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The setting sun casts an orange glow upon determined faces and expensive, glistening, gold and silver instruments.

Stepping to the lonely beat of a single drum, members of the Estero High School Marching Band perfect their synchronized movements during an evening practice on a retrofitted parking lot.

They’re holding thousands of dollars in instruments. They face thousands in further costs before there’s another chance for the state title. While working on hard, black pavement in the shadow of an empty football field, it’s not just music they focus on. It’s also their sales pitches. They are hot and they are frustrated: Football players don’t sell HoneyBaked Hams.

Thankfully, said senior flute player Kelsey Thompson, 17, band members no longer have to stripe chalk lines on the lot before practice, as they have in the past. They were painted on last year.

But when it comes to footing the bill to follow their passion, there isn’t a level playing field.

The band takes to the field for practice once a week. They spend as much time fundraising. Unlike the 35-player football team and their five coaches, according to Estero Band Director Mark Gurnow, everything isn’t paid for by the school district.

The 24-year-old University of Alabama graduate has a welcome message for those wishing to join the band he’s guided to state competition last season: Get to work — raising money.

Band members must first pay a $150 fee, the maximum allowed by the school district, Gurnow said.

But that doesn’t begin to cover the expenses, which Gurnow turns to band boosters to make up the difference. Last year, said Gurnow, the boosters shelled out $46,000.

“And we’re a smaller band program,” he said.

The band pays for weekly dry cleaning of its 75 uniforms. It pays for its own coaches. It pays transportation to and from competitions. It pays for hotel stays, all its meals, all its instruments and instrument repairs. Last year, Gurnow said, the band spent $6,500 on a sousaphone.

Kelsey’s mom, Pam Thompson, understands. She’s a band director, too. She teaches middle school students at Saint Michael’s Lutheran Church and School.

“It’s not been the most lucrative profession,” Thompson said, “but it has certainly been one of the most rewarding one can choose.”

Thompson has fielded all four of her children in a marching band. Kelsey’s two older brothers both did it, one is now his mother’s teacher’s aide. Kelsey’s younger sister, Hailey, is also doing it. She plays percussion.

“The things they learn ... are just lifelong skills,” Thompson said. “It’s one of the healthiest things that kids can do.”

And for that reason, Thompson would never get in their way.

In a single-income household, Kelsey said, “It’s hard. We really don’t have extra money.”

As a result, she spends her summer and Christmas break working. Hailey’s not old enough yet, but both of them show up for the band’s many fundraisers. They sell concessions at Germain Arena, they hold a spaghetti dinner, they sell hams and hold auctions.

Thompson said the ancillary costs of being in the marching band are hurtful, too.

Before Kelsey could drive, there were many gas-guzzling trips to the school for pickup. There are expensive meals at Coconut Point mall or while they are on the road for competitions.

It adds up, Thompson said.

Her heart “turned flip flops” when the girls started talking about a band trip to New York last year.

“They did a lot of fundraising,” Thompson said. “Bless their hearts.”

“The schools just can’t support and aren’t supporting programs like they used to,” Thompson said. “There’s just not enough money in the school budgets to go around. Especially when you have a program like Estero’s that’s gone from absolutely nothing to near state champions.”