Falls High School band works to raise money for trip out West
Load up the clarinets, tubas, flutes, drums and all other instruments — the Falls High School band is hitting the road bound for Seattle.
In March, 27 senior high band students will board an Amtrak train and travel west for a week full of music and learning.
“We hope that this kind of trip will help recruit students to join the music program,” said band director Donna Belanger.
This is the second time the band has taken an out-of-state trip. In 2009, a group of 16 students traveled to New York City.
Senior Markki LeBlanc is looking forward to this year’s trip, especially after the experience she had in New York.
“I think this will be a really fun trip,” she said.
Joining the FHS group will also be bands from the Ely Memorial High School and Port Wing (Wis.) High School.
“Ely came with us last time and it was a good experience,” LeBlanc said.
“Justin Lindgren, the band director in Ely approached us with this idea in the first place,” Belanger explained. “He takes a trip every two years and knows what a great tool it is. Hopefully we’ll be able to go by ourselves in few years, but for now we enjoy going with Ely.”
In preparation for the trip, students have been busy fundraising to cover expenses.
“The first fundraiser we did was a haunted house,” Kassie Dotzler said. “It was a huge success.”
The group also had a Christmas cookie and concert fundraiser over the holidays. Together, students baked more than 1,000 different kinds of cookies and performed a small concert for those who came.
“Again, we did really well with this event,” Dotzler said.
Belanger added that students will be shoveling snow to raise money through January and February.
Highlights scheduled for the upcoming trip include: a clinic/workshop at the University of Washington by the director of bands; an exchange concert with a Seattle high school; performance at the Pacific Science Center; observe a rehearsal of the Seattle Symphony where students will have a question and answer session with a member of the orchestra; students will attend a performance of the musical “Billy Elliot;” and they will also experience the sights of Seattle and have some free time.
While the students are hard at work rehearsing special music for the trip, excitement is growing, too.
“I’m looking forward to the whole experience,” sophomore Zach Manka said.
A sloppy joe lunch and silent auction with music by the Dirty Dozen Alumni Band is scheduled for Jan. 29 from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. at the Union Hall and is open to the public.
If anyone would like the band students to shovel snow, contact Belanger at 283-2571 ext. 172.
