a better way to spend a Saturday,” Band Director Sean Keck said. “We have got feats of strength, we have got chicken and we have got a cash prize.”

The “Tuba Throw” will be the highlight of the fundraiser, Keck said.

The Tuba Throw will involve contestants tossing an old, “beyond repair” tuba as far as they can in order to compete for prize money. Contestants must grapple the instrument by the bell when they throw, and the length of the throw will be measured by where the tuba stops rather than where it lands.

Keck said the idea for the Tuba Throw came from watching renaissance festivals where feats of strength are traditionally part of the festivities.

“It just happened to work out that we had a tuba that was old and junky, and that we could fix,” Keck said. “I said, ‘let’s throw the dang thing and see what happens.’”

The person who throws the tuba the farthest will win $250, second place will win $100, and third place will win $50.

Tickets for the Tuba Throw will be available for $10 on the day of the event.

Tickets for the “Port-A-Pit” chicken dinner can be purchased from band students for $6.50 until the day of the event. “Pit-tatoes” will also be available the day of the event for $3.50.

Keck is hoping to raise up to $10,000 from the event.

“[The brass sousaphones] cost a chunk of change,” Keck said. “But if we get the three, we are set for the next 30 ywwears.”

Assuming this year’s fundraiser is successful, Keck would like to continue the event each year and raise money for other things the band may need.

For more information about the event or to purchase tickets to the dinner, contact Keck at skeck@cassopolis.org.