Bike Tour Shuts Down Operation, Leaving High School Band In The Lurch
DELTA, Colo. (CBS4) - A high school band on Colorado's Western Slope says a major bicycle tour that went through their town owes them money.
More than 80 students make up the Delta High School band. Senior Ana Jurca has been a member every year.
"It's a big responsibility because all of the underclassmen look up to you in a sense," Jurca said.
When it comes to traveling, uniforms and equipment, they rely heavily on fundraising. In June, they signed up to help Bicycle Tour of Colorado. For a fee, they would feed 1,500 cyclists staying Delta while they looped through the Western Slope.
"The morning was filled with just making food and getting up really, really early which when it's your summer break it's the last thing you want to do but you do it knowing in the long run it's going to benefit the band," Jurca said.
Since then, bicycle tour of Colorado has shut down their website, disconnected their phone and the $1,800 owed to the Delta High School band for their work. Ana's mother and band treasurer Jill Jurca says the money is gone.
"I was balancing the checkbook and realized that check had bounced," she said.
The only contact was an email saying they are working on it.
"We appreciate you guys providing food unfortunately we don't have any money right now. We don't know when we are going to have money," Jurca said about the email she received.
Her daughter Ana says the loss is a big hit for the band but with more hard work, she is hopeful they can bounce back.
Still both she and her mother say it is a cautionary tale worth sharing.
"I think that it's despicable that they took advantage of a nonprofit organization, especially a band, we are a bunch of high schoolers," Ana said.
The Jurcas say two other groups in Delta are also owed money. Online, CBS4 found complaints from Eagle, Colorado, and as far away as Minnesota, where they advertised the tour.
CBS4 did reach out to the organization as well as the organizer directly at the time of publishing and there was no response.
Karen Morfitt joined the CBS4 team as a reporter in 2013. She covers a variety of stories in and around the Denver metro area. Connect with her on Facebook, follow her on Twitter @karenmorfitt or email her tips.
