‘Boomer Sooner’ making its way to Africa
Published 3:45 pm Tuesday, October 20, 2015
- Darius Katono Aruho smiles as he receives a donation of old Pride of Oklahoma band uniforms. The uniforms are bound for Aruoho's home country Uganda. Aruho, a native Ugandan studying at the University of Oklahoma, used the $10,000 Creativity in Motion Prize to buy band instruments and found the Sheema Pride Band.
The University of Oklahoma marching band, with more than 300 members, unites Sooner fans in pride on many fall Saturday afternoons.
Half a world away, the 20-member Sheema Pride Band does the same for residents of the Karera Village in western Uganda.
Soon, both bands will be connected in a more tangible way as OU’s old band uniforms make the 8,300-mile trip to Africa. The Sheema Pride Band will soon be clothed in crimson, thanks in part to the vision of one ambitious student.
Darius Katono Aruho, an OU Chemical Engineering Davis Scholar, recently won the Thatcher Hoffman Smith Prize earlier this year and use the $10,000 monetary award to purchase 20 brass and percussion instruments for students in his native region.
When he heard the OU band — known as the Pride of Oklahoma Marching Band — would be sporting new uniforms this season, Aruho didn’t hesitate to take action.
“It was like an electrical impulse from Ms. Amy Williams to Dr. Sean Bauman to Mr. Chuck Thompson and Mr. Brian Bitt,” Aruho told the Norman, Oklahoma Transcript. “How generous of them and the whole OU community.”
Aruba met Sean Bauman, the CEO of Immy, a Norman-based medical diagnostics company. Bauman connected him with Pride Director Brian Britt. After that, Bauman said, “It was all Darius.”
Britt said he was moved by watching a video of the Sheema Pride Band in action. After that, it didn’t take long for the arrangements to be made to send the old uniforms to the east African nation.
“I am amazed at how Norman residents know each other, network and make great things happen,” Aruho said. “It took just a few days from the time I expressed interest in the Pride uniforms to the time I received them.”
Britt said the chance to extend awareness of the band across the globe made the decision to donate its old uniforms an easy one.
“When I found out that there was a chance to be a part of helping the program and reach more kids, we just jumped in,” Britt said. “This is something we really wanted to do. The power that music has for kids and their development, and to see the excitement that those kids had making music and seeing the enrichment it brings to their lives — that’s something we wanted to be a part of.”
Britt is also making sure that the Pride’s counterparts in Uganda have some additional help — in the form of sheet music to one of Oklahoma’s most iconic songs. The Sheema Pride Band will be the first ensemble in Uganda with “Boomer Sooner” in its repertoire.
“It provides them with a vehicle for self-expression and a chance to collaborate with their friends and do things you just can’t do by yourself,” Britt said. “The teamwork and the camaraderie that comes with that can bring an entire community together.”