LOCAL MINISTER WANTS TO RESURRECT A CHESTER MARCHING BAND

In search of the music, local minister wants to resurrect a Chester marching band

February 11, 2026
By Loretta Rodgers and Drew Amorosi
SPIRIT correspondents 

Rev. Nathan Jacobs is on a mission to resurrect a marching band in the city of Chester. Once heralded as one of the top marching bands in the state, the Chester High School Band won practically every available award and accolade.

Unfortunately, the marching band disbanded several years ago, thus leaving the city with no really organized musical outlet for its youth.

If his goal is fulfilled, the sounds of a drumline may once again echo in the streets.

Despite brutal, windy, 15-degree conditions outside, on Saturday (Feb. 7), Jacobs and a group of volunteers and ambitious youth, gathered in the Look Forward Center on Welsh St. in Chester for an open house meeting about a new band coming together under the guidance of the nonprofit organization.

Jacobs is president/ CEO of the non-profit Operation Look Forward and also serves as pastor of the Faith Tabernacle Community Holiness Church in Chester.

“I have been really upset about the lack of a band and decided to do something about it,” Jacobs told The SPIRIT prior to the weekend meeting. “Being in an organized band gives our children in Chester another alternative and helps to prepare them for life.” 

Jacobs, who was born and raised in Chester, graduated from Chester High School in 1993, played drums, and served as drum captain under CHS Band Director Vincent Atkins. The fifth of nine children born to Catherine and the late Stanley Jacobs, Sr., Jacobs is also the grandson of the late Dr. Margaret L. Wortham, founder of Faith Tabernacle.

Driven by a desire to give back to his community, in 2020 Jacobs said he founded Operation Look Forward, Inc. that has engaged in drives for clothing, food, and furniture distribution to summer programs, free dinners, Thanksgiving food giveaways, and career fairs.

“The goal is to bring music back to the city and give the kids an opportunity to join in a band, get that band experience, and this could lead to scholarships,” he told The SPIRIT. He also hopes the band could be organized and ready to perform as early as this year’s Mother’s Day parade in May. “It’s not long from now and that’s why we have a very capable teacher,” Jacobs said. “I believe we will have the opportunity and the skill set by that point to do this.”

The “capable teacher” is Calvin Mincey, a music professional with a large portfolio of credits to his name. “Calvin is a very knowledgeable person,” Jacobs said. “He was arts coordinator and ran the band program at Chester Community Charter School. We are really trying to support our community. What better than giving the gift of music.”

Mincey said skills he hopes to impart will be lifelong, useful ones like those he learned as a young musician. “You have to learn how to read music,” he said. “You can’t be a musician just learning how to play by ear.”

The ability to read musical notes and compose music will lead to a wider array of opportunities in the music industry, he added. This is in addition to the built in advantage that musical literacy holds for aspiring industry participants when competing for gigs.

Knowing how to read music also opens opportunities to play more than one instrument, he continued, which expands even further the possibilities of making music into a career.

“To help kids play multiple instruments, that’s why I believe I was put on this earth,” Mincey said. Catrina Jacobs was born in Chester and graduated from Chester High School in the early 2000s. She serves as the outreach coordinator for Look Forward and remembered a time when the high school still had its marching band.

Her 11-year-old son, Jayden, has been involved with the school’s music programs at her current home in Drexel Hill, where he has learned to play both the trombone and violin.

“He likes it. Sometimes he acts like he doesn’t, but he really likes it, especially when the concerts come up,” she told The SPIRIT. Music was something that Jayden expressed an early interest in, so Jacobs said she’s done all she can to support it.

She hopes that participating in the Look Forward program will bring sounds of the marching band back to Chester and provide additional confidence to develop the skills that will serve her son as he prepares for the future.

Her biggest hope for her son and those gathered is that the youth who participate in the marching band will learn the value of discipline in navigating life’s challenges. “If you put your mind to this and you stay with it, then you can be productive,” she said. 

“It’s a great program, and I’m glad that this opportunity is available. You can benefit from music. I sang with the choir in high school, and I played the clarinet, so I know how important music is. Music makes a difference.”

For additional information, visit www.operationlookforward.org on the web.